Work through your editor's notes and tracked changes carefully. Accept or reject each edit intentionally, polish dialogue for flow and voice consistency, and ensure your formatting is clean and ready for the next step.
Before diving into tracked changes, read your editor's editorial letter from start to finish. This gives you the big picture of:
Make notes on key themes. This helps you understand the "why" behind specific edits when you review them.
Do not click "Accept All." Go through each edit individually and decide whether to accept or reject it.
Questions to ask yourself:
If you disagree with an edit, don't automatically reject it—ask yourself why the editor suggested it. Often there's an underlying issue (unclear wording, awkward phrasing) that you can fix in a different way. You might keep your original sentence but reword it slightly for better clarity.
Dialogue often needs extra attention during revisions. Focus on:
Read your dialogue out loud. If you stumble over words or a line sounds stiff, rewrite it. Dialogue should feel conversational, not formal or stilted.
Clean up your manuscript formatting before sending it to a formatter. This makes their job easier and reduces costly revisions.
Before saving your final manuscript, do one last pass:
Run your final proof through Word's spell check or tools like Grammarly or ProWritingAid to catch small errors your editor might have missed.
Make sure all scene breaks are clearly marked with a consistent symbol:
*** or ~*~ or • • •Check that:
Confirm your manuscript includes these sections in the correct order:
Once satisfied, save your manuscript with a clear, final name:
Born_from_the_Broken_FINAL.docxBorn_from_the_Broken_FINAL_2025-01-15.docxSave it in your /Manuscript/Final Versions/ folder and back it up to your cloud storage immediately.
After saving your final manuscript, make a backup copy and mark it as read-only or save a PDF version. This prevents accidental edits after you've declared the manuscript "done."
Your editor's job is to suggest—yours is to decide. Some edits might change your character's voice or your intended meaning. Always review individually.
At some point, you need to stop revising and call it done. If you've addressed your editor's feedback and polished the manuscript, resist the urge to keep tweaking forever. Perfectionism can prevent you from publishing.
If your editor points out a pattern (overuse of certain words, weak dialogue tags, pacing issues), don't just fix individual instances—understand the root cause and correct it throughout.
Before making major changes, save a copy of your manuscript with a version number (e.g., Draft_3.docx) so you can revert if needed.
Free and premium versions available. Catches grammar errors, awkward phrasing, and overused words. Install the Word plugin for in-document suggestions.
Comprehensive editing tool with reports on pacing, readability, overused words, clichés, and more. Integrates with Word and Google Docs.
Specifically designed for fiction writers. Analyzes dialogue, pacing, repetition, and compares your manuscript to published books in your genre.
You're ready to move to the next phase when:
"Done is better than perfect." At some point, you need to trust your work and move forward. If you've worked with a professional editor and addressed their feedback thoughtfully, your manuscript is ready for formatting and proofreading.
✅ Once your manuscript is polished and saved as a final version, mark this task complete!
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