How to LINE EDIT a Novel (Like a Boss!)

I am not a grammar expert either but perhaps we should refer to the one who does the action in Passive voice as an agent. I have come across one website where a lot is said in favor of Passive voice. Goodness, I am obsessed about M-dashes!

Abbie, I did subscribe at your Patreon PAGE but I still have no ideas how to get MORE OF your guidance. Do you accept being an editor for your students?

I miss spelling errors and typos all the time. Even on drafts I've looked over dozen times. Sometimes I spot them in published books. I think it has to do with the nature of reading. Our eyes just skim over the words, and we get an impression of what's going on without focusing on each word in this granular, atomistic way. Our minds are too busy with the meaning, or conjuring the story, or processing the ideas. So we miss the little things over and over.

the way Abbie grabs the pen is just... especial.

With your theme of using em dashes, I have the theme of always adding commas lol

i have an ellipsis problem and it's getting... really bad

I like hearing how you edit, though I must tell you that I would go nuts using highlighters of different colors to identify errors and weak points in the manuscript. I think this is because that approach seems too business-like, too tedious, and not at all fun. Editing is such a big part of the writing process that it has to be fun--or I wouldn't do it. I'm a big em dasher, too.

When I was reading through my first draft I had to add a whole couple of paragraphs to edit a continuity error. One of the characters mentioned that he had pretty much the same skin tone as the other, but I later changed it so that his skin was much lighter and that was a bit of a plot point. It had been a couple years since I'd written this scene so I completely forgot about it but I couldn't just take it out so I had to do some writing backflips and add a bit of dialogue to fix it

I finished my manuscript n Sept 2022. I enjoyed the first draft. Not so much the second. 106,000 words is a lot to digest. The task seems insurmountable. I am stuck on chapter four of twenty-six chapters. BTW this is my first novel, so I hope the process gets better for my next one.

Where does the agent fit into the list?

-- is the sexiest form of punctuation out there.

Sub editing tip: read paras backwards to catch spelling errors...

Unfortunately my weakness is Coma’s 😔

Semi colon fetish

My editing process is pure chaos

speaking about punctuation obsession ... I guess I use the three dots waaay too much ... and I love them too much to cut them out 😂
Thanks for that great insights on your editing process! Really, really helpful!

Don't forget when you're editing to simplify and combine sentences wherever you can. What I mean by that is sometimes you write two, three, etc. sentences that could easily be combined into one. Say you have one sentence that's a description of the location, and the next sentence is the character, I don't know, picking up an object. You could combine it like this:

Instead of saying: "The library was dark and forbidding. Alexander pulled a book out of the tallest bookcase."

You could simplify and speed up the pace by saying: "Alexander pulled a book out of the tallest bookcase in the dark and forbidding library."

I don't know, but I hope this is helpful to someone because this advice made my writing so so much better.

To add on: Even though both examples above have the same amount of words, when you combine two sentences into one, you read it faster without a pause in between, so it flows better. It's the same way commas make you read it with a pause.

I use semi colons a lot in replacement of co-ordinating conjunctions I know I arrived late.. like really late but still..

Yes yes I'm guilty of punctuation edits. I love my m dashes alot just because I feel comas can confuse the readers but dash gives explanations relating to the sentence. Not sure how to explain what I mean properly, but I think most of us understand. Just use your judgment.

Thanks!

I’m an M-dash guy myself—but prioritize them for emphasis! :)

I am a reader that thinks i have afew stories bouncing around in my head. After watching your videos i read one of my stories. Not bad but could be way better. And other editors on line sound like they have bad microphones. On the other hand in your videos i can hear you loud and clear,even while turned away. Thanks

Come across your vdo from Thailand. Thank you! I need this!

I just finished writing last month. I already beta-read by an editor, and the book was out online, but now I need to edit it and edit from scratch! I didn't write it in English. Thank you for your vdo. I need help finding good writing tips in my mother tongue language.

I am writing my book in google docs and I have two friends editing and commenting as I go. I do have a problem with feeling like it already has to be finished before they read it though.

This is really helpful 👏

I like writing stories, but I can't end them properly.

I also have a punctuation fetish but mines with commas, heh

I "over use" the semi-colon, according to my editor; I think she's wrong. My process for line editing is doing a read with highlighters but digitally; I put it on my Kindle and use it's notes and highlighting feature. Once I've made the corrections from that, then I use PWA and Scrivener's linguistic focus to keep tightening. Finally, I export to Word and use the Read Aloud feature because it has the best robot voices.

Alpha and beta readers usually happen sporadically mixed in there as I can't control others schedules as well as I can my own and trying to fit my schedule around others just gave me a headache.

three years later and now I'm to this part of my now existing novel. insane!

Just woke up out of the coffin?

Bill Maher is hired as the hype-man for the game.

Abhigel is nominated as a new candidate for filling the upcoming vacancy in Real Time.

Abbie will be the editor.

I just need a professional editor, or what they use

Thank you!

The texts are written on computer, right? So, why you print them and highlight them? Can the writing software do that? That will be economical.

I have the same problem with ellipses that you do with em-dashes.

Oh my goodness. I had my first session with a writing mentor and had to confess that I am obsessed with em-dashes too!!

I went from using way too many commas to abusing the em dash.

I wrote a book 12 years ago and went through it several times and changed many things. I even self-published it and had some printed. There are about 20 printed copies floating around and two cooies in a high school library. Now, I decided to look at it again and go through the editing process again. I have cut about 20 pages from the story, and it is much better, but I'm not done yet. As it sets right now, it's 260 pages, and I think that by the time I'm actually finished, I'll probably lose another 5.

As my favorite author says, the Revision Process will try your soul; Line Editing will take your will to live.

Semicolons; I absolutely love semicolons.

I used to write the word "and" a lot lol

When I revise and/or line edit, I put my book into a text-to-speech app. This --though robotic-- lets me hear my misspells, convoluted sentences, and when I use the same word too many times in a paragraph. This for me really helps me hear my story. And, because I'm dyslexic and a slow reader, I can get through my rewriting much easier [with so much less stress].

Ok i love the glasses bit lol

The way i immediately busted my laptop open when she started talking about em dashes and was like "WHAT IS AN EM DASH? AND WHY IS THE WOMAN TWEAKING OVER THEM?!"

I have been following you for years and now i am here to edit my book
Thank you very much ABBIE

Nearly done with the first draft of my book! I’ve been working on it for about a year and four months now and I know editing will make it even better! I really need advice on punctuation edits. Becuase I see so much more punctuation in books that kind of confuses me like the em dash.