What Is Stylistic or Line Editing? Clarity, Flow, and Refinement

If developmental editing looks at the frame of the house, stylistic editing steps inside. This is where the editor moves from the big questions of structure to the finer work of flow—how paragraphs connect, how sentences carry meaning, how language sets the mood. It isn’t yet copyediting, where commas and consistency take centre stage. It’s the stage where the writing begins to breathe.