Radical Revision

by Tara Labovich

I’d like to tear down our current idea of “editing.”

When I hear myself talk about “editing,” I hear ghostly echoes of MFA workshop feedback like,

“This just needs a little more polishing,” or,

“Add some clarity,” or,

“Make a couple of tweaks and it’ll be done.”

But—What does that mean? What polish? Which tweaks?

The editing advice we give often implies we already know what the final version of the essay should look like. It also implies that the proce...