Discussion: Favorite and Least Favorite Parts of Writing a Book

Photo credit: Denise P.S. on Flickr

There are so many steps to writing a book. From idea generation, to plotting (if you plot), to first drafting, to revising, revising, revising, to line edits, then finally whatever the final steps for your manuscript are. And the experience is a little different for everyone—some love first drafting and dread revising, some are most alive when brainstorming but slow down while first drafting, etc.

I've mentioned here several times that revising is my favorite part of working on a book, and that remains true. As fun and exciting as first drafting can be, there's something uniquely satisfying about taking the story you have, pulling it apart, and piecing it back together again with new material to make it even better than you originally imagined.

There is, however, a part of revising that I don't particularly love, and that's the meticulous bit of line edits where you look up words to cut and go through your manuscript, one by one, to see which words will stay and which have to go. While it's definitely an important part of polishing, the meticulous, monotonous (and slowwww) nature of the process tends to get boring very quickly. The rest of the line editing process I generally enjoy, but that search and destroy bit, necessary as it is, not so much.

When the slog is over, however, it's always worth it, because the manuscript reads crisper and more purposeful then before. But let's be real, no one ever said writing a book was easy.

So those are my favorite and least favorite parts of writing a book, now it's your turn: what are you favorite and least favorite parts of writing a book? 

Twitter-sized bite:

What are your favorite and least favorite parts of writing a book? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)