Fiction Writer’s Checklist: Revise, Refine & Perfect Your Draft

This self editing worksheet is broken down into super helpful and manageable sections, working from the bigger picture in to the smaller details. I'm only in my first draft, but it's helpful knowing what I can be implementing already to get ahead of the edits. The strengths based approach to self editing and celebrating your successes makes editing feel more encouraging and less initmidating!

The Fiction Writer's Checklist is the perfect tool for a list maker like myself. From big picture to tiny details, it's a great roadmap for fine tuning a manuscript.

The Self-Editing Checklist is a great tool to start examining and editing your novel draft. It covers everything from the big picture (story level) to scene-level structure, characters and polishing. I’m currently using it to revise my second draft, and I’ve found it really helpful for polishing my chapters and ensuring each scene has a place in the story and delivers everything it should. Editing an entire novel can feel quite intimidating, but this checklist breaks the key points down into smaller sections, making it feel much more manageable. The prompts at the end of each section are really helpful as well and encourage you to think about what worked in your best scenes, and the strongest elements of your voice. Would definitely recommend.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful and encouraging feedback on my manuscript [...] your care and insight it's made a big difference [...] I recommend anyone who is looking to get honest and valuable feedback to contact Amy. She's amazing.

I might be biased but Amy is literally the best [...] I was so stressed out with my book before you worked on it. When you gave it back to me, your notes helped me figure out exactly what to do to get it ready for publishing next year! I'm so excited to keep working with you!!

I was stuck rewriting the same act over and over, unsure how to move forward. Working with Amy at Wild Blackberry Editing gave me a fresh perspective and the confidence I needed to take my book to the next level. Her insight was exactly what I needed to break through and keep going.

"I definitely made the right decision picking you 😭🙌 you’ve found a bunch of areas in my story I never considered but will be incredibly helpful to build out more. Also, I really appreciate you calling out the lines and paragraphs you like instead of it being all things to fix. It means a lot and has made me feel WAY better about the book overall! 🙂 [...] Amy did a fantastic job with my developmental edit, offering a lot of thoughtful, helpful comments that gave me so much to consider and improve my book. She worked quickly and laid out clear expecations about the process which was also very helpful. Additionally, she was great about calling out lines and sections she really liked which gave me a lot more confidence in my book. I highly recommend her and will be using her services again!"

I've very much appreciated Amy's editing service [...] What I was really grateful for was Amy's approach to editing, her feedback was clear and constructive, detailing what was already working well, where my strengths were and where I should focus my efforts to bring the rest of the story up to standard. Not just pointing out what was wrong and needed work, but taking the time to highlight what was good as well which for someone like me at the start of their writing career is wonderful for my confidence yet also gives me clear direction on where to focus my efforts next.

I really appreciate your feedback. You've been super encouraging through this whole process. It felt more like sending to a trusted friend than an intimidating stanger. I like that you told me both what's going well and what could be improved or needs touch ups. Your feedback was actionable, relevant, and very helpful. Your process was transparent and I felt like I always knew what to expect. Thank you so much for working with me.