I’m line editing a novel right now. It’s contemporary fiction by a novice writer, and the story is good. However, the prose is not yet of publishable quality.

I know this because:

• I’m an experienced editor
• I’m a writer myself
• I’ve studied fiction at the post-graduate level
• I’m an avid reader of published novels and memoirs

That last fact has the most weight. Whether you’re an editor or not, if you read published novels or memoirs, you know what they “feel” like. As the reader, you are absorbed and interested. You’ve been carried into the story and feel like it’s unfolding around you. You’re fully immersed.

When that’s not happening, there’s a reason.

The reasons can vary because manuscripts are different. Sometimes the big-picture story elements don’t hang together. The structure’s fractured or confusing, the plot needs work, you don’t feel connected to the characters.

At other times, the story works but the prose is too rough to be published. It’s novice work.

That’s where line editing comes in.

“Novice” is not an insult. As we all know, there’s nothing wrong with being a novice. Everyone starts there. But to make the leap from amateur novelist or memoirist to published writer requires learning how to write very well. (Well, it requires a whole lot more than that, but a manuscript that meets the standards for publishability is the first step.)

There are so many ways prose can fall short from being publishable that it’s a wonder writers persevere through all the learning. Luckily for readers they do, or we’d have no novels or memoirs to read.

There are also many ways to learn how to write good prose. The three biggies are courses, writing groups, and lots of practice. Those ways of learning can also take years. I’ve known writers to work ten years on their first manuscript because that’s just how long it can take to learn how to write at a professional level, especially for authors who work day jobs or have other life commitments.

There’s another option, and that’s to get the manuscript line edited. This doesn’t just bring the prose to a publishable standard. It also accelerates the writer’s leap from amateur to professional by teaching writing skills that will raise all of their future work to publishable standards much more quickly.

Good line editing can accelerate a writer’s career by years.

How to Tell If a Story Needs Line Editing

The biggest clue to whether a novel or memoir needs line editing is how you feel when you read the manuscript. If you keep getting popped out of the story no matter how much you care about the characters, the concept, or the events, that’s a problem.

It could be an issue with big-picture elements of the story such as structure, plot (or in memoir, selection of incident), character arcs, tension, pacing, and so on. In those cases, developmental editing can help.

Or it could be that the story works but there are just too many reasons to stop reading, page after page. That’s where line editing comes in.

Let’s say you’re an editor. The project is a novel or a memoir. The story works at the big-picture level. Some of the problems lie at the sentence level. You might notice patterns of repetition, continuity errors, wordiness, filter words, misused dialogue tags, purple prose, clunky metaphors, weak verbs, or missing transitions…

At the level of the paragraph or page, you might notice areas to reorganize, condense, expand, move, or cut entirely…

But line editing can also go bigger-picture than the sentence or paragraph level. Whether it’s fiction or memoir it will have scenes, and there you might notice patterns of “head hopping,” “talking heads,” scenes set nowhere, issues with logic and credibility, backloaded action, or poor scene dynamics…

Beyond scenes, you might also notice issues with transitions between chapters, between scenes, and between flashbacks, backstory, and scenes. You’ll notice the balance of narrative modes, like exposition, dialogue, and narrative summary, and have thoughts about those…

That’s a lot of things to notice.

Some of these might overlap with developmental editing on one side and copyediting on the other. But line editing is a unique skill—it takes a more granular, detailed, and style-focused approach than developmental editing, and it’s less rules-based and more subjective than copyediting. It’s its own thing. That’s why line editing can take serious amounts of training and skill to do well.  

How to Line Edit Fiction and Memoir

Ideally, line editing happens after big-picture story development and revision has taken place. There is no point in line editing prose in scenes or chapters that need to be radically restructured or cut.

Once the line editor is hired, the first step is a close, careful reading of the writer’s work for several pages, maybe a chapter. You develop an ear for the author’s voice—their unique lexicon and sensibility.

After you have the feel, you start working on the prose.

This is a uniquely satisfying experience, almost Zen-like. It involves untangling awkward sentences, eliminating redundancies and repetitions, pointing out unintentional contradictions, confusions, and clunky metaphors and suggesting solutions. You’re reorganizing paragraphs, examining chapter openings and closings, and delving into scene dynamics and setting.

Line editing improves what’s already on the page and pushes the writer to make every sentence count. It shows the author how to improve their prose by identifying issues and demonstrating how to address them.

You might be wondering, “Is the line editor not interfering too much with the writer’s style?” That can be an issue, but there are ways to prevent it:

* Offer a short sample line edit (2-3 pages) so the writer can see how deep a line edit you propose. I never onboard a writer’s work without letting them see my style and hear my opinion on what will help their manuscript become a published book.

* At the same time, educate the client on the levels of editing and the spectrum from light to heavy for line editing. This is easiest to do in that sample edit phase.

* Be honest about your response to the writer’s prose. I have told authors that I don’t think their manuscript needs line editing. This saves them money and establishes trust not just between you and this particular writer, but between writers and editors generally.

* Be clear that all line editing suggestions are optional. There’s always more than one way to write a good sentence, paragraph, scene, or chapter. The writer decides case by case whether to accept the suggestion, revert to their original, or use the suggestion as a jumping-off point to craft their own solution to the problem.

The editor is not overriding the author’s voice—it’s always got to be their book. Rather, you’re taking a keen eye and a particular set of skills to the author’s work to reveal the story’s beating heart.