The writing process: The hardest part

Pen & ink by Cara Christine Hubbell

One of my coaching clients is in the process of revising her manuscript in response to developmental feedback on her beta draft. This, for me, is the most challenging phase of the writing process for two reasons:

1. I have to switch back and forth between my analytical brain and my creative brain.
I don't know what it's like for you, but for me, this is SO HARD. While the creator's job is to provide a fertile ground, sunlight, and water to nourish all seeds, the editor's job is to spray weed killer on the plants that don't belong. Having both sides come out at once is like watering a plant and spraying weed killer on it at the same time. Very confusing.

2. It's time to let go of the original vision.
This is the hardest part of all, the part where I have to shed all my hopes and dreams and expectations for the story and look at it through a totally different lens, one that allows me to see (with help from my beta readers, of course) not what I hoped or intended to accomplish but what is actually there.

The writing process in charts & graphs

Every so often on Facebook I see someone else's clever depiction of the writing process. For example this one:

Or this one: