How to Self-Edit a Book: A Beginner's Guide to Line Editing

You sat on your bum, wrote consistently, tuned into your inspiration, planned, plotted, pantsed, and danced around to summon the muses (or just built a habit, because muses can't be trusted), and finished a book. And now comes the real work—editing.

But there are multiple levels of editing, and not all writers can hire a professional editor (not to mention 4 of them). So how can you self-edit on a budget?

In the previous post, we talked about developmental editing on a budget, and this week we’re going to explore the next level phase in the polishing process—line editing.

What is Line Editing

In developmental editing, we look at the story arc as a whole. But with line editing, as the name suggests, we go line by line and evaluate the line’s style, flow, and consistency. This is where we want to be really detailed, not focusing on what we’re telling the reader, but rather how we’re telling it.

Are the style and tone consistent throughout the book? Are the sentences easy to follow and not too convoluted? Are you overusing certain words or phrases?

Though it is a detailed way of editing, it does not, in fact, focus on grammar or punctuation. It is mainly concerned with how the story sounds and whether it’s told well. Because you can have the best, most original and intriguing idea ever, but if you’re telling it in long, serpentining sentences that make the reader forget what you were even talking about by the time they reached their end (like I did just now) or you’re changing the style with which you are painting the words on the canvas of virtual paper ever so often that the reader ends up feeling, like, WTF (see what I did there?) or have the habit of constantly using the same constant word consistently throughout the story… You get the gist. The point is that even a good idea can be ruined when told poorly.

How to Self-Line-Edit

The first few rounds of editing should be performed by the writer themselves, even if you work with a professional editor.

Only that for line editing, you won’t need to pull out your sticky notes and map out journeys to ensure inner consistency. Instead, you’ll need to take a hard, cold look at each sentence and paragraph, and ask yourself if it sounds right. It sounds simple, but in reality, you’ll have to pay attention to multiple things as you re-read the book:

1. Style—what is the style and tone of the book, and is it consistent throughout the story?

2. Readability—are the sentences clear and easy to follow?

3. Dialog—is it natural? Are there unnecessary bits?

4. Are transitions between scenes clear?

5. Are descriptions clear?

6. Are certain words overused?

When approaching your own work with the editorial lens, it’s always best to do so after you’ve put your manuscript aside (and if you’d just finished a few rounds of developmental editing and the story is still fresh in your mind—best give it at least a week of rest before you jump back into it).

Another tip that can help you catch repetitions or cumbersome sentences is listening to your story using software that reads the text out loud for you; your eyes can easily skip over small details and imperfections, but they are much easier to catch when you hear them.

How to Line Edit with AI

Self-editing isn’t just reading the book on your own in an attempt to catch an elusive mistake. Working with AI can be another form of self editing, and one that isn’t prone to lack of attention or mood swings that result in a different tone each day.

I’ve used AI to help with the second layer of line editing when working on Monsters and Heroes, and found it to be a very useful tool.

AI has its limitations—it can’t keep enough context to understand your plot deeply, and contrary to popular belief, it can’t write well for you. But it can point out style, repetition, or overly complex sentences.

You can set up a chatbot that focuses on specific aspects of your writing and ask it to provide feedback on a couple of paragraphs at a time. Or you could define a style and ask it to evaluate your writing based on that style.

In any case, what’s important here is to use the output as a suggestion and not the law. When reviewing AI re-written text, don’t just copy and paste it, but compare it to your own, see what works better, and incorporate this feedback selectively.

Editing with the use of AI can take several rounds, each focusing on something different, and each time using your virtual assistant for a different task. Always remember that these are still only suggestions and always use judgment before incorporating suggestions from your invisible editor into your work. It’s easy to lose your own style and tone this way.

How to Use Beta-Reader Feedback for Line Editing

After you’ve edited your story to the best of your ability, and it seems to you that there is nothing else you could do, it’s time to get some feedback from a fresh new perspective. And the freshest perspective is not your own.

Find friends or family who are willing to read your manuscript, go on forums or writing groups, and ask people for opinions.

Style or repetition issues will instantly pop out to readers who have no idea what you were thinking when writing or what you want to tell. Things like repetition, overly elaborate sentences, and clarity will become apparent when your readers tell you that they found something hard to understand or off.

It might be a big ask for your volunteers, but if you can, get them to highlight or leave comments on lines where they felt that something was off, and if possible, have a discussion to understand the problem.

The great thing about this approach is that it doesn’t require professional training, only love for the written word. Your readers don’t need to be professional editors to know that something just doesn’t flow right or is hard to understand. And these are, at the end of the day, the potential readers of your future book. So get as much feedback as you can.

Unlike feedback that’s focused on plot, which you might not always agree with, I do suggest that you take comments about clarity and style seriously. It is, eventually, what determines if people will read your book or put it aside after one confusing or poorly written chapter.

Final Thoughts

The process of line editing implies scrutinizing over each line in turn and evaluating it for style. This is about how your book reads, how the sentences flow, how clear your writing is, and what tone it conveys. Consistency, clarity, and simplicity are the names of the game.

And when you can’t afford to hire a line editor, don’t despair. There are still things you could do:

1. Re-read your own text while paying attention to style, consistency, word usage, and clarity.

2. Listen to your own story being read out loud to you to catch mistakes, convoluted sentences, or repetition.

3. Use AI to analyze style, clarify, and identify overused words.

4. Get feedback from friends on how well the book reads and how easy it is to follow.

And if you're reading this as future-planning while you're still stuck completing your first manuscript, I have some free resources for the stuck writer too, you can find them here!