What takes the most time, the initial draft, proofreading, or revision?
That’s an interesting question for the fact that while editing is the longest process for me – I go through multiple revisions on every book I write – the first draft feels like the longest because it’s the most difficult. Before I’ve gotten a story out completely there’s a fair amount of fear and anxiety poking holes in my confidence. Fear that I’m a charlatan masquerading as an author and my novel in progress will dry up and wither away for the drivel it is. Anxiety that I’ll finish only to find that what I’ve produced is the most vile prose ever put on paper. So yes, getting out the first draft can be mentally torturous and I know I have to push past the legion of negative interior comments and keep at it. When I start proofreading and editing I finally have a sense that the writing is at last coming to life and the thrill of creation takes over. The pressure I put on myself to develop and finish a novel is blessedly slackened and I can now mold and reshape, cut and polish, for as l
