When The Editor Asks Too Much

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Crystal asks: If an editor asks for too much in the  revisions process, should I withdraw my story rather than continue?

Hi Crystal,

The short version here is that I think you answer is  in your question. If the editor is asking for too        much, then it's too much. No single instance of    publication is valuable enough to hurt yourself or  your writing over it. Withdraw the story and submit  it somewhere else, unless perhaps you desperately need the money and the venue has a track record of paying well and promptly. But let's talk about what "too much" is and how we identify it. 

First, I would refer you, and all my readers, to Ann Pancake's Reading How You're Read: The Art of Evaluating Criticism. While the article focuses on workshop criticism, much of it holds true for editorial feedback as well. For a writer experienced enough to be submitting regularly, much of it is likely to be a little 101, but it never hurts to remind yourself of the basics, especially in the higher stakes context of deciding whether to withdraw a piece rather than implement the requested revisions. The first step, waiting for the initial period of hurt and defensiveness to pass, is especially important for my next suggestion. 

Once you're mostly over it, once you can look at the feedback with an open mind, is there anything that still just feels wrong to you? If you're a bit alexithymic, like me, you may need to practice identifying what that wrongness feels like for you. (I'm gonna do a whole post on this kind of thing later). Personally, I get dizzy, a little nauseated, and I have that eyes-aching, can't-I-just-go-to-bed? feeling that follows a serious bout of crying, only without the dehydration headache. It might be different for you. Mind you, I feel that was for about 12 hours after any major change is proposed to a project I'm working on, so I have to give it a minute. But, if you've given yourself some time and you still feel that wrongness, start poking at it, sit in it, journal about it, maybe start drafting an email (which you won't send) to your editor explaining why you don't want to make the change. The idea here is to try and identify if it's just overwhelming or whether it would be betraying something important about the story. It's okay if you don't get a clear answer. Your feelings are important information on their own, and you don't need an airtight argument, even to yourself, to know you can't in good conscience make a certain change. Maybe you can't identify exactly why you need Lily's birthday party to happen in-scene, but when you think about the story without it, the whole thing suddenly feels lightless and lifeless. That can be enough to go on, especially if you feel similarly about several suggested edits. If it's overwhelming, that can be a good enough reason to withdraw too, if you can't do the edit in a way that will work for the piece in the time allotted - better to pull it than let it be immortalized as a half-assed version of itself. 

Next, or alternatively, we make a more cognitive version of the same check. You know what is important about the story, what the themes are, what your intend it, what it's about. The Death Of the Author has its place, but that place is not in the revision process - you're not dead until it's published. (As Pancake points out in the article linked above, it is possible for a reader to "get" your story before you do, but if you're submitting for publication you are almost certainly past that point). Spend some time mentally reviewing what your story needs to be and do in order to be the thing that it is. Maybe physically write out a list. Like,

• Gwythyr's fight against the evil overlord mirrors his struggle with trauma.
• Themes: found family, difference between forgiveness and compassion.
• Feelings range from fun and light to cathartic. 

If your editor is asking you to make it darker, with the Overlord more unambiguously evil and everyone angrier and not taking care of each other as much, that won't work. If the suggested edits conflict with the list, with your core vision for the work, then that's asking too much. 

The third step is to turn our will and our lives over to - no, that's not right. The third step is what I call the Oppressive Asshole Check. Is your editor asking you to remove or tone down elements of the story that reflect a character's experience of marginalization? To standardize or exaggerate language (in dialogue or narration) that reflects a specific cultural background? To masculinize or feminize a female character to make her "stronger" or more "realistic"? To strip vulnerability to emotional intelligence from a male character? To make a disabled character more stoic, or more helpless? To straight up change the race, gender, sexuality, or disability status of a character to something more "normal"? To include the deadname of a trans character or change the pronouns of a nonbinary one? That is asking waaaay to much. Withdraw the piece and, if you feel safe doing so, make sure they know why. 

Caveat: some of these suggestions should be looked at differently if they are coming from a sensitivity reader letting you know that you overstepped. Make sure you're not being the Oppressive Asshole. 

There is a fourth consideration, which is at once more and less subjective than the others. Sometimes the suggested revisions aren't wrong or inappropriate per se, just intensive and numerous. Maybe you feel like the story is already where you want it, and while the suggested changes wouldn't be bad for it, you sincerely think they're unnecessary and you don't have the time, energy, or brain for an intensive rewrite. If you're confident that the story is done and good and will find a home somewhere else as-is, then implementing those edits may be more trouble than it's worth. This can also apply to suggestions that you like, double or halve the length of a piece. Sometimes it's too much because it's literally just too much. 

Crystal, I hope this helps. Everyone else, I hope you learned something, and that you'll keep sending me questions so we can do this again soon. If you can find time between the posts I'm inundating you with this week, remember to be gay, do crimes, and read All The Things.