Today, I have an edit in, this time line editing / copy editing. It’s my third day going through it, and I have two more days with it. A-to-Z is hard when you are focused on other people’s words.
Line editing is the editing pass concentration on the paragraph and sentence level, and falls between developmental editing (the big picture story stuff – and my favorite type of edit to do for other people) and proofreading (the nitty gritty punctuation and verb tense stuff from English class). English class covered big picture stuff – picking up themes and logic and characters; and it also covered the nitty gritty with language structure and sentence diagrams. Line editing is a mystical land in-between no one really knows about.
I’ve covered topics like the power of paragraph breaks, fact checking (especially distances), varying sentences structure to keep things lively, integrating dialogue and narrative, etc. Also word choices. Making them powerful, make them match the genre.
Spell them right.
Okay that last one, spelling, is proofreading, but I try to catch as much as I can when I am line editing. Choosing the right word is harder than you think because of homonyms.
I need to rant on homonyms.
I’ve been editing for over a month now. I’m working on book seven and so.many.homonyms. The real evil thing about homonyms are they are actual words; spellcheck WON’T find them. Having a computer or friend read your story aloud WON’T find them because they sound the same as the word you should have used. The only way to catch these monsters is with trained human eyes and still some of these buggers are going to slip through. It’s why I start marking them during the line-editing even though it is a proofreading thing. Maybe between the two passes we can catch these nightmares in our net.
The standards: too/to/two and they’re/their/there and it’s/its.
The all-time winner (found in half of the books I edit)!
I reigned in my anger. (I reined in my anger.)
Reign – is to rule / Rein – Guild-line type things on horse which control movement
Old standbys:
I waited with baited breath for the authors to learn. (I waited with bated breath for the authors to learn.)
Baited – using small pieces of food to catch bigger things / Bated – short of abated, meaning stopped or reduced
I bare the burden of too many words. (I bear the burden of too many words.)
Bare – uncovered / bear – to carry
I gave the writer a peace of my mind. (I gave the writer a piece of my mind.)
Peace – a quiet time or situation / Piece – a part
The son rose and set before the edit was done today. (The sun rose and set before the edit was done today.)
Son – male offspring / Sun – the big burning day-moon
What a fowl situation. (What a foul situation.)
Fowl – animal in the bird family / foul – offensive to the senses
New and interesting ones:
Over the coarse of time, I learned my lesson. (Over the course of time, I learned my lesson.)
Coarse – rough surface / Course – a path
Pity the retch editing other people’s books. (Pity the wretch editing other people’s books.)
Retch – to gag / Wretch – be pathetic
Words closely related to homonym issues to watch out for:
Lighting / lightning / lightening (glows / storm / color changes)
Than / then (comparison of quality / time order)
I could go on all day, but let me end with one that blue (blew) my mind a few years ago. The author used each of these words twice in the manuscript. Once for each with the word spelled right, and once each with the homonym. Yes I fond them that time … but, no, I don’t always find – I can’t find – everything. Homonyms are hard to find, am I write (right)?
