Now I'm curious. What are the different types of editing?
I'm glad you asked. Let's run through it real quick. Different people call the various stages of editing by different names. These are the four phases of the editing process:
- The first stage is generally the developmental editing stage (also called story editing, substantive editing, or content editing).
- Next comes the line editing phase. Line editing is more than just copy editing or proofreading—it focuses not just on mechanical grammar issues but also on craft issues—tightening sentences, strengthening dialogue, smoothing out transitions. Basically the things I taught you in the 10-Day class plus a lot more.
- Copyediting (sometimes called proofreading) is next, and that is generally purely mechanical. One way to think of it is that copyediting / proofreading will make sure your sentences are correct, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're good (or the best they can be). That's where line editing comes in.
- And, finally, you should do a cold read / final pass (what I call Oops Detection®) to check for any stray typos or editing artifacts.