missing italics or improperly italicized words.

facts and bibliographic citations in need of double-checking.

confusion of names and dates associated with characters.useless words-tighten up the text-get rid of things like “daughter of Anna” and write “Anna’s daughter” instead.

sentence structure and variation (please!).issues with commas, periods, colons, hyphens, numbers written out (or not).spelling errors-spellcheckers are great, but ….Wade through your draft, focusing on one aspect at a time as you edit, searching for: Kracht’s The Author’s Checklist: An Agent’s Guide to Developing and Editing Your Manuscript offers another possible option for firming up your own checklist, as well as checklists for publishing, too. You’ll find numerous examples of editing checklists on the internet, which may help you to formulate your own list. And their checklists will differ somewhat from the following, which serves only as a template. Of course, fiction writers and poets have other criteria for their manuscripts. My checklist contains twenty items I deem crucial to my work as a writer of nonfiction, primarily because my manuscripts usually contain numerous bibliographical citations and quotations from historical sources. As I gain more experience and know-how, I see what changes I must make. I find myself periodically adding to my checklist. What do you forget to look at closely in a manuscript? What things have readers pointed out to you that needed attention? WHAT ABOUT A CHECKLIST?Ĭonsider creating a checklist best suited to your genre.Īsk yourself what issues have proven problematic for you in the past. After some rather discouraging experiences, I quickly realized that an editing checklist would come in handy. So, editing sometimes seemed to me like plodding through quicksand or knee-deep snow.Įvery writer eventually finds their own system for working with manuscripts. Thus, I am a terrible typist these days, prone to making embarrassing errors in my writing. However, she didn’t expect my brothers to do the same …. I refused to take typing in high school, although Mom insisted that I needed the class. I don’t know about you, but typing is not one of my strong points. Truth be told, I’ve learned about editing a manuscript the hard way. You’ve finished the first draft of your manuscript. You press SAVE as you glance at the sunset, just visible outside your window through flickering palm leaves. While writing is like a joyful release, editing is a prison where the bars are my former intentionsĪnd the abusive warden my own neuroticism.

My editing checklist