Developmental editing deals with the quality of your creative ideas. Good editors will not impose their own vision on you; instead, good editors understand what you’re trying to accomplish with your story and provide an outside, professional perspective to help you reach your goals. Fine-tuning characters, improving plot and structure, and identifying missed opportunities are all part of a developmental editor’s job.

Once the story is solid and developmental editing is finished, you need line editing. This stage requires an eye for detail and an ear for rhythm. Again, editors should not impose their own personal style but should instead work with your style. This includes paying attention to syntax variety (varying your sentence types and lengths) and word choice. A heavy line edit might include adding transitions and cutting excess material.

The end stage for your manuscript is copy editing and proofreading. Each publishing house has its own “house style,” and your editor/proofreader should ensure that your manuscript adheres to that house style. Using an editor or proofreader familiar with the various conventions is an important part of developing your editing team. Elliott Bay Editing does not provide proofreading, but we’d be happy to refer you to a good one.