The research is the easiest. The outline is the most fun. The first draft is the hardest, because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out. The rewrite is very satisfying.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'm not a fast writer, and I find the process of writing a first draft to be painful and frustrating. Usually, I start with a character, a premise, and some image that gives me a particular feeling.
The more work you put in on your outline and getting the skeleton of your story right, the easier the process is later.
I don't like re-writing very much. The fourth and the fifth draft - that's too much like work. There's not much inspiration about it, and the lawyerly side kicks in - being very careful and somewhat technical.
The most difficult and complicated part of the writing process is the beginning.
Well, I outline fanatically. I am a long thinker and a slow writer, though I am trying to get faster.
Somebody said writing is easy, you just sit down at your typewriter and open a vein. It depends on the book. Some, I have to do quite a lot of research, which I like. Others are much closer to me.
I outline and outline and outline, and then I'm very specific about the stuff I write. That's my process.
I find writing a book a slow, intricate process, a kind of obstacle course punctuated with great rewards. But research is always thrilling, and I tend to incorporate newfound material up to the very last minute.
The bottom line is that I like my first drafts to be blind, unconscious, messy efforts; that's what gets me the best material.
When I'm writing the first draft, I'm writing in a very slovenly way: anything to get the outline of the story on paper.