Line editing is all about elevating your writing. While both proofreading and copyediting focus on the technical aspects of writing, line editing is an in-depth, more stylistic edit focused on the quality and impact of your writing itself on a sentence, paragraph, and scene level. With thoughtful consideration of your style, tone, and message, line editing ensures your manuscript is as clear, impactful, and effective as possible. Reader experience—flow, clarity, audience suitability—is prioritized, but so is your voice. Maintaining the consistency and elevating the quality of your storytelling is the focus of a line edit; your voice and style will guide every change made.
Your story is yours to tell.
My edits will not change your voice, they will enhance it.
By catching and correcting issues including repetition, language redundancies, awkward or unclear phrasing, clichés, telling instead of showing, inconsistent point-of-view, bland language, and more, your writing is strengthened and elevated to make for the best reading experience possible. Line editing also involves tightening up writing by deleting and/or rephrasing portions that are unnecessary or repetitive. Sentences and paragraphs may be lightly rephrased or reorganized for flow and clarity.
While line editing is not a branch of developmental editing and does not deal with overall theme, structure, plot, or any other big-picture novel pieces, there can be some overlap in what gets flagged. Any areas that may require your additional editorial attention, such as inconsistencies within the plot or characterization, will be flagged along with anything that feels out of place or sudden, etc.
So, how do you know if your manuscript needs a line edit?
The simple answer is that all manuscripts need line editing. This level of edit falls between developmental editing and copyediting, and it is a crucial step within the editing process that is seen in both traditional publishing and self-publishing. It is especially important for self-publishing authors to ensure the quality of their writing and the professionalism of their finished novel with an editor’s trained eye before continuing any further in the publishing process. Once you’re confident in the big-picture elements of your novel—including plot, pace, characterization, etc.—it’s time for a line edit.
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