diff --git a/src/components/inputs/FancyTextEditor.tsx b/src/components/inputs/FancyTextEditor.tsx
index f23c28d..d72c391 100644
--- a/src/components/inputs/FancyTextEditor.tsx
+++ b/src/components/inputs/FancyTextEditor.tsx
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ export interface TextInputKeyDownEvent {
 }
 
 export default function FancyTextEditor({
-  value: _value,
+  value: value,
   onInput,
   onKeyDown,
   className: extraClasses = '',
@@ -24,10 +24,7 @@ export default function FancyTextEditor({
   const divRef = useRef<HTMLDivElement>(null)
   const [hasFocus, setHasFocus] = useState(false)
 
-  // the contenteditable likes to slip in newlines at the bottom of our innerText
-  // which makes it bad to check for empty string because it might be "\n"
-  // so we just trim it upfront and then fogeddaboudit
-  const value = _value.trim()
+  const trimmedValue = value.trim()
 
   // The funky mechanics here are to stop the cursor from jumping back the start.
   // It probably will have the cursor jump to the start if anything changes programmatically,
@@ -38,12 +35,12 @@ export default function FancyTextEditor({
       return
     }
 
-    if (!value && !hasFocus) {
+    if (!trimmedValue && !hasFocus) {
       div.innerText = placeholder
-    } else if (div.innerText !== value) {
-      div.innerText = value
+    } else if (div.innerText.trim() !== trimmedValue) {
+      div.innerText = trimmedValue
     }
-  }, [hasFocus, placeholder, value])
+  }, [hasFocus, placeholder, trimmedValue])
 
   useEffect(() => {
     const div = divRef.current!