What copyeditors do ...

An interview with copyeditor Susan Bradanini Betz at The Millions.

From the comments, which get quite agitated:

"Jymn"
See, you are reading into what I wrote without a clue as to what I was referring. I’m talking the inspiration that drives an artist. Every revolutionary artist, musician, writer comes across much of their best work by accident. A slip of the brush by Van Gogh, Picasso or Pollack sent art into a whole new trajectory. Did they have editors to correct the slips and make them proper? Fuck no. They just did it. How would we ever progress? According to Susan, we’re stuck on Proust! You do a disservice to your readers and yourself, by allowing another person to manipulate your art.

...

"SJS"
It is unclear to me to which copy-editor Jynn [sic] is actually referring to — Susan, or the un-named editor whose decisions that Susan reversed to give the author back his humor and voice. Perhaps it is both — as a reader, I’m left guessing at her actual intent, which is a failure on her part, not mine.
However, the general thesis — that art comes from mistakes — is complete, albeit widespread, nonsense. Art succeeds *despite* the flaws, not *because* of them. Writing is like music, true, but because it takes many hours of practice to master the craft before one’s intent can be made clear, and not overwhelmed by the natural incompetence of the unpracticed.