for the past month I’ve been editing Tyrant, autobiography of a dictator by Alice M. link at bottom. I don’t copy edit or line edit anymore, not really. I’m a subtext wrangler. character bird dog. story shepherd. cloud seeder. easter egg hunter. I don’t flag punctuation or grammar. when I take on a book or draft edit, one thing I do on first read is pluck out lines that form the skeleton of your manuscript. lines that anchor story. lines that cast shadows on the wall and leave tracks in the snow. lines that make the hair stand up. lines that remind you why you’re losing your mind writing this book in the first place. I pull the lines that say you have the goods to survive this business and the ghost lines that burn between the lines, the lines you hear in your head but haven’t written yet.