A printed manuscript covered in red-pencil scribbles on a dark wooden desk beside a brass telescope, a folded star chart, and a lit candle in warm lamplight.

How to Self-Edit a Speculative Fiction Novel Before You Hire an Editor

How many revision passes does a fantasy novel need? One more than you planned, and the dragon will still change color somewhere around chapter twelve.

If you spent November drafting, congratulations. You have a book-shaped pile of words, and now comes the part where you turn it into a book. Before you send that pile to an editor, it pays to do some of the work yourself. Editors are worth every cent, but you want them spending their time on the problems you can’t see, not the ones you could have fixed on a Tuesday night with a cup of coffee.

This post walks through self-editing a novel in the speculative genres, one pass at a time. I write horror, science fiction, and fantasy, and I’ve also spent years on the editor’s side of the desk, from putting together the Ancient Terrors anthologies (bibliography) to editing two series for a Hugo-nominated author. The passes below are the ones I’d want run on any manuscript before it lands on an editor’s desk.

Why one big read-through doesn’t work

The most common self-editing mistake is trying to fix everything at once. You start reading, spot a typo, fix it, notice a clunky sentence, fix that, wonder whether the villain’s plan makes sense, and twenty minutes later you’re rewriting a scene you may cut next week.

Beth Barany put it plainly in a recent episode of her How To Write the Future podcast: “You cannot edit your book in one day. You did not write your book in one day. Multiple passes are totally normal.” (How To Write the Future, ep. 229).

Multiple passes work because each one asks a single question. Big questions come first, small ones last. There’s no point polishing a sentence in a chapter that’s going to vanish.

Before pass one: let it cool, then read like a reader

Put the draft away. Andrew Park’s self-editing guide for Authors Publish recommends stepping away for at least a month, and preferably longer (Authors Publish). Barany says there’s no fixed rule, and the gap could be days or a year. Take what your schedule allows. The point is to come back as a stranger to your own book.

Then read the whole thing without fixing anything. Change the font, send it to an e-reader, or have your computer read it aloud. Keep a notepad handy and mark only three things:

Where you got bored.
Where you got confused.
Where you loved it.

That last one matters. You need to know what’s working so you don’t revise it to death.

Pass 1: Story and structure

This is the big-picture pass, and it’s where most of your revision energy should go.

Write a one-line summary of every chapter. Emily Vousden at EV Editing suggests this in her self-editing steps for speculative fiction authors, noting that if several chapters can be summarized the same way, you probably have redundant scenes (EV Editing). Lay the summaries out in a list and look at the shape:

Does the story start where the trouble starts?
Does each chapter change something, or do some just move characters from room to room?
Does the middle build pressure, or does it tread water until the ending shows up?
Does the ending pay off what the opening promised?

If the middle sags, look for a deadline. My post on ticking clock storytelling covers how a countdown can tighten a slack plot without adding a single new subplot.

Check character logic here too. For your protagonist and antagonist, write down what each one wants and why they can’t both have it. If you can’t answer that for your villain, your readers won’t be able to either. I wrote more about that in my post on villains.

Pass 2: The rules pass

This is the pass speculative writers need and literary writers mostly don’t. Your world has rules. Magic costs something, faster-than-light travel works a certain way, the ghost can only appear after sundown. Readers will forgive a lot, but they notice when the rules bend just because the plot needed them to.

Make a rules sheet if you didn’t make one before you drafted. List what the magic or technology can do, what it costs, and what it can’t do. Then read the manuscript with only that list in front of you, flagging every time a rule is used, bent, or broken.

Questions to ask on this pass:

Science fiction: Does the tech behave the same way every time? If a ship can cross the system in a day in chapter three, why does the rescue take a month in chapter twenty? My background in Navy electronics and IT makes me twitchy about this one. I wrote about it in Writing Science Fiction with a Technical Background.
Fantasy: Does magic have a cost, and does the cost show up when it hurts most? A spell that solves the climax for free cheapens everything before it.
Horror: Are the monster’s limits consistent? Dread depends on readers believing they understand the threat, right up until you show them they don’t.

While you’re at it, start a list of invented names and terms with their spellings. You’ll need it in pass six, and your editor will thank you for it. If your world notes are scattered across six apps, my post on worldbuilding tools for authors and game masters may help you pick one place to keep them.

Illustration (invented example): Your heroine teleports out of a sealed vault in chapter four. In chapter fifteen she’s trapped behind a locked door, and the tension depends on her being stuck. The rules pass catches this. Either the door gets a reason she can’t teleport through it (and you plant that reason earlier), or the scene needs a new problem.

Pass 3: Exposition and the info-dump hunt

Every speculative writer has done it. Page three, the hero sits down with a cup of tea and thinks about four hundred years of galactic history. It felt necessary while drafting. It reads like a textbook.

On this pass, highlight every paragraph that explains the world instead of showing a character dealing with it. Then ask three questions about each one:

Does the reader need this now, or can it wait until the moment it matters?
Can a character learn it through action or conflict instead of narration?
Can it shrink to one sentence?

Often the answer is to cut most of it and let the reader assemble the world from context. Readers of speculative fiction are good at that. It’s half the fun. For more on turning explanation into scene, see my post Show, Don’t Tell: A Writer’s Guide.

Pass 4: The genre promise pass

Each genre makes a promise, and this pass checks that you kept it. Barany suggests looking at the books yours would sit beside on the shelf and asking what experience they deliver, without chasing trends.

Science fiction often promises an idea worth thinking about and a world that follows its own logic. Ask whether your central idea actually changes the plot, or just decorates it.
Fantasy often promises wonder and consequence. Ask whether the world feels big and whether choices carry a cost.
Horror promises dread and a lingering chill. Ask whether the fear builds and whether the ending keeps scaring after the last line. I covered that in How to End a Horror Story.

If you blended genres, check both promises. A science fiction horror novel needs the logic of one and the dread of the other.

Pass 5: The line pass

Now, and only now, you get to fuss over sentences. Read slowly. Read aloud if you can stand your own voice.

Look for:

Passive constructions that hide who’s acting. My post on passive writing has examples.
Filter words like “she saw,” “he felt,” and “they noticed” that put a pane of glass between the reader and the scene.
Your crutch words. Every writer has them. Search for the ones you suspect and count how often they show up.
Dialogue that only delivers information. If two characters tell each other things they both already know, cut it or give the scene a conflict.

Software can help on this pass. I wrote about using AutoCrit for initial editing years ago, and the conclusion still holds: a tool can flag the common junk so a human editor has more time for the real problems, but it won’t replace one.

Pass 6: Clean copy

The last pass isn’t a proofread, but it should catch the obvious stuff.

Run spell check, then search for every invented name on your list from pass two. Spell checkers don’t know your moons.
Search for the bracket notes you left while drafting, like [CHECK ORBIT MATH], and resolve them.
Check numbers and dates for consistency. My old post on numbers in prose covers the basics.
Make the formatting consistent: one font, one scene break marker, chapter headings that match.

Know when to stop

Self-editing has limits. After enough passes, you stop seeing the words on the page and start seeing the book you meant to write. That’s the moment to hand it off.

Signs you’re there:

You’re changing words back and forth between two options.
Your notes are all small and none of them are about story.
You can’t tell whether a change made the book better or just different.

Barany’s advice on feedback fits here too: when readers or editors flag a problem, they’re often right that something is wrong, but the fix still has to fit your vision. That holds no matter who you hire.

A good editor is still worth hiring. Self-editing makes sure the money you spend goes to the problems you can’t see on your own. Run the passes, keep your rules sheet and name list, and send the editor a book you’ve already fought for.

If you’re just coming off a November draft, my post on the November novel writing challenge ended with a note to let the draft rest. Consider this the next step, when you’re ready to open the file again.

Sources

Beth Barany, “229. Edit Without Losing Your Creative Vision,” How To Write the Future podcast, November 2, 2026: https://howtowritethefuture.buzzsprout.com/2012061/episodes/20018994-229-edit-without-losing-your-creative-vision (quote on multiple passes; first read without fixing; no fixed rule for time away; genre expectations; weighing feedback against your vision)
Emily Vousden, “6 Self-Editing Steps for Speculative Fiction Authors,” EV Editing: https://www.ev-editing.com/blog/6-self-editing-steps-for-speculative-fiction-authors (chapter-by-chapter one-line summaries to spot redundant scenes; worldbuilding consistency pass)
Andrew Park, “Beyond the First Draft: Self-Editing Your Way to the Second Draft and Beyond,” Authors Publish, 2026 (PDF): https://authorspublish.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/self-editing-andrew-park.pdf (step away from the manuscript for at least a month, preferably longer)
Guy Anthony De Marco, Bio: https://guyanthonydemarco.com/bio/ (Navy service in electronics, helicopter avionics, and computer systems; IT career)
Guy Anthony De Marco, Bibliography: https://guyanthonydemarco.com/bibliography/ (Ancient Terrors, listed under “Editor & Collected By”; horror, science fiction, and fantasy works)