There's a quote about how at first, when you're writing a novel, it feels like you're crawling, then later it feels like you're walking, then finally it feels like you're flying. Anyone have the correct attribution for this line? (If I find out, I'll add the attribution in a comment.)
With the last few drafts of this particular novel, for a while I felt like I was trapped in concrete, far underground... but now it feels like I'm a comet shooting through space. I don't know if that's a sign that I shouldn't be working on this project any more, or a sign that I should...
And sometimes you’re running and then trip, fall, bleed all over the concrete and… there it is, outlined in blood on slate, the crucial plot twist.
Joyce Carol Oates compares the early drafts to hacking through a jungle with a butter knife and the later ones to soaring overhead in a plane.
And here's a 1934 Edith Wharton quote I just stumbled on:
"What is writing a novel like?
1. The beginning: A ride through a spring wood.
2. The middle: The Gobi Desert.
3. The End: A night with a lover."