There's so much more that goes into it.
When you hold the finished product in your hand, be it a novel or a short story or a comic book, whether you realize it or not, that story took a long time and a lot of work to get there where you can hold it. First and foremost it all starts with an idea. What the writer wanted to convey to you in his story. Then it took research on his part to tell that story correctly where it would make sense and be true to what he or she originally envisioned. In some circle the next part is the hardest part, actually sitting down and writing it all. This is the part that can literally take years. Some very prolific people can churn out one new novel after another in a few months at a time. Others it takes what can feel like forever.
But to me at least the worst part is editing. I go over something and it looks perfect and great to me. Yet when I send it in to my editor, well lets just say I always realize why I'm NOT an editor and am a writer. editing is the longest part of all of this, at least it seems that way to me. I invariably take a few days to implement the changes the editor suggests I do. Its painstakingly time consuming, but when it's done the story becomes so much better. I can best compare it to shearing the husk off of an ear of corn. You get the junk out of the way to get to the goodness underneath.
You see, editing is as much a part of the story as writing it is, and perhaps more, because without editing you may be left with a formless lump of clay instead of the coherent thing of beauty you get with a properly edited piece.
So the next time you pick up a novel and finish it with a smile on your face, think fort a second what went into that book and how long it actually took to put it all together.
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