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Writing Notes: Novel Editing

Below are 4 different types of novel editing. Revising in the right order is essential if you want your book to be in the best shape possible.

Developmental Editing

Comes first.

Involves looking at the story as a whole.

Also called structural editing, or content editing.

Base components. Plot, structure, characterization, pace, viewpoint, narrative style, and tense:

Plot: Sequence of events that take the reader from the beginning to the end.

Structure: How the plot is organized. Even if B occurred after A, the reader might learn about B before the events of A are unveiled.

Characterization: How characters are represented such that we can make sense of their behavior as we journey with them through the story.

Pace: The speed at which the story unfolds. Effective pace ensures readers feel neither rushed nor bored. That doesn’t mean the pace remains steady; a story can include sections of fast-paced action and slower cool-downs.

Viewpoint: In each chapter or section, readers should understand who the narrator is—whose eyes they are seeing through, whose emotions they have access to, whose voice dominates the narrative. It also means understanding the restrictions in play such that head-hopping doesn’t pull the reader out of the story.

Narrative style: Is the narrative viewpoint conveyed in the first, second or third person? The choice determines a narrative’s style.

Tense: Is the story told in the present or the past tense? Each has its benefits and limitations.

Notes: On Developmental Editing

Types of developmental edits:

Full-novel edits in which the editor revises (or suggests revisions) that will improve the story;

critiques or manuscript evaluations that report on the strengths and weaknesses of the story; and

sensitivity reads that offer specialist reports on the potential misrepresentation and devaluation of marginalized others.

Different editors handle developmental edits in different ways.

One might include an assessment of genre and marketability; another might not.

Some editors revise the raw text; others restrict the edit to margin markup.

Check what you’re being offered against what you want.

Developmental editing isn’t about checking spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Line Editing

The next step in the revision process; it is stylistic work.

A strong sentence elevates story; a poorly crafted one can bury it.

This level of editing revises for style, sense, and flow.

Also called substantive editing or stylistic editing.

Editors will be addressing the following:

Authenticity of phrasing and word choice in relation to character voice

Character-trait consistency and unveiling

Clarity and consistency of viewpoint and narrative style

Cliché and awkward metaphor

Dialogue and how it conveys voice, mood, and intention

Sentence pace and flow, with special attention to repetition and overwriting

Tenses, and whether they’re effective and consistent

Told-versus-shown prose

Notes: On Line Editing

Types of sentence-level edits:

Full-novel line edits in which the editor revises (or suggests revisions) that will improve the line work;

line critiques that report on the strengths and weaknesses of the line craft; and

mini line edits in which the editor revises an agreed section of the novel such that the author can hone their line craft and mimic the edit throughout the rest of the novel.

Different editors define their sentence-level services differently.

Some include technical checking (copy editing) with the stylistic work, while some do the stylistic and technical work in separate passes.

Check what you’re being offered against what you want.

Line-editing stage is not the ideal place to be fixing problems with plot, theme, pace and viewpoint. Fixes are likely to be inelegant and invasive.

Copy Editing

The technical side of sentence-level work.

Editors will be addressing the following:

Chapter sequencing

Consistency of proper-noun spelling

Dialogue tagging and punctuation

Letter, word, line, and paragraph spacing

Logic of timeline, environment, and character traits

Spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation, hyphenation, and capitalization

Standard document formatting

Notes: On Copy Editing

Some editors offer line editing and copy editing together in a single pass. That combined service might be indicated by what it’s called, e.g. ‘line-/copy editing’. However, it might be called just ‘copy editing’ even though it includes stylistic work.

Check what you’re being offered against what you want.

Novel copy editing is best done in a single pass:

When an editor works on separate chunks of text, inconsistencies are likely to slip through.

One pass of a sentence-level edit is not enough to ready a novel for publication. Final quality control is necessary.

Proofreading

The last stage of the editing process prior to publication.

Every novel, whether it’s being delivered in print or digitally, requires a final quality-control check.

What a Proofreader Does

Looks for literal errors and layout problems that slipped through previous rounds of revision or were introduced at design stage.

Authors preparing for print can ask a proofreader to annotate page proofs. These are almost what a reader would see if they pulled the novel off the shelf.

Others ask proofreaders to amend the raw text, either because they’re preparing for e-publication or for audiobook narration.

Proofreaders are more than typo hunters

They check for consistency of spelling, punctuation and grammar, but also for layout problems such as (but not limited to) indentation, line spacing, inconsistent chapter drops, missing page numbers, and font and heading styles.

The art of good proofreading lies in knowing when to change and when to leave well enough alone.

A good proofreader should understand the impact of their revisions—not only in relation to the knock-on effect on other pages but also to the cost if a third-party designer/formatter is part of the team.

Notes: On Proofreading

A proofread is rarely enough, no matter how experienced the writer. It’s the last line of defense, not the only line of defense.

Be sure to clarify with an editor what you want and which mediums the editor works with. Proofreading designed page proofs requires an additional level of checking that a raw-text review doesn’t. And some editors work only on raw text, some only on PDF, and some only on hard copy.

Proofreading is about quality control. The proofreader should be polishing the manuscript, not filling in plot holes or trimming purple prose.

PROOFREADING CHECKLIST

Author:

Title:

Prelims

Title page. The title of the book, the author’s name & the publisher are correct

Copyright page. Check that author name and date of publication are correct, and that the copyright statement is present and correct

Dedication. The spelling/punctuation style are correct & consistent

Acknowledgements. The spelling/punctuation style are correct & consistent

Foreword. The spelling, layout and punctuation style are correct and consistent

Preface. The spelling, layout and punctuation style are correct and consistent

Table of contents. Check against all chapter titles & subheadings in main text for consistency of spelling/capitalization; Check page numbers against main text

Figures, tables, maps, plates. Check against all entries in main text for consistency of spelling/capitalization; Page numbers against entries in main text

List of contributors. Check consistency with chapters in main text Are the names spelled correctly and rendered consistently (e.g. A. B. Smith, AB Smith, A.B. Smith, Alan B. Smith etc.)?

Pagination. Check that all prelim pages are numbered consecutively and correctly in Roman (i, ii, etc. unless brief specifies Arabic); Check that size and position of page numbers is correct and consistent

Running heads. Check that running heads in prelims are correct and consistent (size, font, colour, position on page)

Main Text

Pagination

Check that all text pages are numbered consecutively in main text

Check that size and position of page numbers is correct and consistent

Check that first page of the first chapter starts on a recto (right-hand page)

Check that all odd page numbers are on rectos

Running heads

Check that running heads match chapter heads (or abbreviated forms of them)

Running heads are correct/consistent (size, font, colour, position on page)

Running heads and folio numbers have been removed from landscaped figures and tables

Check that running heads have been removed from part- and chapter title pages

Chapter titles and headings (incl. subheadings)

Consistency of font, spacing, colour, size & position on page for each heading level

Check that capitalization is correct and consistent for each heading level

Check that each chapter drop is consistent

Check that space above and below is consistent within heading level

Lists

Check that spacing above and below lists is consistent

Ensure line spacing of list entries is consistent

Check that bullet style is consistent within list type

Check that end-of-line punctuation is consistent within list

Page depth

Check page depth is consistent throughout

Look out for uneven page depths on facing rectos (right-hand pages) and versos (left-hand pages)

Page margins

Is the text area consistent throughout/adequate for printing/readability purposes?

Notes and cross-references

Ensure all notes are cued/numbered consecutively by chapter or through the book

Check that the note numbers given match the in-text note markers

Check each note appears on the appropriate page; if footnotes run over to the next page, there should be a short rule above the continuation (or other indicator as given by house style)

Check any cross-references in the text to chapters, figures or tables

Highlight any cross-references that still need to be completed

Ensure that in-text citations are presented according to preferred style and can be located in the book's references or bibliography