By skyforbes 
How ChatGPT Can Help You Polish Your Manuscript Before Finding an Editor
If you’ve ever written a fiction book, you already know that the real work begins when you finish writing the first draft. Yes, I’m talking about the headache that every writer has to face, AKA the editing process.
Most writers will need to go through at least three self-editing rounds before approaching a professional structural editor. Unless you’re a one-in-a-million genius, expect your first draft to be a total mess. After all, the first draft is you telling yourself the story. Any additional draft is you telling the story to others.
Don’t Forget: Both Writers and Editors Are Just Human Beings
As we’re all human beings, we’re bound to make mistakes. We can spend 100 years perfecting our first draft, but this will still not help us produce a seamless novel. Even if we work with the best editor in the world, they can’t possibly detect all the issues with our manuscript because guess what? Editors are human beings, too.
AI Can Analyze a Manuscript the Way No Human Can
Luckily, AI is here to help and identify all those things that our earthly eyes can’t see. You may be thinking: “An artist should never use AI during the creation process.” While I agree with this approach, AI can make our lives much easier when we finish writing the first draft. It certainly helped me with a complex manuscript I finished writing in 2016. I’ve been stuck with it ever since, although one editor had already worked on it. I blended magical realism, humor, mystery, and time-jumping in one novel: a huge editorial headache!
Here’s What ChatGPT Can Tell You About Your Manuscript
When I uploaded my humoristic, magical realism manuscript to ChatGPT’s text bar and asked it to provide feedback, the detailed analysis I received was nothing short of mind-boggling. Not in a million years could I expect something like this:
- Strengths
In this section, ChatGPT included all the strong qualities of my manuscript and provided a few examples to explain its evaluation. As I haven’t published my book yet, I won’t include detailed explanations for all the strengths mentioned below.
Rich World-Building: The concept of … creates a fascinating, magical world layered with intrigue.
Engaging Characters
Dynamic Tone and Style:
– The blend of humor, nostalgia, and existential musings adds depth while keeping the narrative engaging.
– Dialogue is natural and often witty, fitting the personalities of the characters.
Series Potential:
– The serialized nature of the story, with layered mysteries about X’s past and his binding contract, lends itself well to a series format.
– Introducing new locations (e.g., Berlin) and intriguing characters opens avenues for continuation.
*X refers to my protagonist.
2. Areas for Improvement
In this section, ChatGPT showed me all the parts that could be written better. When I asked for examples, it directed me to specific scenes. Each bullet addresses a general issue and specific ones (e.g. certain scenes or dialogues between the characters):
Clarity in Rules and Stakes (magical system)
Pacing and Focus
Foreshadowing
Character Development
Series Setup:
Ensure this book concludes with a sense of closure while leaving enough open-ended questions to entice readers for the next installment.
Consider planting seeds for future conflicts or characters that will play significant roles later.
3. Suggestions for Enhancement
Opening Hook
Dialogue as Exposition
Conflict and Tension
4. Final Thoughts
ChatGPT also provides an overall summary of the manuscript. Here’s an example of mine:
This manuscript is packed with potential as part of a series, with a strong central premise and memorable characters. With adjustments to pacing, world-building clarity, and thematic focus, ### could captivate a broad audience of readers who enjoy fantasy, magical realism, and layered storytelling.
But it doesn’t end there. ChatGPT can also provide you feedback per scene and explain how it contributes/slows down the plot, for example. As long as you write a precise prompt, you should expect to receive the information you’re after.
Here are snippets from my conversation with ChatGPT when it finished providing the initial feedback.
ChatGPT: “Would you like detailed feedback on specific sections, such as pacing adjustments or character arcs?”
Me: “Yes please.”
ChatGPT: “To give you detailed feedback on specific sections, let’s break this into three key areas: pacing, character arcs, and world-building clarity. Here’s an in-depth look at what works well and actionable suggestions for enhancement.”
…
ChatGPT: “Would you like me to:
Edit specific scenes to address pacing (e.g., the opening or I’s introduction)?
Expand on character arcs with a focus on dialogue rewrites or added introspective moments?
Develop an outline for integrating the world-building elements into the plot more seamlessly?
Let me know how you’d like to proceed!”
Me: “Thanks. The readers discover what the plans are but not X and Y.” X and Y are my two co-protagonists.
ChatGPT: “That’s an excellent approach! Allowing the readers to discover Z’s plan while keeping X and Y in the dark creates dramatic irony — a powerful storytelling tool. Here’s why this works and how to make it even more effective…” Z is the antagonist.
As you can see, the sky is the limit and if you let it, ChatGPT will go overboard and suggest to rewrite entire scenes for you!!! That’s where I draw the line, though, because I refuse to let AI rewrite anything in my book, but to each their own…
You can even ask ChatGPT to give your manuscript a score to understand how much more work you should expect.
Me: “From 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, which score would you give ### ?”
ChatGPT: “Providing an exact score for ### depends on evaluating multiple factors like plot structure, character development, thematic depth, pacing, dialogue, and overall writing quality. Based on the manuscript’s excerpts I reviewed, here’s a breakdown of its strengths and potential areas for improvement:”
Emotional Depth (9/10)
Character Development (8/10)
Unique Premise (9/10)
Atmosphere and Imagery (8/10)
Themes (9/10)