Development Notebook

Comprehensive Editing Pass Checklist

1. Developmental / Substantive Editing

Big-picture work. Focus on whether the story works as a whole before polishing language.

Structure & Plot

• Check overall plot structure (beginning, middle, end; rising action, climax, resolution).
• Evaluate pacing of the story as a whole (too slow? too rushed? sagging middle?).
• Ensure major plot points land with proper setup and payoff.
• Look for plot holes, unresolved threads, or logic gaps.
• Confirm cause-and-effect chain of events feels natural.

Characters

• Verify character arcs feel complete and earned.
• Check consistency of character personality, voice, goals, and motivations.
• Ensure characters change (or deliberately don’t) in believable ways.
• Watch for characters acting out of character without good reason.

Scenes & Grounding

• Make sure every scene has a clear purpose (advances plot, develops character, or deepens theme).
• Ground dialogue — Avoid “dialogues in a vacuum.” For every conversation, check that “what’s going on around them” is present: action beats, body language, setting details, sensory information, and what characters are doing while they talk.
• Ensure scenes feel fully rendered and immersive rather than floating heads talking.
• Check transitions between scenes for smoothness.

Themes

• Confirm core themes (friendship, duty, perseverance, etc.) are actually present and woven through the story.
• Look for opportunities to strengthen thematic resonance through character choices, conflicts, symbols, or plot events.
• Ensure themes emerge organically rather than being stated too bluntly.

Point of View & Perspective

• Check POV consistency (no head-hopping unless intentional).
• Ensure the chosen POV serves the story and character.
• Verify the narrative distance feels appropriate.

World & Continuity

• Check internal consistency of world-building, rules, timelines, and details.
• Flag any contradictions in setting, magic/technology systems, or established facts.

2. Line Editing

Sentence- and paragraph-level work. Focus on how the writing reads and feels.

• Improve flow and rhythm of sentences and paragraphs.
• Strengthen word choice (replace weak, vague, or repetitive words).
• Tighten prose — cut unnecessary words, filler, and redundancy.
• Enhance clarity and precision of meaning.
• Preserve and strengthen the author’s voice and tone.
• Smooth awkward phrasing or clunky constructions.
• Adjust sentence variety and length for better pacing within scenes.
• Ensure emotional beats and subtext land effectively.
• Balance dialogue with narrative and description so neither overwhelms the other.
• Check that descriptions and action feel vivid without overwriting.

3. Copy Editing

Technical correctness and consistency. Focus on rules and polish.

• Correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Fix syntax issues and unclear sentence structures.
• Ensure consistency of names, terms, capitalization, hyphenation, and spelling (create/update a style sheet).
• Apply a chosen style guide (e.g., Chicago Manual of Style).
• Check for consistency in numbers, dates, measurements, and formatting.
• Light fact-checking of real-world details, timelines, and continuity.
• Verify dialogue punctuation and attribution are correct and consistent.
• Flag remaining continuity or logic issues that slipped through earlier passes.

4. Proofreading

Final surface-level check after all revisions are complete.

• Catch remaining typos, misspellings, and missing/extra words.
• Check for repeated or missing punctuation.
• Verify formatting (paragraph breaks, scene breaks, italics, etc.).
• Look for layout issues if the text is already typeset (widows, orphans, bad breaks).
• Do a final read-aloud pass for anything that still sounds off.

Scratch Pad

• Additional
  • flat additions to the base value
  • sum with each other
• Percent Increased/Reduced the base value
  • Percent change
• Percent More/Less the modified value
  • Applied after increased/reduced

1. Sum all Added and Base values -> 10
2. Sum all Increased into one multiplier -> 1.45
3. Multiply Added/Base total x Increased multiplier ->10x1.45=14.5
4. Multiply by each More separately -> 14.5 x 1.05 x 1.3 x 1.1 = 21.77
5. Multiply by Amplified separately

Naval Combat

• Long Range (up to 250,000 km) -- lasers + railguns
• Missile Range (up to 1,000,000 km)
• Close range (under 20,000 km) --ion beams

    *ion beams are short range, but cause massive internal thermal and radiation effects.

Marine Hierarchy

• Fire Team
• Squad
• Platoon
• Company
• Battalion
• Regiment
• Brigade (1st Sylvan Marines)
• Division

navy will perform air cavalry and troop transport role with gunships. I need to flesh out the marine recon role.

Increase the length of the prologue, to have more fleeing, near death experiences, etc.,

Add the character artwork as commissions prior to a design change for the uniforms. They'll serve as bonus artwork on the special edition hardcovers.
Here is a list of characters

Here is a list of warships

Here are the Species and Professions.

http://robertplewis.com/index.php/Category:Naval_Weapons

http://robertplewis.com/index.php/System_Titles