How do I know a line editor is good?

Full disclosure here. This is Daiva’s question from when she first started writing stories in English (her third language). This is a valid question not just for writers for whom English is NOT their first language, but also for those who say they can’t tell if a line edit has made their story better.

How do you know it’s better? How can you tell? What are you looking for?

Well, as a line editor, I find that there is a LOT to highlight in a line edit, even with stories that have gone through a developmental edit. (You can read all that in my post about the difference between a developmental edit and a line edit, or watch me do a line edit on YouTube).

So, if you can’t tell your story has been significantly improved by a line edit, something is dreadfully wrong.

But what if you really don’t have the skills yet to tell a clunky sentence from a smooth one, or identify filtering, or know the difference between a good vs not-so-good word choice? What if you’re really raw, a complete newbie who cannot tell good writing from not-so-good writing?

I turned the question back on Daiva who has been writing stories in English for several years now and going from strength to strength. How did you know, I asked her, when you first came to me, that I was doing a good job line editing your stories?

Here’s her answer: “I liked how it sounded when I read it after you line edited it. I had the intuition that it sounded right. Like a song, it had some melody inside.”

So, that’s rather pretty, but it really is an excellent answer. With a good line edit, you can tell there’s improvement by the way the prose SOUNDS. At the very least, it should sound smoother.

A line edit is meant to help create and maintain FLOW. After a line edit, your sentences should flow better, within themselves and from one to the next. There should be very little left to trip a reader up. If in any doubt, read a passage of your work before the line edit, and read the same passage after. The passage after the line edit should flow and sound a lot better.

Hint: Always ask for a sample edit, even if you have to pay a nominal fee for it.