It seems to be a truism that the real task of writing begins with the editing phase; indeed, apparently many writers slave over two, three, four, or more drafts before they're happy with the final product. Yet this is not my experience at all: almost everything I publish is a first draft. It's true that usually I think about a topic, often for quite a while, before putting pen to paper; with my forthcoming book about Aristotle I've even gone so far as to make lists of the points to cover in each chapter before sitting down to write. However, for me the composing itself flows quickly and easily. Instead of seeing the task of writing as removing the cruft, I prefer not to generate any cruft in the first place, which strikes me as much more straightforward. Am I a freak of nature or am I missing something essential? Then again, I don't consider myself to be a writer, so maybe it doesn't matter if I'm doing it all wrong...
(Cross-posted at Beautiful Wisdom.)
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