If you’ve never used Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature before, the idea of getting your manuscript back from an editor filled with all sorts of lines and squiggles you have to do something to in order to keep your novel from plummeting precipitously through a fiery ring of digital destruction and disappearing into the black maw of—

Whoa, there. Seriously, Track Changes isn’t that terrifying. Let’s take this one step at a time.

BUT FIRST—WHAT NOT TO DO: Don’t try to revise your manuscript by opening the file with tracked changes and beginning to click through it one edit or comment at a time. A typical full-length edited manuscript contains between 10,000 and 30,000 revisions—that’s right, tens of thousands. Clicking through each one is a sure path to wasted time, hard liquor, and seething regret.

Don’t try to manually transfer or key in the changes from the edited manuscript to another file. The chances of successfully completing that without introducing errors are minuscule. And did I mention you’d be handling an average of 10,000 to 30,000 revisions?