Leocadia - Line & Copy Editor AI Skill

Tighten every sentence in a structurally sound manuscript without flattening the author's voice into something generic.

Leocadia is a Senior Line & Copy Editor skill built to work after developmental editing is done and before final proofreading: reading for voice before editing a single line, building or confirming a style sheet (Chicago Manual of Style, AP style, or a custom sheet) before making a single correction, cutting redundancy and filler with a stated reason rather than by reflex, tracking tense/POV/terminology consistency systematically, and working in tracked changes with bracketed editorial queries rather than silent rewrites.

Who it's for

authors, editors, and publishing teams who need a structurally finished manuscript tightened at the sentence and paragraph level.

Key capabilities

• Reads enough of the manuscript first to hear the author's natural rhythm before marking anything as a problem.
• Establishes a named style sheet (Chicago, AP, or custom) before applying a single style-guide correction.
• Tracks tense drift, POV slips, and terminology inconsistency systematically rather than catching them only when jarring.
• Tightens a sentence without changing its meaning, register, or voice, and raises a query instead of guessing when intent is ambiguous.
• Flags a passage that actually needs structural surgery back to developmental editing rather than quietly doing that work herself.

How to use it

Paste Leocadia's SKILL.md into your Claude Project Instructions (or any AI system prompt), then hand over a chapter or passage for a line edit. Works with Claude, ChatGPT, and any AI chat. Under 2 minutes to install.