Freeze the editorial question first
Do not proofread a chapter while its structure is still moving. Resolve missing scenes, point-of-view changes, and major line edits first. Otherwise, careful punctuation work will be erased by the next rewrite.
Mark the version you intend to finish and proofread that selected manuscript. Alternative chapter versions can stay available, but mixing them during the pass makes omissions and repeated material harder to spot.
Run narrow passes with named purposes
A single “check everything” pass overloads attention. Read once for duplicated words and spacing, once for names and facts, and once for page-level formatting. The narrower the pass, the easier it is to decide whether a finding is truly an error.
- Mechanical: doubled words, extra spaces, and punctuation spacing.
- Continuity: names, dates, locations, and character knowledge.
- Typography: headings, scene breaks, indents, and accidental style changes.
- Output: page breaks, blank pages, margins, and the table of contents if present.
Keep intentional rough edges
A repeated word can be cadence. A fragment can hold the viewpoint close. Dialect and unusual punctuation can belong to the character rather than the proofreader. Read the surrounding sentence before accepting a mechanical suggestion.
Apply small groups of corrections and keep an undo path. If a tool claims the manuscript is clean, remember what it did not test: spelling, grammar, factual accuracy, and artistic intent may require separate review.
Choose a format for the reader's next action
A submission manuscript needs room for editorial notes. A reading copy needs comfortable pages. A book-sized proof can reveal pacing and page turns, but it is not printer-certified prepress output. Choose the layout for the recipient and stage of work.
Plain text and JSON serve different purposes: one is portable prose, the other is a workspace backup. PDF and Word are useful presentation formats, but neither replaces keeping the underlying manuscript data.
Inspect the generated artifact
A settings screen is not a preview. Generate the PDF, inspect its actual pages, and download the same artifact you reviewed. Check the first and last page, chapter openings, scene breaks, and several pages containing italics or unusual characters.
For Word or another downloadable format without an in-app page preview, open the file in the software your recipient is likely to use. Formatting engines differ, so the final file deserves its own check.