I'm starting redlines for the conspiracies of Deep Dive. There are a couple of conspiracies outstanding, and I have an entire chapter (plus various bits of connective tissue) yet to write, But some of that will go more smoothly once I've had a chance to fan out the conspiracies on my proverbial table and look for commonalities.
Redlines are the step of the production cycle when the developer reads through all the first drafts and finds all the stuff that needs revision, as well as all the stuff that was a bit of a surprise that gets them excited (and sometimes changes the trajectory of a few aspects of the project). There is some work done to unify the various bits into something that sings together in better harmony, but most of that happens after the writers turn in their second/final drafts and the developer settles in to do the real work of development.
Some of redlining is ordinary proofreading - catching typos, pointing out passive construction, and curbing folks' use of semicolons, parentheses, and em-dashes. (To be clear, I love my em-dashes, so no hate on other writers for using them, but they can get a little ridiculous at times.) That's not really the main point of redlines, though; it's to find out what's working, what needs serious polish, and what's dead weight.
Patrons who have seen all my first drafts, you'll soon see exactly why I had to put that "there will be changes" caveat on every sneak peek. The difference between first and second draft is almost alarming, at times.
Redlining one's own work requires a bit of intentional disconnection from the first draft. I have to approach it as though it doesn't belong to me. That usually means I take a little bit of a break between writing my first drafts and redlining them. Fortunately, I have a number of other writers' first drafts to read while I'm busily forgetting that I wrote nearly two dozen of these conspiracies.