polishing and polishing: tidying up with line edits
my approach to line edits and tips for cutting down as an overwriter
Line edits are kind of the most rewarding process of revisions to me, because it’s a lot less work compared to deep developmental edits, but is so crucial to delivering a polished, readable story.
I tend to read through each scene I’ve written/revised once on the spot, one more time the next day before moving to the next scene…then I line edit the whole act…and then I line edit the whole book before wrapping up a draft.
I expend a lot of energy on line editing, and have been told I turn out very clean drafts, even early ones. So here’s my approach to cleaning up my writing on a line-by-line level, from general prose to nit-picking at every word. I’m an overwriter, so I’ll also be talking about how I search for places to cut down and condense wording.
Disclaimer: this is my approach; there is no “right way” to line edit; my methods won’t work for everyone but I hope they’re helpful to some!
part one: is it lyrical or is it confusing?
I am a big fan of lyrical descriptions and writing that makes me marvel over a particularly clever word usage. However, sometimes I have the experience of reading a paragraph or even whole pages and wondering what is this even trying to say?
There are times when I read my own writing and realize it’s too roundabout in a way that sacrifices pacing and clarity, without being pretty enough to compensate for that. Generally, if I have to read my own sentence twice to understand it, I assume it’s even more difficult for my readers, and likely more trouble than it’s worth.
Of course, sometimes the intention is to write an ambiguous sentence or to halt the reader in their tracks and that’s different. But that leads to part two…
part two: rhythm, pace, and guiding the reader
Ever since I read this craft advice on twitter, I think of it every time I’m line editing and try to keep track of my sentence length. Am I creating a series of very short sentences or very long ones, or am I mixing them up?
Aside from that, one thing I hope to continue working on is being conscious with how I utilize sentence length and rhythm, for instance: using simple sentences and short paragraphs to quicken the pace, while reserving lyrical sentences and long paragraphs for when I want the reader to linger and immerse themself.
I personally have never read a whole novel out loud, but I do speak out paragraphs I’m unsure of, and hearing my own words helps with evaluating the rhythm.
part three: word by word
There are a lot of resources and threads and posts about editing on a word-by-word basis, but here’s my personal take on much-touted advice:
Avoiding repetitions. It can feel clunky when the same word is repeated within the same paragraph or page but sometimes this is excellent for creating emphasis. Simple words—while less impressive—are more immune to feeling repetitive. For instance, if you use “pernicious” multiple times in a scene, a reader’s 100% going to notice, but not common words such as “pull” or “push.” When I notice I frequently use a particular metaphor/description/phrase, I do a global search to see where I can mix it up.
Filler words. Lots of craft posts mention words such as that, even, just, etc can frequently be taken out without affecting a sentence grammatically or in terms of meaning. This is certainly true. However, I’ve found that adhering too strictly to this rule can result in awkward, unnatural wording, and if you find a sentence reads more naturally with a particular “filler” word, it’s totally fine to keep it.
“Be” verbs. I did go through a phase of cutting all my “be” verbs and a lot of the time they are unnecessary (“he was standing by the door” → “he stood by the door”), but I find the more important issue is they often stand in place of other words that could provide better description (“the house was at the end of the street” → “the house loomed at the end of the street”).
Contractions are natural. Avoiding contractions—especially in casual dialogue between modern people—can read as being awkward or too formal. It is however a simple way to create difference in voice, for instance a character that never uses contractions immediately feels more serious and uptight.
Avoid filtering descriptions through the characters’ eyes. Stuff like “I see him go to the door” or “I realize he’s angry” is less direct than “he goes to the door” or “he’s angry.” But this wording can be useful and immersive when I want the reader to stay very within the POV character’s head.
Em dash. I like em dashes. I think they’re great ways to create emphasis, so I don’t fuss over culling them from my writing. However, I’ve noticed sometimes I use them as crutches, usually to force description into a sentence. This turns my writing clunky, when I could instead meld the description in more naturally.
Changing the font actually works. Whether you want to try the comic sans method (in a nutshell: if the prose looks good in a font as ugly as comic sans it’s definitely good) or not, altering the font (to something ugly or not) forces me to reread every word instead of skimming with the aid of the visual memory of my own writing.
part four: formatting
This isn’t quite in the area of line editing, but it kind of fits under the wider umbrella of presenting a readable draft. Having read some not-so-well-formatted books before, I find it very difficult to avoid being distracted by difficult-to-read formatting.
Everyone will have different preferences, but there are some general things to consider that will avoid offending anyone or making the story difficult to read:
Indent your paragraphs, otherwise the whole book can read like one big block. I’ve learned doing it with the “tab” button can result in the document getting messed up on other computers, so it’s best to format via the ruler at the top of word/gdocs.
Another thing to remember is line spacing; I find 1.0 a huge strain to read.
Font! I do have favorite fonts, but don’t mind anything easy to read. Times New Roman is boring, but it’s industry standard and won’t offend anyone.
part five: for overwriters
I’ve come to terms that I’m always going to be an overwriter. A good portion of it requires deep revision to fix, but even in line editing, I regularly shave off at least 200 words off of every 2000 word scene just from the first pass.
Some of that is plain silliness, like writing redundant things such as “he put the cup down with his hand.” But here are some other overwriting problems I’ve noticed in my own writing:
Dialogue running on too long. Aside from wording that feels casual/natural but isn’t necessary (eg: “Well, you see,” in every other sentence), I tend to have my characters bicker for too long. It’s often a sign I’m trying to make an event/decision happen, but don’t know my characters/plot/world well enough for someone to say something incisive to force events into motion.
Repetitive emotional/action beats. I frequently write introspection after every other sentence, the same emotion depicted in various ways within the same scene, or multiple action betas per sentence of dialogue. However, emotions and introspections can be delved into at important turning points instead of banging the reader over the head continuously. Action beats can also be trimmed down to keep ones that create both imagery and emotion.
Overwrought descriptions. Sometimes it’s just me being wordy. Sometimes, it’s actually a sign I don’t know what I want to say. It means I’m floundering to describe my magic system works or a setting, and am writing in circles, when actually the right metaphor or phrasing can replace an entire paragraph.
And that’s how I approach line editing! It does take up a lot of time, but as a reader I’m more capable of engaging with the deeper plot and character arc if the book is readable (not necessarily perfect! but at least legible), and hope providing my readers with the same will allow them to give me deeper feedback.
this is such great advice thank you ❤️