You need a Line Edit if your completed manuscript has already seen major revision but has voice or character inconsistencies, tense issues, or structural problems on the sentence level. Line Editing focus is on the page.
But what does that really mean?
During a Line Edit, I’m looking for . . .
- Consistency: This is a bit of a catch-all, but consistency means I’ll be on the hunt for anything distracting or clunky.
I’m looking for words and phrases that make me pause. Did you always capitalize that city name, or does it have a
meaning in another context? Was that character always blond with green eyes, or were the eyes blue in Chapter 3?
Are you following the rules you set down for the world you built? - Head-Hopping: Say you wrote your story in 3rd person limited—he/she/they/it pronouns but in only that character’s
head—but maybe you jump to another character mid-chapter. I’m on high alert for these incidents. Does your main
character know something they shouldn’t because they didn’t see it happen or hear about it? Maybe your POV
character knows what someone is thinking when that shouldn’t be possible. There are many possible examples
of head-hopping, but those two are the most common. - Tense Issues: Passive voice is the killer of all forward momentum in a book. For example, “The plushie was tossed
onto the sofa.” Did you write a sentence like that? Let’s change it to active voice! “She tossed the plushie onto the
sofa.” But there’s also the more basic tense issues that crop up on the page. Maybe you wrote, “I had it!” but you
meant “I have it!” - Repetitive Words/Phrases: Most writers have “writerly ticks” they just can’t shake. Maybe you love the description
“golden sun” and use it four times on one page. Frequent usage like that is a distraction for readers, so it’s best to
cut down that use to one or two impactful moments where the words can shine. - Filler Words: I’m also looking for extra words that can generally be removed and not change the sentence’s tone or
meaning. Some examples of filler words are that, like, just, very, and really.
Line Editing is the most delicate stage of the editing process. A line-by-line examination of your work means someone can easily superimpose their words and style over your own.
But a true and proper Line Edit enhances and highlights your voice and complements your book’s tone, and I take great care to ensure the integrity of your work.
Occasionally, I’ll offer a combined Line and Copy Edit to authors. I do this on a case-by-case basis if I believe your book can handle two edits at once without risk of redoing work later.
If I’m doing a Line and Copy Edit, I’m looking for . . .
- Everything in the Line Editing section above
- Dialect Consistency: Books published in English are written in either American or British English—Australian
English
most resembles British English. The dialects have many spelling differences, such as color/colour,
armor/armour, etc., but British and American English also have unique grammar and word usage rules and
colloquialisms. - Grammatical Consistency: My default style guide is the Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS), and I use that to
check grammar and usage rules for texts. On top of that, there are some words that almost always slip through
spellcheck because they’re homophones: bare/bear, there/their/they’re, accept/except, effect/affect,
insure/ensure, and tons more. I’ll also be looking for doubled words like, “He flipped the the page.” - Punctuation Accuracy: This is where we make sure our I’s are dotted and our T’s are crossed. I’m on the
lookout for misplaced commas or comma splices, wonky en dashes that should be an em dash, if that em dash
should be there at all, and all the same for semicolons and colons. On top of that, I’ll be paying attention to
possible exclamation point overuse and removing doubles like !! or !?. - Standardized Style: The style of your page is all about what it looks like. Are all new paragraphs aligned and
spaced correctly from the left and right margins? Are your dialogue tags correct, and are the quotation marks
the same style across the board? I’ll also make sure internal dialogue is italicized with no quotation marks and
spaced as spoken dialogue.
Mistakes slip through the cracks during early editing stages when you’re focused on the structure and content of your story, so Copyediting’s job is to comb through and clean up!