confessions of an editor

Here's a dirty lil' secret most editors will never cop to:

If your copy is stuck in writing purgatory — that liminal, seemingly endless cycle of revisions where writers' souls go to die — it is most likely is not your fault but the editor's. 

Problems in writing can almost always be traced back, tributary-like, to a main source — often, that's an editor. When a piece of content I've assigned enters this hellscape, that's usually my sign to apologize for leading us there. 

I don't, however, recommend telling your editor any of this. We're a sensitive bunch, too. But just know it's not your fault, dear writers.