How to Edit: Sentence Level

We’ve talked about editing your first draft and tips and advice for those big picture items, but what about when you know your story is finished but in need of tiny tweaks and polishing? That’s what we’ll look at today, sentence level edits.

Sentence level editing comes in a few forms, stylistic, copy (or grammar and spelling), and proofreading. The last one, we’ll get to at a later date but we will consider both style and grammar today.

What’s the Difference?

The major difference between editing for style and grammar is content versus correctness and subjective versus objective changes. Of course, there is some cross-over as you can break grammar rules as a style choice; just make sure it’s a choice and not an accident!

I have a blog post on levels of editing that may be of interest but it is more geared toward working with an editor than self-editing, but still helpful for understanding the differences!

Stylistic Editing

Stylistic editing focuses on things like word choice, rhythm, flow, tone. It’s kind of like editing for the reader's experience. There is an element of grammar to it but it leans into structure choices over mistakes.

It asks: does passive voice make sense here? Is that the correct adjective? Could this adverb-verb pair be a single, stronger verb? Is this repetitive? Have there been too many long sentences in a row? Too many short ones? 

Copy Editing

Copy editing focuses on true mistakes like comma splices, run on sentences, formatting (like dialogue), and typos. It does cross-over into some more stylistic elements looking more at the clarity and correctness of content.

It asks: Does a comma go there or should it be a period or semi-colon? Does that sentence make sense? Does that list follow the rules of parallelism? Is that a speaker tag or an action tag and is it punctuated correctly?

How to Line-Level Edit

Step One

My first step is the same as your first draft, take a break! Step back from your writing, let your thoughts settle, and come back with the freshest eyes you can.

Step Two

This second one might sound familiar too. Know your goals going in. Are you focusing on content or corrections? Do you want to focus on something specific like dialogue or tension? You can certainly do a line-level edit without narrowing your focus, but it’s a good think to consider. One editing round is never enough.

An extra tip: do a general run through and if you’re noticing a common error or sticking point, make note. This will be helpful not only for a focused editing run but also for future projects as you may find your pre-edited style holds the same issues in your next project.

Step Three

Unlike big picture edits, there is no real reason to read through the whole manuscript this time. (Though you certainly can and use it to make that focused editing sheet.) In fact, I suggest working in small chunks is better.

Depending on your goals and what type of editing you’re doing, I might suggest going sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, or scene by scene. The smaller your focus, the fewer words you should look at at a time. A more content focused edit needs context, while checking spelling doesn’t.

Step Four

Track your changes. Sometimes the changes we make need to be reversed, sometimes we need to take a minute to think about the changes, and sometimes we make mistakes and a second glance before making anything permanent is really important!

Think about it as if you were an editor for yourself. Most editors use track changes and comments to expand on their suggestions. Do the same for yourself! Then give yourself a bit of time before returning to your own suggestions the way you would working with an editor.

Some Tips for the Actual Editing

• For stylistic editing, read through paragraphs, scenes, or chapters with an eye on pacing, tone, tension, and meaning. Now’s a great time to look for repetition, oft repeated words, passive vs active voice, showing versus telling, and readability.

• For copy editing, read through paragraphs and sentences with an eye on grammar, clarity, and correctness. Now’s a good time to look at punctuation, sentence structure, and spelling.

• Use CRTL+F for repetition and other word and phrase signposts.

  • Consider searching for lists of often repeated words and check out these three blog posts for my suggestions

    •  Show, Don’t Tell

    •  Vague, Weak, and Unnecessary 

    •  Quit Hedging

• Passive voice isn’t the enemy but it is good to make choices about passive versus active voice. Passive voice tends to slow pacing, create longer sentences, and puts the emphasis on the object rather than the subject. If that's what you want in that moment, leaving your sentences as passive might be the right call. 

  • To determine passive voice, consider the zombie rule. If you can add “by zombies” after the verb, your sentence is passive. (Or try pirates, bandits, fairies, kittens… whatever!)

    • The jewel was taken [by kittens]. VS Kittens took the jewel.

    • The law has been reviewed [by pirates]. VS Pirates have reviewed the law.

• Dialogue is filled with pitfalls! Ensure you know proper dialogue formatting, read it for realism, and consider how necessary every dialogue tag is.

  • For quick reference:

    • Every new speaker gets a new line

    • Dialogue is offset by quotation marks (this does vary by style guide)

    • If followed by a speaker tag (like he said) a comma, question mark, or exclamation mark goes inside the quotation marks.

    • If followed by an action tag, or other non-speaker tag line, a period, question mark, or exclamation mark goes inside the quotation marks.

      • An example:

“Hello!” said Jenny.

“How can I help you?” 

“I have an appointment.” Jenny approaches the woman at the front desk of the dentist office.

“You must be Jenny,” the receptionist responds.

• As far as dialogue tags, aim to use as few as possible, stick with said as much as you can, and try to insert action to create dynamic scenes.

• Double check every piece of punctuation: commas, semi-colons, hyphens, en- and em-dashes. (And you might as well check periods, question marks, exclamation points, and quotation marks too!)

• Try colour coding, especially when you can feel the flow or pacing is off. Choose a colour for short, medium and long sentences OR choose a colour for complex, compound, complex-compound, and simple sentences OR choose a colour for passive vs active voice (or really anything else you can think of at the sentence level).

  • Many short sentences = choppy and fast-paced

  • Many long sentences = effort and slow-paced

  • A variety = a focus on certain things over others and a balanced flow

• All of these can be useful, none are a reason to immediately change. Not everything is meant to be balanced.

• Listen to your manuscript for flow. Read it to yourself, record and listen back, ask someone to read it to you, or use a text to voice app. You will hear the difference in a way you won’t while reading just in your head. Reading aloud may show awkward phrases as well as pacing issues (or successes!)

• To focus on spelling, work backwards and/or cover the words and lines as you go. This keeps your eyes focused on a single word. Our minds don’t tend to read letter by letter but take in a lot of information at once. Shapes of words and word expectations play a huge role while reading.

• Remove the context by copy-pasting sentences that are stumping you onto their own page. See above bullet point about brains and processing information.

• Pay attention to action scenes. If you must, act them out! Look for hand and limb placement and quickness of movement across large spaces. Fighting and loving especially can lead to some strange body movement.

• Get some other eyes on it. We would all love to be able to edit our own work perfectly but it very rarely works! We’re talking beta readers, critique swaps, and editors. As many people as it is within your means to ask for help, do it! Each of these people has different skills and perceptions for helping to polish your work.

The more you edit, the better you get. And the more you edit, the more aware you are of your personal idiosyncrasies. Keeping a list of what you change the most can help streamline future projects! And editing other people’s work can help hone your skills.

Go forth and polish that manuscript!

If you’re looking for a fresh set of eyes, I’d be happy to help. Reach out and we can discuss next steps!

And, if you’re looking for more writing and editing tips, following me on Instagram is a fantastic way to get weekly tips.

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Jerrica is a writer and editor who inspires up-and-coming writers to create compelling fiction and creative nonfiction works while providing them with the confidence to do it themselves or ask for a helping hand when they need it. She enjoys speculative fiction, horror and gut-wrenching emotion with a side of food & drink and the cozier things in life.