Being a writer is not among the most physically taxing pursuits. It’s nothing like construction work and not at all like being a Marine. The primary dangers are Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, widening posteriors, and severely bruised egos. It has wisely been said that writers never finish a piece; they just eventually abandon it in despair.

I’ll explain that shortly, but first, everything you’ve ever wanted to know about American Thinker.

Our staff consists of four full-time editors/writers and our Managing Editor/Writer, Andrea Widburg. I’m AT’s pinch-hitting editor/writer. I only work—and get paid—when a full-time editor needs time off. Editors work shifts, but none work mere eight-hour shifts. We work as long as necessary every day and pretty much constantly check back to ensure everything is working as it should.

Image by Freepik AI.

We rely on our contributors to submit articles of 800-1200 words and blog posts of 400-800 words. We always encourage new writers. We are committed to publishing 15 blog posts and at least five articles a day. Because we’re dedicated to providing a forum for excellent conservative writing, we’re not lavishly funded, and sadly, we cannot pay for submissions. Virtually all our revenue comes from subscriptions. Of course, we can’t guarantee everything submitted will be published, but we absolutely read every submission and communicate our editorial decisions.

Some good pieces aren’t published because they’re not timely, or because they’re not in line with our readers’ interests and expectations, or the AT’s mission. Sometimes they’re timely, but we’ve already published plenty on the same topic.

Editing is hard work. We have no designated proofreaders—we can barely pay our editors—so editors not only edit for content, but for every other facet of writing. Often, we go back and forth with contributors on this or that detail, and they’re virtually always gracious in making appropriate adjustments. We know how difficult it is to write well, so we’re polite.

Our editors usually only write blog posts, not articles, and we primarily rely on our contributors to fill AT every day. Some days, we have an abundance of articles and blog posts. Some days we don’t. Because we have only two editors covering weekends, I’ve taken to writing two blog posts on Saturdays and two on Sundays to help. (Note from Andrea: And to say that we are grateful for this generosity of knowledge and time is an understatement.)

We’ve also recently begun a Friday newsletter exclusively for our subscribers. The pieces in that newsletter come from our full-time editors, and I also contribute. To this point in 2025, I’ve contributed about 175 blog posts (as well as a 1,500-3,000-word article every day at my home blog), and our full-time editors have done as much or more.

As you might imagine, most days, we end up not only editing a variety of submissions, but we also write to fill those 15 spots. It’s exhausting in its own way, and that, dear readers, is why errors in spelling and grammar occasionally appear.

Proofreading one’s own writing is fiendishly difficult. Particularly if it’s done immediately after a piece is finished, the brain tends to see what one intended to write, not what’s actually there. As I taught my students, it’s important to put time between finishing a piece and proofreading it. Unfortunately, in the daily rush of providing original content, time is often in short supply. We don’t always have the time to proofread two to three times.

Add in the wonders of spell and grammar checkers across several platforms, and computers often make changes that their programs think are proper but that aren’t quite what we intended.

If earning a bachelor’s in English and coming within a few credits of a master’s, as well as a quarter century teaching high school and college English, has taught me anything, they’ve taught me how difficult it is to be perfect. I’m not making excuses, merely providing an explanation.

We all strive for perfection—that’s our daily goal—but in the crush of deadlines and editing and writing, and having families and lives, perfection is sometimes elusive. Considering the sheer number of words and pieces we produce, we flatter ourselves to think we do reasonably well.

And we very much appreciate readers who politely point out things we’ve missed. They give us the opportunity to make necessary corrections, and occasionally, to review the rules and to debate the finer points of grammar, punctuation, and other esoterica—which we spare you. My favorite professor once told me the fastest way to end any conversation is to say: “You know, that has fascinating grammatical possibilities...” I’ve used that upon occasion.

Why do writers abandon pieces in despair? Because they’re never as good as they could be. Every time writers reread a piece, they always find things they can change, things that might make it better. Every. Single. Time. But life goes on. There are new things to write, and every piece must, sometime, end.

If you’d like to contribute to AT, our submission guidelines are here. Take the time to read our articles and blog posts. They’ll tell you what our readers like and expect. And expect us to be gentle in criticism. We know what you’re going through.

On a different subject, if you are not already a subscriber, you may not know that we’ve implemented something new: A weekly newsletter with unique content from our editors for subscribers only. These essays alone are worth the cost of the subscription.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.

(One more comment from Andrea: It’s not just writers who make mistakes. Painters do, too. Norman Rockwell received so many critiques of his magazine covers that he started creating April Fools paintings that were intentionally rife with errors.)