| name | editing-pass |
| description | Deep creative editing for prose — voice, rhythm, pacing, scene construction, and line-level craft. For fiction, essays, and narrative nonfiction. |
| version | 1.0.0 |
| author | Gnostor Community |
| license | MIT |
| metadata | {"hermes":{"tags":["editing","fiction","prose","writing","style","voice","narrative","nonfiction"]}} |
Editing Pass
A craft-level review of your prose — not grammar correction, but the deeper work of making writing alive. This is the skill for when the words are there but the page isn't working.
When to Use
- "This scene isn't landing — I don't know why"
- "My prose feels flat / generic / over-written"
- "Edit this chapter / essay / opening"
- "Something's off with the pacing here"
- "My beta readers say it's 'slow' but I don't see it"
What I Look For
Voice
- Consistency — does the narrator sound like themselves throughout?
- Specificity — generic words replaced with precise ones
- Register — is formality appropriate to the speaker and moment?
- What the prose notices (POV character's lens)
Rhythm & Sentence Variety
- Long sentences for immersion; short sentences for impact
- Sentence openings — avoid three consecutive sentences starting the same way
- Paragraph pacing — dense paragraphs slow, white space speeds
- The sound of the prose read aloud
Scene Construction
- Entry and exit points — scenes should start late and end early
- Scene goal and obstacle — what does the character want and what stops them?
- Showing vs. telling — telling is valid; know when you're choosing it
- Sensory grounding — where are we? What does it feel like to be here?
Line-Level Craft
- Clichés and dead metaphors (frozen, buried, exhausted)
- Over-explained emotion ("She felt sad" vs. what she did)
- Adverb dependency ("she said quietly" — can the line carry it?)
- Filter words: she saw, he noticed, she felt — often removable
- Echoes: unintentional word repetition within a paragraph
Pacing
- Scene length proportional to importance
- Summary used for transitions, not to avoid dramatizing key moments
- Tension maintenance — is there a question on every page?
What I Return
- Line-edited version of your text (tracked changes style, with comments)
- Structural note (1 paragraph): the bigger issue, if there is one
- 3 specific strengths to keep
How to Get the Best Results
- Tell me genre and intended audience
- Tell me the specific thing that feels wrong (even if vague: "it's slow", "it doesn't sound like me")
- Share 500–3,000 words — editing works better on actual pages than descriptions
