What's your advice for writers about working with an editor?

Try to strike a balance between open-mindedness and advocating for yourself. One benefit of working with a good editor is that they will recognize the potential of your work, as well as its existing strengths and weaknesses, which you might be too close to it to see, yourself. If you approach the editorial process with an open mind, ideally your editor will help you pursue your work’s potential, drawing out its strengths, and mitigating or eliminating its weaknesses. But every now and then you’ll work with someone who misunderstands your work entirely. To learn when to embrace a smart editor’s changes, and when you ought to defend your work against editorial changes that would work against its original intention, takes time, but your work will benefit enormously.

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