Copyediting
Overview
Copyediting is the meat of the editing process: fixing mechanical errors, establishing consistent style choices, and reconciling problems with continuity and internal logic. It's the stage when I'll catch most of the errors in a piece.
It doesn't include the heavy restructuring and rewriting that I might suggest while line editing (though line editing, when needed, can often be done alongside copyediting), and it isn't the final cleanup of an already-edited piece, which I offer as proofreading.
All major changes to content and structure should have been made prior to this step, because you probably don't want to pay me to correct grammatical errors in a chapter that you later decide to cut from your book.
Here's a run-down of the types of issues I can help you with by copyediting your work:
Mechanical Correctness
Copyediting any piece of text involves cleaning up mechanical errors that might obscure your meaning, distract your readers, or damage your credibility. These outright errors, which are only part of what a copyeditor looks for, include problems with the following conventions:
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grammar
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punctuation
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spelling
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word usage
I correct errors using digital markup tools to track changes for your approval. When your meaning is ambiguous or I can see multiple distinct approaches to solving a problem, I'll leave a margin comment (query) requesting clarification and authorial input so we can collaborate on the issue. Language is a tool we use in different ways to achieve different goals, and that means you have much more freedom than you might think. I'll tell you when a "rule" is not a rule.
This is especially important in fiction, where your sentence fragments, comma splices, and slang words or invented terms could be just right for your story as long as they're clear and effective. Deciding when and how to break the rules—and what to do when there's more than one correct choice—is where style comes in. Read on to learn more about style choices.
Stylistic Consistency
The rules of the English language don't cover everything, nor do they remain the same in all contexts. When there's more than one correct or effective way to do something, that's a style choice.
Here are some style choices you might make while writing:
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How do you format dialogue in the form of text messages? Or sign language? Or telepathy?
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Is a number spelled out or represented as digits? What if it's spoken in dialogue? What if it's a huge number? A decimal? A speed limit seen on a road sign? A time, a year, a percentage?
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Do you ever use sentence fragments? What about run-on sentences?
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When a word has multiple accepted spellings, which do you use? Is a given compound word open, closed, or hyphenated?
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Do you ever end a sentence with both an exclamation point and a question mark?
And here are some factors you might consider while making those choices:
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the tone of your work
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the voice of your character
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the expectations of your readers
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the standards of your genre and medium
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the readability of your options in context
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your own preferences and habits
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your publisher's house style (if you're traditionally publishing), which may be rigid in some matters and flexible in others
I study style guides and other resources to learn about these style options so I can help you make suitable style choices for your work and follow them consistently.
Consistent style choices make your writing easier to read and more professional-looking. Changing your style throughout a piece without reason can confuse or distract readers.
That's why I'll track style choices on a project style sheet to keep everything straight for you.
In fiction editing, the style sheet is also great for tracking information about the story, from your characters' physical features to the timing of events—because you don't want readers pulled out of the story by accidental inconsistencies in matters of characterization, world-building, or chronology, either. More on that below.
Internal Consistency, Continuity, and Logic
In fiction, your writing contains all kind of details that I can't check in a dictionary, style guide, or encyclopedia, because you (being the creative person that you are) made them up.
The freedom to make things up is what fiction writing is all about! That's especially true of speculative fiction—fantasy, science fiction, and horror, all of which can explore beyond our present reality with creative world-building. You get to invent everything from fantastical character names to new laws of physics.
But you can get things wrong even in your own invented world, can't you? If the name of an important location changes halfway through your story without reason, readers will get lost. If a lengthy scene happens in an impossibly short time (with no magical or sci-fi tech shenanigans to explain it), readers will struggle to suspend disbelief. If you establish a hard magic system with consistent rules and then break them to get your protagonist out of a jam, readers will feel like you cheated.
That's why internal consistency is essential to maintaining the illusion of a world of living characters and real stakes. And there are too many details to keep in your head; we're all only human even as we play god with our fictional worlds. You don't want readers noticing the man behind the curtain and losing interest in the story due to some break in internal logic.
That's where the style sheet comes in again! Along with your linguistic style choices, I'll take notes on details that might run into continuity errors and pull readers out of your story, including the following:
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names and terminology
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characters' physical features, habits, and personal histories
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features of locations
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established rules of magic and technology
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cultural norms and practices of invented races and societies
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descriptions of fantastical plants, animals, monsters, etc.
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timeline of events
When I catch inconsistencies, I'll bring them to your attention, and together we can work out how you want to resolve them.
To request information or discuss your project, email Mallory@BookwyrmEditorial or fill out a brief contact form. You can also check out my services to see what I offer besides copyediting.
Get in Touch!
To ask questions or discuss a project with me, please fill out a brief contact form or email Mallory@BookwyrmEditorial.com. See Services for more information on what I can do for your manuscript.