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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47888
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47888
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

I wouldn't do it, speaking from experience. I paid for an edit long ago, on my first completed novel, and my editor did not do anything I couldn't have done with spellcheck and Grammarly (both free).

As far as story analysis, it was uninspired, it said it was a good story, flowed well, and had no major issues. It was then rejected by 40 agents.

If you have money to pay for something and can emotionally tolerate the fact that you might be totally wasting a few hundred dollars, I would suggest some of the OTHER help you need: Getting a query letter written, getting a synopsis written, or getting JUST your first 10 pages edited and critiqued. (There are also more advanced versions of Grammarly available for pay, I'm not sure what they do, but that might be an investment.)

On the business end of writing, the traditional route is to query agents with a query letter, and often the FIRST ten pages of your story. Some may ask for a synopsis (1 or 2 pages, single spaced but full 1-inch margins). If the agent likes what she reads, she may request more; but ultimately you trust her to find and negotiate with a publisher.

These are **_very_** important items. The writing in each of these is judged strongly by agents, and in a flash: A few wrong words or typos or lost punctuation marks can drop you in her reject pile. Agents often reject over 95% of all queries, they receive far more offers than they can represent, and they aren't there to teach you anything, or take you under their wing, or coddle you. They are looking for new authors _already writing at a publishable level_, they aren't schoolteachers nurturing beginners.

I won't recommend any particular service, I haven't seen any of their work, but I have seen several offering these kinds of query/synopsis/first10 services, including former agents and publishing house readers, at what (to me) looks like affordable prices, in the few $100 range. Other than that, use tools. Pay attention to the redline words and figure out how to use Grammarly. Perhaps pay for the Grammarly upgrades to the free version, if they appeal to you. Once they are done, the mechanics are good enough for a publisher-employee to polish.

I also believe learning to write a synopsis of your completed story (learning is free) is also a useful tool in exposing your story structure, it forces you to reveal the key beats, concisely, and understand why they matter. That can also be a tool for doing your own story analysis, seeing where it sags or the pacing is off, and sometimes what you should devote more attention to because it IS an important plot point you couldn't cut or gloss over in the synopsis.

## EDIT for OP comment:

OP: _In my country there are few agents, and authors are often supposed to contact publishers directly. Regarding Grammarly or other similar services, I'm more concerned about the themes and the general pace rather than grammar mistakes._

You would have to contact publishers with basically the same materials you would contact an agent with, for the same reasons. They can't afford to pay for readers to just read your whole book.

For pacing and themes, a synopsis _for yourself_ is the answer. When you fly in an airplane, you can see patterns in the landscape you cannot see from the ground; that is why they call it the view from "10,000 feet" (2 miles, one kilometer).

A synopsis is 1500 words or less; a hard limit for many agents (and I presume publishers). Like the view from on high, this shrinks your story by a factor of 50x to 100x. So little details are lost, but _general_ patterns become more prominent.

Likewise, either in the process of forming this synopsis or by annotating pages for where important events lie, you can tell if your pacing lags significantly, or is too fast.

I would do this in 5% increments of the page count; chunks 1 to 20.

I personally follow a four-act structure, the 3 act structure with the 2nd Act broken into two equal parts. each act is roughly 25% of the story. Each act has a beginning part, a middle part, and an end part, but these don't have to be equal; but at least 5% each. So I have 12 segments of the story to write.

My first act, segment one, introduces my MC doing something in their normal world, not plot-critical but _doing_ something, and simultaneously introduces the MC, their strength, weakness, and the world setting. This is usually 15% of the story. Segment two introduces the inciting incident, something the MC has to deal with. This is usually 5% of the story. Segment three, the last 5% of Act I, is for escalation of the inciting incident that drives the MC out of their normal world and comfort zone.

You need similar "beats" in your story, turning points. A synopsis should have every significant turning point in your story in some line: a **happening** , a **change** , in knowledge or understanding, in plans, in relationships, in motivation, in life or death, whatever. By looking at % marks of where these occur, you reveal pacing. These turning points should not be too close together, or too far apart, and should increase in frequency from beginning, to climax, and then slow to a stop after the finale, when the MC either returns to her normal world or embraces the new normal.

Readers begin a story _expecting_ a slow start and will forgive your introduction, up to about 15% of the story, but once the inciting incident occurs, the warm up walk is over and we start a jog, then a steady run for the end, and a sprint for the finish line. A synopsis with % marks for turning points will help you analyze your pacing.

Original score: 5