What's worse than your editor telling you that you need to cut something out of your manuscript?

Hello Dreamers

What's worse than your editor telling you that you need to cut something out of your manuscript?

Being told you need to add something to the manuscript.

At the editing phase, the narrative you want to tell is down, including the details you thought were relevant.  Now, you have to think up details you never thought of, didn't think were needed or mundane to mention, and at times even might be at odds with the plot thus far.

Oww.

As much as it might sting to be told a beautiful piece of writing adds nothing, is confusing, distracting, or badly written - highlighting and deleting are easy operations.

In a nuts shell, this has been the biggest non-business related struggle I've had with Whispers of the Abyss. Shelley the editor effectively told me I have undewrote (among other things of course). The editor is doing her job, so if she says I underwrote, I've underwrote.

Still, writing "And the character went to work and did their work duties before coming home to <insert actually interesting event here>" and being told to spend a paragraph or so describing their work tasks and shift routine just... Does the reader actually care that they ran customers through a checkout, stocked shelves in a warehouse, or pushed paper around in an office?

Next, time passes and nothing of event happens during the week/month/days? No, I need to write out what the character did in that time - which wouldn't be anything interesting or plot-relevant. "But Shannon, people do things in that time. They're not just waiting for the next plot point!" For the past month, count up everything you did/experienced interesting enough to explain to someone else. I bet you can count them on your hands, if anything happened at all. Now, tell a story that spans a year. How many of those details from the month would be in that story?

You know those pleasantries one has to do, like the 'hi, how are you' or people waving and whatnot? I think you're getting the idea.

My grip with this is that, well, I'm done drafting. Everything I felt the story needed to make sense was there. If I didn't describe something, either it's because it's not interesting, or it's a detail so mundane that I didn't think of it. So being told to write more is being told to go back to drafting when I should be editing.

I'm done venting. If these small details are needed, they're needed. I'm not arguing with the editor. Its just, it feel weird, and it's hurting my head, that I need to add minutae that I didn't care enough about to mention, so why would a reader?

No one said this would be easy.