Make Your Book Sing: Line Editing Tips
Writing a book is exciting, no doubt. But editing a novel is where the magic really happens. More specifically, line editing—when you start digging into the details and begin making your novel feel more like you. In this blog post, I’m sharing how you can make your book sing with your unique literary enchantment. These are some of my line editing tips as a book editor.
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Topics of Discussion:
What is line editing?
Debunking some “advice” on purple prose.
What a line editor fixes in your manuscript
What a line editor doesn’t fix
Does a line editor use a style sheet?
Line editing vs. Developmental editing
Line Editing vs. Copy Editing
What is line editing?
Line editing are the sentence-level revisions made to a manuscript to enhance readability, flow, and tone.
Authors should conduct at least one round of line-edits before sending their manuscript to an editor. This is optional, but highly recommended because the line-level edits are where your literary voice truly gets to shine. A line editor will help you tighten your intention on a sentence-level, but you are the writer. It’s your voice. So, if you’re an author looking to strengthen your prose, you’re going to want to take some notes.
Debunking some “advice” on purple prose.
First and foremost, I feel as though I should get this out of the way: purple prose isn’t your enemy. I’m not saying you need to write purple prose, but I must admit, I enjoy literature that’s a little purple, which is ultimately more literary writing. I understand that is a subjective statement, but I also believe writing with a literary style distinguishes a writer who has found their voice, versus one who sounds like everyone else. All that to say: writing is an art. And it is my belief that every writer is a little bit of a poet: we are wordsmiths. How can we not be?
Therefore, don’t be afraid to bring YOUR literary flair to your book—that’s what makes it unique to you. Your readers will find you. Every writer has their own writing style, and the more you write, the closer you are to finding yours.
But, today, a lot of writing advice out there tells writers that they can’t have complex sentences or too many descriptions because it will bore their reader. And my question to that advice is this: how can you determine what is too much or too complex if you’re not actually looking at the sentence itself? This advice has made EVERY book in the modern day all sound the same. A lot of writers are playing it safe so they don’t sound pretentious or abstract, but that stops them from writing like themselves.
This is why we have line editors. Your editor will help you determine if your sentences are too abstract or unclear, but I’d be wary of following arbitrary advice that hinders you from writing more literary.
With all that said, I’m diving into some line editing tips that can help you when you’re self-editing your novel. These tips help you maintain more literary writing while staying clear in your prose.
Line-Level Revisions to Scout For:
Below are a handful of sentence-level changes your line editor will fix that you can look for before they find them.
Pacing issues
Word choice, altering tone
Too many adverbs
Distracting qualifiers
Unintentional repetition
Pacing is the secret ingredient to all well-told stories.
A line editor is going to fix your pacing issues. Therefore, these editors are crucial to the book writing process, but before you send your manuscript off to them, scout for some pacing issues yourself.
Line-level revisions are where your artistry truly shines in writing. It’s where you make your novel sound like a song.
How do you pace a novel? Pacing can be applied to your sentence length, paragraph length, chapter length, and novel length. This is where you decide how you want your book to flow. You can pace your book by altering your sentence lengths and changing up your sentence structure to connect with the words themselves. Make every single word intentional.
For example: Here’s an excerpt from my novella, “Winonna’s Rescue: Part One”. A fiction story about an isolated young woman who is repressing her past.
“The last memory she recalled was in her bedroom. Alone. A pink dollhouse full of plastic toys scattered across the floor. She pretended. And she hadn’t stopped since.”
This scene is fast paced, and you can see that from the short sentences. That’s intentional because Winonna’s memories are a place she’s running away from—she’s afraid. So when she’s recalling this memory, she wants to stop thinking about it as quickly as possible because it’s a place of pain.
Here’s another example from the same story,
“Winonna stood frozen. It was as if her limbs were stuck.
The woman tapped the clipboard.
Winonna looked at the papers, then back to the woman. She heard the clock ticking behind her, the animals shrieking, and her own heart thumping. Their moans begged for a home. Winonna noticed the woman’s eyes were blotched with black make-up that looked like it was put on in the dark. She didn’t look like a Betty. The cat’s heart thumped faster within her arms. He let out a meow as if it were his final plea to stay.”
This scene is slower paced, you can tell by the descriptions within the room: the sounds, the visuals, and the cats heart beating. I wanted the reader to experience everything as Winonna.
This is how you want to view your sentences: they are the strokes you create on the canvas, which determines the image. Play around with your sentences and use literary devices: metaphor, imagery, similes, etc. Do not go out of your way to throw in grandiose words that complicate the scene—that takes a reader out of the immersion. Your voice is what they’re looking for. Be you. But also, be creative.
Word choice creates a tone
This leads us to the next point in line-level revisions. Your word choice matters in every single sentence. Your words create an atmosphere and a tone for your novel. This is where you can play with literary devices such as alliteration, rhythm, onomatopoeia, etc.
Don’t delete ALL of your adverbs
Don’t take the delete button like a sword to your manuscript. Some adverbs can help create the tone. To determine which adverbs to keep, read your manuscript aloud. You’ll discover that most adverbs you find are unnecessary and disrupt the rhythm of your sentences, but it all comes down to the rhythm.
Distracting Qualifiers
Qualifiers are words that distract from what you’re saying. They can be used for emphasis, but most of the time they are filling a space that disrupts the flow. Again—determine whether you should take them out or leave them based on your story’s pacing.
For example: “She was exceptionally pretty. VS. She was pretty.”
“He was actually smart. VS. He was intelligent.”
Unintentional Repetition
Repetition isn’t all bad. It’s a literary device that, when used strategically, adds a lot of emphasis, and highlights focus. But, if you’re repeating phrases or words often, you’re bringing a reader's attention to something they may think is important when it’s not. That’s the difference.
Here’s a good example of repetition from the same novella,
“She glanced at him all night, watching his tiny chest rise and fall.
Rise and fall.
Rise and fall.
Eventually she was lulled to sleep by the whispers from the winter wind.”
There aren’t hard and fast rules towards anything in creative writing (except spelling and grammar). That’s why you, as the writer, determine everything. And if you have a wonderful editor, they will help bring your vision to life from the inevitable oversights. Despite writing being a solitary activity, you are not in this alone.
Now, the initial list doesn't cover everything your line editor fixes inside of your manuscript. They also scout for:
Continuity errors
Tense mistakes
POV errors (head-hopping)
Clichés
Redundancy
Dialogue mistakes
Transitional errors
Again, you can start fixing some of these errors in your manuscript before you send it off to an editor.
What a line editor doesn’t fix:
Your line editor is not going into your manuscript to check for grammar, punctuation, or spelling mistakes. (Although they may fix a lot of them when they’re already inside your manuscript because how can we not!) But, that is the job of a copyeditor, and there are some copyeditors who bundle these two services.
Secondarily, your line editor is not going to fix the story’s structure: they focus on sentence structure. We’ll dive into the differences between the line editor and copyeditor, and the line editor and developmental editor below.
Note: If you have any concerns about your story’s structure, be sure to get an editorial assessment or developmental edit before hiring a line editor.
Does a line editor use a style sheet?
Not every line editor uses a style sheet, which are often reserved for the copyeditor. However, some line editors may use them because they’re helpful for consistency. It depends on who you work with. Always ask: I’m sure they’ll be happy to answer your questions.
Line editing vs. Developmental editing
Line editing is when you examine every sentence within your manuscript and fix them for clarity, flow, and tone. Whereas a developmental edit is when you are fixing the story’s structure. During a developmental edit, your editor is ensuring the overall story works as a whole: do you have a theme? Do you have character arcs? Does the plot tie up at the end? This editor is the heartbeat of your book because they help you create a story that works on a fundamental level.
We offer a combo editing package on developmental and line editing, however they are broken into two phases due to the nature of these revisions.
Line Editing vs. Copyediting
Now line editing and copyediting may seem similar, but they are quite different. Line editing is still when the artistry is at play—whereas copyediting is combing through the grammar. When you’re line editing, you’re still creating an ambiance for the story. Copyedits are tweaks made to your misspelled words, punctuation, the misuse of a word according to the standard publishing style guide, fact-checking, etc.
There you have it! It’s time to make your next book sing! If you haven’t already downloaded our self-editing checklist, grab it now.
Are you ready for a line editor, or will be soon? Let’s chat! Head over to my calendar to get a free call consultation with me.
For a deeper dive on what editing services we provide, you can check all of that out below. And if you ever have questions, just ask!
Happy writing,
Serena
