Line editing
. . .
Sharpen your language
Line editing is close, line-by-line analysis of the words on the page and how they do, or don’t, work together. Line editing is not about correcting mistakes. It’s about aspects such as effectiveness, voice, art.
Line editing either follows developmental editing or comes into play when no developmental editing is needed.
Expository (informational) nonfiction
A line edit asks such questions as:
Is the author’s voice clear and distinctive?
Is the writing style and voice the best one for the context? The audience? The writer’s purpose? Are they maintained consistently throughout?
Is the discussion smooth and easy to follow? The writing smooth, engaging, and easy to absorb?
Is the material appropriately chunked? Are signposts in place?
Is any part of the discussion missing or misplaced?
Are sentences clear? Coherent? Cohesive? Concise?
Are they vigorous?
Are rhetorical strategies such as repetition and parallel structure used effectively?
Is emphasis ever missing or misplaced?
Is there a pleasing variety of sentence structure?
Is punctuation used both accurately and to best effect?
Is anything out of place grammatically?
And so on. This is not a comprehensive list.
Narrative nonfiction
A line edit asks such questions as those posed for informational nonfiction and for fiction, as narrative nonfiction straddles both worlds.
fiction
A line edit asks such questions as:
Is the narrative voice engaging? Does it work well with the story to be told? Is it consistent throughout?
Are the characters’ voices distinct from one another?
Does the narrative viewpoint hold steady? Or is there any head-hopping?
Is the dialogue natural and unforced? Does it serve both story and character? Are action beats used well? Are dialogue tags used well?
Is filtering used well or overused?
Are the showing and the telling well balanced and each used to best effect?
Is the writing style effective? Is it consistent?
Is the writing tight and economical? (Meaning that every word in the sentence does work. Not meaning that every sentence is short.)
Are any of the sentence strategies counterproductive to contemporary storytelling?
Do sentences go awry at any points, just in terms of style and grammar?
And so on. This is not a comprehensive list. Specific genres carry with them their own conventions and concerns. And literary fiction more so than anything else might dictate its own rules.
What you get
Your ms with suggestions marked directly in text for making sentences and passages (and so also the argument, the ideas, or the story) stronger and more effective, with supporting notes and commentary as needed
A concise editorial letter, if enough issues warrant it, that addresses and discusses the major issues, citing also examples from the ms
A video conference to walk through the analysis and recommendations
“Style is not something applied. It is something that permeates. It is of the nature of that in which it is found, whether the poem, the manner of a god, the bearing of a man. It is not a dress.”