Identify the obstacles

For all my services, I must work from a completed manuscript–and it shouldn’t be your first draft. See 10 Things Your Freelance Editor Might Not Tell You–But Should. 

With a basic structural edit, a line edit, or a copy edit, I point out obstacles that can tug your readers out of your story and send them swimming back to reality.

Basic structural edit

Tell-tale ripples on the surface of your story indicate obstacles that will keep readers from taking your bait. A basic structural edit points out

  • Confusing or inadequate plot development
  • Imbalance between back story and plot, between dialogue and narrative, between secondary/extraneous detail and plot-enhancing detail
  • Inadequate, conflicting, or unclear character motivation and development
  • Ineffective point-of-view strategy

Line edit PLUS coaching

Serious dangers lurk in the depths:

  • Point-of-view (POV) violations
    • Inconsistent POV (failure to adhere to one POV choice: first-person, third-person, omniscient)
    • Head-hopping (failure to identify one character per scene/chapter through whose eyes the action unfolds)
    • Character filtering (engaging in a form of author intrusion that distances your readers from the immediacy of your story)
  • Insufficient or missing motivation for actions and dialogue
  • Related issue: missing or reversed cause and/or effect
  • Inconsistent and incomplete character development and/or action
  • Inconsistent and incomplete plot development
  • Nonstandard dialogue structure
  • Ineffective pacing

BONUS: I coach you on fiction techniques that heighten your readers’ involvement in your story.

Copy edit

Remaining crags and snags can tear your readers off the hook and away from your story. A copy edit identifies

  • Unfocused writing—foggy, wordy content instead of concise, vivid language
  • Errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, word choice, formatting, and sentence structure
  • Inconsistencies and duplication in your plot, characterization, and wording
  • Continuity issues–for example, a character takes a morning swim, showers, and then walks out into the night

Click here to see the range of packages and rates I offer.