The Editorial Critique Your Manuscript Has Been Waiting For — Honest, Specific, and Built for Revision.

Manuscript Critique is a Claude Cowork plugin that produces a comprehensive 17-section editorial critique of any completed fiction manuscript, plus a separate, tiered, actionable revision plan the author can work through. Upload your .docx, .epub, or .pdf, and the plugin reads the entire manuscript, detects the genre and length tier, and delivers a professional editor’s report calibrated to what your book is — not to a generic novel template.

The critique is written in the voice of an experienced fiction editor preparing a manuscript for publication. Every observation cites the chapter where it appears. Every strength is named with specifics, not flattery. Every issue is diagnosed, not lectured. No prose is rewritten — direction is suggested, but the author writes the words.

The 17-Section Editorial Critique

1. Overview & Synopsis — Premise, plot, premise-to-genre alignment.
2. Major Strengths — Specific, evidence-based, with chapter pointers.
3. Areas for Improvement — Honest, diagnostic, not a fix list.
4. Structure & Plot — Inciting incident, midpoint, climax, resolution.
5. Pacing — Where the book moves, stalls, and sprints.
6. Emotion — Moment-to-moment emotional truth.
7. Plot Consistency — Logic gaps, dropped threads, broken setups.
8. Character Overview — Want vs. need, voice, stakes.
9. Character Arcs — Transformation across the manuscript.
10. Dialogue — Voice, exposition load, subtext.
11. Exposition — Show vs. tell, applied with nuance.
12. Setting & Worldbuilding — Sensory grounding and integration.
13. Prose & Style — Voice, rhythm, repeated tics.
14. Emotional Beats — Architecture of the big set-pieces.
15. Marketability — Genre fit, comps, reader expectations.
16. Next Steps — Pointer to the standalone revision plan.
17. Parting Thoughts — Macro-level direction and acknowledgment.

Every section is required. None are skipped. Each opens with a one-line orientation and closes with a crystallizing takeaway, so the author can read just the openings and closings and have a coherent picture of the critique.

Two Deliverables, Not One

The plugin produces two separate documents:

• The full critique — the 17-section editorial report, written for the author’s first deep read.
• The revision plan — a standalone, tiered working document the author opens, prioritizes from, and revises against. Tier 1 covers structural revisions. Tier 2 covers scene and chapter-level work. Tier 3 covers line-level patterns.

The revision plan is not a summary of the critique. It is a working document. The author should be able to revise the manuscript using only the revision plan, never re-opening the full critique.

Auto-Adapts to Length and Genre

The plugin classifies the manuscript by length tier — short story, novelette, novella, novel, or epic — and adjusts the structural expectations applied in the critique. A 22,000-word novella is critiqued as a novella, not as an underdeveloped novel. A 130,000-word epic is critiqued for ambition matched (or not) by execution.

The genre-fit analysis is calibrated to what readers in that genre actually expect. Romance gets HEA / HFN expectations and heat-level analysis. Cozy mystery gets puzzle-from-clues evaluation. Romantasy gets dual-arc interlock checks. Thriller gets pacing-density expectations. The marketability section names two to four real comparable titles where comps exist, or describes the type of book where naming a specific comp would invent one.

Citation Discipline — Every Note Anchored to a Chapter

Every observation in the critique cites the manuscript. “Chapter 4 sets up the ledger as the proof that will undo Marcus, but it never resurfaces” is the kind of note this plugin writes. “The pacing drags in the middle” is the kind of note it never writes.

Quoted excerpts are kept under 14 words and used as specific evidence, not as a substitute for analysis. The critique respects the manuscript’s copyright while still doing the work.

The Editor’s Voice — Honest, Specific, Encouraging

The critique is written peer-to-peer. The author has read craft books; the plugin doesn’t lecture. Vague praise is filtered out. Vague criticism is filtered out. The critique tells the truth without using the truth as a weapon, and acknowledges what the manuscript does well without padding.

The plugin does not:

• Rewrite the author’s prose or produce “improved” sentences
• Apologize for the critique or hedge with “maybe / could / perhaps”
• Stack compliments to soften every note
• Define craft basics like “inciting incident” — assumes the author knows
• Critique a romance for being a romance, or a romantasy for not being literary fiction
• Catastrophize

Tiered Revision Plan — A Working Document

The standalone revision plan splits the work into three tiers:

• Tier 1 — Structural / Manuscript-Wide. The revisions that change the shape of the book. Plot fixes, arc fixes, missing or surplus scenes, structural reordering, climax-question recalibration.
• Tier 2 — Scene & Chapter Level. Pacing fixes, scene-goal clarity, dialogue-load adjustments, POV-discipline passes, worldbuilding integration.
• Tier 3 — Line & Polish. Filter words, repeated phrases, sentence-rhythm patterns, voice drift. Best handled with a dedicated line-edit pass — the plugin points the author to Manuscript Editor Pro for tracked-changes line-level work.

Each item lists what to change, where it appears, why it matters, the concrete next action, and an estimated effort signal (light / moderate / heavy).

Output Format Selection

Every run starts by asking how the author wants the deliverables:

• A — Markdown in chat (lowest token cost, paste-ready for Novelcrafter, Obsidian, or Claude)
• B — Word Documents (.docx) — two formatted files: the critique and the revision plan
• C — PDFs — two polished files ready to print or share

Who This Is For

• Indie authors finishing a draft and deciding what to revise before publishing
• Authors who want a professional editorial perspective without paying $1,500-$4,000 for a developmental edit
• Authors who want a second opinion on a manuscript they’ve revised but aren’t sure about
• Writers preparing to submit to agents and want a critique before the query goes out
• Authors who use Claude for writing and want the editorial pass calibrated to publication, not to craft-school rubrics

Pairs With

• Manuscript Editor Pro — for the Tier 3 line-level work the revision plan points to
• Manuscript Editor Pro Multilingual — same line-level work, in seven languages
• Series Continuation Engine — to plan the next book once the current one is publication-ready
• Story Bible Generator — to extract a continuity bible after revisions are complete

Requirements

• Claude Cowork (desktop app) with the docx skill enabled (standard in all sessions)
• Manuscript file in .docx, .epub, or .pdf format

What’s Included

• Full 17-section critique pipeline
• Standalone tiered revision plan as a separate document
• Length-tier auto-detection (flash / short story / novelette / novella / novel / epic)
• Genre auto-detection with user confirmation when ambiguous
• Genre-fit analysis calibrated to romance, romantasy, mystery, thriller, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, literary, YA, MG, and erotic romance conventions
• Marketability and comparable-title analysis
• Output Format Selection (Markdown / .docx / PDF)
• No-rewrite policy — the author’s prose is never silently changed
• Citation discipline — every observation anchored to a chapter

Created by i2iHype

A Claude Cowork plugin for fiction authors who want a professional editorial critique calibrated to publication readiness — not generic feedback, not vague praise, not rewrites. The kind of editorial report a working developmental editor would write, delivered as a working document the author can revise from.