Subtextual comes from an editing practice.

Subtextual is made by Dev Edit Portland, Inc., the company behind editing.help, led by Randall Garcia, a developmental editor in Portland, Oregon. It comes from one idea: protect first-draft thinking. Give it depth, and let AI help without taking the pen.

Before editing, Randall worked as a designer at Wieden+Kennedy. His interest in editing began with photographs (light, contrast, the effect of a frame), then motion, then writing, which brought him closest to the ideas underneath. He studied Method Writing with a student of Jack Grapes, and he edits at four levels: content, structure, style and format. Creative Algebra, his approach to finding language for what matters and carrying it into action, grew from the same practice.

Today the practice includes developmental editing, editorial coaching and facilitation. Subtextual and Subtextual Capture come out of it: tools for doing the noticing before the polishing.