When I was in school at about age 7 or 8, the class had to write one of those Very Useful Essays.
So 34ish years ago I used the description "as black as the Sith." Sure, I borrowed the potent word from somewhere, but hey, that's language.
It's not like I tried to pull a tintinnabulation out of the hat in 3rd grade.
My great paper got a "B" because Teacher said there was "no such word" (at least I hope I wasted some of her time if she tried to look it up in a dusty Merriam-Webster's back then).
I argued, and earned myself a downgrade to a "C." Who, me? Insolent?
Today, all I want to say to Mrs. [redacted] is Google it now, beeyotch!!11!
Most people do not know what they are doing. Worse still, and the hardest quest ion of all is why.
I've answered the other broad questions to my own satisfaction, but I'm still poking around for why.
I glued an errant puzzle piece on my wall near my normal TV watching spot. In the South, we have big roaches, and when they walk up eggshell cream colored walls (well, before being jaundiced by decades of tobacco smoke) they get noticed instantly.
I did it to remind myself to keep searching for my personal "why."
I've never conformed. I've been edited, sure...but not about things that truly matter to me.
With editors, teachers, petercetera, stick to your guns about the parts you really like. Hell, write some bad stuff on purpose and use their deletion as a bargaining chip.