Yes, yes, technically you’re supposed to clean up your manuscript before flinging it at an editor like a monkey with a typewriter and a dream. But if you’re indie—especially the breed of indie that likes to keep control over everything (hi)—you might also be your own editor. And formatter. And beta reader. And head of IT.
So let’s talk about that cleanup pass you should be doing before anyone, including future-you, sees that hot mess of a draft.
Step One: Build Your Own Weasel Word List
We all have them—those little gremlins that sneak into your prose over and over again. “Just.” “That.” “Really.” Or worse: “She felt like…” or “There was…” (“But” is a particularly bad habit of mine, that I’m still trying to break!)
Every time you get feedback from an editor (or crit partner, or reader with an editorial brain), take notes. Notice what they call out repeatedly. Make a list. This is your personal Weasel Word List.
Yes, there are general lists floating around the internet—and you’ll want one of those, too. But your own repeated offenders are far more useful than a generic 300-word death list from someone else’s style blog.
Why?
Because cleaning up your manuscript is a two-part process:
- One part keeps editors happy.
- The other part keeps ebook compilers happy.
And, let’s face it: you might be the editor and the ebook compiler.
Why Keep Editors Happy?
Because the less time an editor spends fixing your spelling mistakes and cringing at “there” instead of “their,” the more brain space they have to notice what really matters: character arcs, setups and payoffs, foreshadowing, echoes, themes, subtext…all the chewy layers that turn a readable story into a re-readable one.
Even line editors will catch big-picture issues if they’re not buried in the weeds of your bad habits. But they can’t see the forest if they’re hacking through a jungle of “suddenlys” and “justs.”
And Then There’s Formatting…
Why should you care?
Because when it’s time to compile your manuscript into an EPUB (or a PDF, or InDesign file, or Amazon docx), the ghosts of formatting sins past will come back to haunt you. Blank pages, wonky indents, invisible characters that wreck your scene breaks—it’s all avoidable.
A clean manuscript compiles clean. That means fewer surprises, less troubleshooting, and no emergency calls to your formatter in the middle of launch week because your “Look Inside” on Amazon is showing all your paragraph breaks as interpretive dance.
So do yourself a favor: take time to run a format cleanup checklist.
And yes, I’ve included mine below. Both steps are included in my Weasel Word List, which you’re welcome to borrow, riff on, or completely ignore while you build your own.
Happy cutting.
Weazel Word List & Format Clean Up
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