Some Thoughts on Line Editing

Jemma Hartman is finally moving on to line editing! Now, for our viewers who aren't authors, editors, or for that matter, involved in bookmaking at all, you may be wondering what line editing is. Mom explained that all her revisions up to this point dealt with the content of the story. She had to make the story the best it could be. With line editing you focus, not on the story, but on the writing element. For example, you may correct:

Sentence Structure

Paragraph Breaks

Punctuation

Good Vocabulary Words (I sound like my language arts teacher)

and Other Stuff That I Really Don't Know

Basically, you need to make the writing as good as the story. It's a pretty big job, but luckily, Mom doesn't have to do any of it. That's all up to her editor, Beverly. All Mom will have to do is look over Beverly's changes and approve them or suggest something different. Mom really likes that arrangement, and I don't blame her. Imagine if I had a line editor clean my room. I could just sit back, read a book, and nod my approval every once in a while. "You missed a spot there... and there... and one more over there."

If you could have a line editor do your work, what would you have him do?

Well that's it for now. Sammy Ferber, signing off!