How to Use the Revision Desk
Six short steps, each one shown from the Desk’s own screens. Read straight through, or jump to the free demonstration at step five and try the feedback for yourself.
The guide and the demonstration are free: neither uses a review credit, and neither touches your writing.
- 1
Write, paste, or bring in a manuscript
Start typing in the writing surface, paste in something you have already written, or bring in a Word document (.docx) or plain text file (.txt). Chapter headings, paragraphs, bold, italics, poetry line breaks and stanza gaps come with the file. Pictures cannot come with it, and the preview says so plainly before anything is imported.
Reading and previewing a file happens on your own device: nothing is sent to the AI service and no review credit is used.
Upload a manuscript
Already written it somewhere else? Bring in a Word document (.docx) or a plain text file (.txt) and keep working on it here.
Choose File — no file chosenUp to 10 MB and 60,000 words1Your Writing (1,240 words)2
Write or paste your story, essay, or poem here…
Maximum 3,000 words per submission. Your formatting, paragraphs, line breaks and stanza gaps are kept as you wrote them.3
The two ways in: the upload card, and the writing surface with your own word count above it. - 1Choose a .docx or .txt file. The Desk reads it on your own device — nothing is uploaded to show you the preview.
- 2Your word count sits above the writing surface, so you always know how close you are to 3,000 words.
- 3Your formatting, paragraphs, line breaks and stanza gaps are kept exactly as you wrote them.
- 2
Save a draft and open it again later
Press Save Draft beside your writing, or the Save Draft inside full screen. Your manuscript is stored whole and appears in Your Saved Writing at the bottom of the Desk as a Draft, named as one, ready to open whenever you come back.
Saving, reopening and downloading your manuscript never use a review credit.
Saved1 Save DraftYour Saved Writing
The Lantern Room
story - Draft - 11,406 words
Tap it to reopen the whole manuscript, exactly as you saved it.2
Save Draft sits beside the writing; what you have saved is listed underneath, named as a Draft. - 1One save, one path: the button says Saved only when the write has actually gone through, and says so plainly when it has not.
- 2Open it from Your Saved Writing. What reopens is the whole manuscript, exactly as you saved it — no review credit is used to save or to reopen.
- 3
Choose a section, and how deep the review should go
One review reads up to 3,000 words. If your manuscript is longer, the Desk divides it into sections — following your own chapter headings where you have them — and you work through them one at a time, the way an editor does. Your manuscript is never cut, shortened or rewritten to fit.
Quick Review names the three most useful improvements. Detailed Review adds highlighted passages with explanations, and asks about the kind of book and where you are stuck.
Reviewing by section1
Your manuscript is kept whole, as you wrote it, in 4 sections taken from it without a word changed.
Chapter One — 2,410 words ReviewingChapter Two — 2,880 wordsReview this sectionChapter Three — 1,940 wordsReview this sectionSplit into sections — one review reads up to 3,000 words.2
Review Type 3
Quick Review
Three most useful improvements
Detailed Review
Highlighted passages with explanations
Each section is one review, and one review uses one credit from your allowance — the Desk shows how many you have left beside the button before you press it.
The section list for a long manuscript, and the two kinds of review. - 1Split into sections divides your manuscript without changing a word of it; each section opens for review on its own.
- 2One section is one review, and one review uses one credit from the allowance shown beside the review button before you press it.
- 3Quick Review for three most useful improvements, Detailed Review for highlighted passages with explanations.
- 4
Read the feedback, with your voice protected
Most points quote a passage of your own writing, as you wrote it. Open one and the explanation appears directly beneath it: what could improve, why it matters, and an optional example covering that passage only. Nothing is ever written over your manuscript on its own.
An objective correction is marked with a circle and a solid underline; an optional idea about craft with a lightbulb and a dashed underline. Every passage is labelled in words as well. Corrections are always listed first, so a deliberate choice is never mistaken for a mistake.
The same passage, with both kinds of point in it:
She was the only one left who new how to coax it back to lifeGrammar, and she never once let it go dark.
The lantern room was cold, and the sea had left a film of salt across the glassClarity.
1Correction, Grammar. An objective point — spelling, punctuation or grammar. Applying it fixes the slip and leaves your voice alone.
2Optional, Clarity. An optional idea about craft. Your own words are just as valid: take it, adapt it, or leave it.
3Open a passage and the explanation appears directly beneath it, quoted in your own words: what could improve, why it matters, and one optional example covering that passage only.
Preserve My Voice & Dialect4
On unless you turn it off. Jamaican Patois, African American English, regional expression, cultural language, dialogue written the way your characters speak, poetry, unconventional grammar you chose and your own literary style are treated as your choices — never as mistakes.
How much should the Desk offer? 5
Corrections always come first in every setting; this only changes how much is offered beyond them.
Minimal Corrections
Spelling, punctuation and clear grammar — and little else.
Balanced Improvementsdefault
Corrections first, then optional ideas about clarity, repetition and flow.
Creative Exploration
Alternatives to consider: imagery, rhythm, emotion, sentence shape.
The two kinds of point, and the voice settings that come first in the form. - 1A correction is objective — spelling, punctuation or grammar — and is labelled Correction.
- 2An optional idea about craft is labelled Optional. Your own words are just as valid.
- 3Apply fixes the one passage it covers and leaves the rest of your writing alone.
- 4Preserve My Voice & Dialect is on unless you turn it off: dialect, regional spelling, cultural expression, dialogue, poetry and deliberate choices are treated as yours.
- 5Choose how far the Desk may go: Minimal Corrections, Balanced Improvements (the default) or Creative Exploration.
- 5
Accept, edit, dismiss, or undo — try it here
Nothing is ever changed for you. Open a passage, read the explanation, then decide: Apply writes the example into that passage, Edit before applying keeps your own version of it, Dismiss sets it aside, and Undo puts your passage back exactly as it was. Every decision is remembered with the review and saved when you save it.
The demonstration below is the Desk’s own interface working on a fixed sample passage — free, and yours to try without an account or a credit.
Prebuilt educational demonstration. This is a fixed sample passage with three example suggestions written in advance. It is not a live AI review: nothing is sent anywhere, no review credit is used, no account is needed, and nothing you do here is saved or added to your portfolio. Your own writing is never involved.
The Lantern Room
The sample passage, with its three suggestions in place. Open a highlighted passage to read what the point is and why it matters — a correction is marked with a circle and a solid underline, an optional idea with a lightbulb and a dashed underline, and every passage is labelled in words as well.
Mira climbed the stairs two at a time. The lantern room was cold, . She had been keeping the light for six weeks .Open one of the three highlighted passages above to see its explanation and what can be done with it.
The sample as it stands now
What you see here is the sample with the changes you have accepted written into it. The original passage above is kept as it was, so both can be read side by side.
Mira climbed the stairs two at a time. The lantern room was cold, and the sea had left a film of salt across the glass.
She had been keeping the light for six weeks now, and she was the only one left who new how to coax it back to life.
Nothing has been accepted yet, so the sample above still reads exactly as it was written. Try Apply on any suggestion — and Undo afterwards to put it back.
A real review is different. You choose whether you want a Quick or a Detailed review, the Desk shows you the review credit it will use from your allowance, and only when you press the review button is anything sent. Saving a draft, reopening it, downloading it, reading this guide and using this demonstration all use no credit at all.
A real, working demonstration on a fixed sample passage — the same interface a review gives you. - 1Open any highlighted passage for its explanation and its example.
- 2Apply writes the change into the sample; Undo puts it back exactly as it was.
- 3Edit before applying keeps your own version; Dismiss sets a point aside and Restore brings it back.
- 4Start the demonstration again returns everything to how it began. Nothing here is saved anywhere.
- 6
Save the finished manuscript, and keep a copy
Save Draft stores your manuscript together with the feedback, so you can come back to it. When the piece is finished, download it to your own device as a Word document that keeps the shape of your writing or a plain text file that keeps your words.
The file is built on your own device from your own writing: nothing is sent anywhere and no review credit is used. If a file cannot be saved, the Desk says so rather than reporting a success.
Keep a copy of your manuscript
Your manuscript as it stands
Every section in one document, with the changes you accepted already in place.
1The text this review was written about
The manuscript as it was when you asked for the review.
Word document (.docx) Plain text (.txt)2Saved to your device. It holds only your own writing — no review notes, no suggestion markers.3
If a file cannot be saved, the Desk says so plainly — and nothing in your manuscript is changed.4
Keeping a copy: which version you are taking, and the two formats. - 1Choose which version you are taking — the manuscript as it stands, or the text the review was written about.
- 2The Word document keeps your headings, paragraphs and poetry line breaks; the plain text file keeps your words.
- 3The file holds only your own writing — no review notes and no suggestion markers.
- 4Nothing is sent anywhere, no review credit is used, and a file that could not be saved is reported plainly.
What uses a review credit, and what does not
Uses one credit
- Asking for a Quick or a Detailed review — one review, one credit, and one credit per section of a longer manuscript.
- The credit and your remaining allowance are shown beside the review button before you press it, so nothing is spent by surprise.
Uses no credit at all
- Writing, pasting, or uploading and previewing a manuscript.
- Saving a draft, reopening it, and downloading it.
- Reading this guide, using the demonstration, and accepting, editing, dismissing or undoing suggestions.
Feedback is guidance, not a guarantee: the Desk explains and suggests, and it never rewrites your work. What it can and cannot do is set out on the Revision Desk page.