You can only make revisions if you understand why they need to be made

When I was in my MFA program, people would sometimes turn in revised versions of work they'd submitted before. And it was frequently a bit dispiriting, because it was in many cases, perhaps even a majority of cases, not as good as what they'd turned in originally.

Before that, I hadn't believed that it was possible to "over revise" a story and sand off t…