Black and white and red all over: The first time your stuff got edited

MyRaganites recall their introductions to the editor’s knife—and they’re not all horror stories

Do you remember the first time you were edited?

If it was a massacre, take solace. You have company.

Your first masterpiece was probably torn to shreds. Maybe you cried. Perhaps you tattooed excerpts of the AP Stylebook on your forearm after work. Or maybe you briefly considered a different career—in marine biology, maybe.

We asked MyRaganites and other communicators to reflect on their first editing experiences.

It turns out that a lot of us got better after the second draft.

Here are the stories (with minor edits):

If only all editors could be this nice…

Maxine Winer was on the internal communications team at the now-defunct HomeFed Bank in San Diego. After she submitted her first newsletter article, her boss called her into his office. He held a completely red-lined piece of paper, to the point where you could barely see the white space, she says.