A first draft of a brand new book is kind of scary but also a lot of fun. It’s a little like Mary discovering her secret garden–things you didn’t even know were there have been growing in your imagination and this is your chance to bring out their colours. A second and third draft is the weeding and pruning. A fourth is painful because at that point you may wish you had never found that key–the view is getting old, if you know what I mean. And then for your fifth and sixth you may need to call on every resource you own to get you through. People ask if I’m ever sad when a book is finally finished. The answer to that is NO. I am usually very relieved, it’s such a hard process. Many people I meet are good at the early stages, but don’t have the fortitude (or stupidity!) to stick to a project through all of its stages. If I can use the baby metaphor again, the idea of a baby is often appealing to people, but you need to take care of that baby until it is 18 and be there though all its yucky stages (poop, vomit, crying etc). If you’re not willing to do that, don’t have the baby. It’s no different with a book.