Recently, I started working
with a new editor.
She sent me a list of issues with my manuscript.
She sent no suggestions on how to fix them.
I was frustrated.
If I knew how to fix these issues,
they wouldn’t be issues in the first place.
I emailed her and explained that.
She eventually told me how to fix them
(as she knew all along how to fix them).
The editor-writer relationship
is very much like a mentor-protege relationship.
The mentor points out issues, sure,
but she should also point out
resources or methods
that the protege could use
to FIX the issues.
Telling her to figure it out
on her own
or to find another mentor (critique partner)
to explain how
defeats the whole purpose
of having a mentor.
A mentor without possible fixes
is simply a critic
and we all have enough of those.
The fixing is the difficult part.
If you’re not willing to offer that,
don’t become a mentor.