Anne had such a light touch when offering suggestions for passages that weren’t working. The whole experience was relaxed and informal. I found myself nodding with every observation. It’s actually hard to retreat to a defensive state with Anne, because she knows your story well enough to root her comments within the larger goals of the work.
What came out of the gentle back and forth were identifying certain choices I’d made where I’d fallen short of what I wanted to achieve. There were other places where I had no idea I was being lazy and using a kind of shorthand that only made sense to me.
I’m super clear now that I need to continue to streamline the story and her line edits showed me exactly where these trims would be relatively painless.
Plus, where the piece could possibly find a home:) She had personal opinions on top-tier and lesser-known journals that might welcome my special brand of humor.