The Bare Minimum Checklist

While checklists are a great way to whip your MS into shape, the thought of running through a vast set of tasks when you’ve just completed an MS after months, or even years of drafts, can be overwhelming.

You want to ensure your manuscript is the best it can be, but you’re also so very tired of looking at every single sentence.

The good news is that there’s a simple checklist for that!

The Bare Minimum Checklist

For this checklist, you’ll be looking at the bare minimum of book elements to fix, allowing you to make changes to your MS, just not every single change at once. This makes it perfect for having a productive break after writing/editing, or to use when you have a tight deadline and can’t complete a full checklist.

Use your search/find option to check the following elements of your work in progress.

Book Based Spellings

While a spell check should have already highlighted errors in your MS, there are things that slip past, and it’s usually the spellings unique to your book.

Use your find/search function to double-check the following for the correct spelling:

Character Names

Regardless of whether you came up with your character’s name by jumbling random letters together or going with the top three baby monikers of 2013, every name should be double-checked for spelling.

I know this from experience. In my series, Blackbirch, there is a character named Kallie, and no matter how many times I’ve typed her name across countless drafts, there is always at least one spelling where I have missed an l, making it Kalie.

That alternate spelling isn’t picked up by my spell checker either, so I always do a manual check for her name, the misspelling, and the other character names and possible misspellings during a pass.

This way, I will pick up any errors my fingers have mistyped and my read-this-a-million-times eyes have glossed over.

Places

Check for consistency regarding the places named in your MS that are unique to it or true to life. For example, if your MC works at Slinky’s Pizzeria, make sure it’s spelled and capitalized the same in every instance.

Use your find/search function to double-check the following for the correct spelling and capitalization…

Town names.Countries.School names.Businesses.Work Places.Any other place relevant to your book world.Correct Basic Punctuation

Now, this checklist search will take time but still sticks to a minimum number of punctuations to keep the process as simple as possible.

For Sentences

Find/search ?, ., and ! and check that…

The question mark (?) is at the end of anything that ends in a question.The full stop/period (.) is at the end of every sentence.That exclamation marks (!) aren’t overused (if 1,000 show up, your writing style is way too excited!).

In Dialogue

Find/search . and , and check that…

Action in dialogue is followed by a full stop/period – “Don’t do that.” Carla grabbed her phone from Jessica’s hand.Speech in dialogue is followed by a comma – “Don’t do that,” Carla said.Numbers

If a character checks the time, looks up a street address, or lists a date, there are numbers in your MS and it’s important to check that they’re written correctly and are consistent across the book.

Find/search…

Time

Spelled out. For example, ten o’clock in the morning.Numerical. For example, 10 a.m.

Numbers

Spelled out. For example, one hundred.Numerical. For example, 100.

Whichever option you’ve used, please ensure your numbers are all spelled out, or all written numerically. Don’t mix and match.

Your Top Three Overused Words

As writers, we all have our own little touches that we bring to our work. That includes overusing favorite words or phrases.

It could be your affinity for the word affinity. You may not be able to write a scene where a character doesn’t use their fingertips. Or your worst writer trait is overusing the term as if (she reached for him as if he was real. He fastened the seatbelt as if it was a lifeline keeping him tethered to the world).

Make a list of your top three overused words/phrases (you know what they are) and engage that find/search function to either rewrite or delete them down to an acceptable level.

Why top three? That’s to keep to the bare minimum theme of this checklist. If you have over three, make a note to do the others when you have more time/are ready for a deeper editing dive.

And there you have some bare minimum basics to check in your near-finished manuscript that can be done quickly and won’t leave you overwhelmed.

When you’re ready for more, these other Writing Checklists will help you whip your MS into total shape!

— K.M. Allan

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