Kevin’s answer to “How much of your first draft survived through to the final copy?” > Likes and Comments

See, that depends very much on my mood. Sometimes I feel all full of creative spark and, on those occasions I do tend to gush and be happy with the result, other times I struggle to find the right words and to put them in the right order. Regardless, though, whether I splurge or not, I do tend to return and fidget -mostly when I'm procrastinating on my 'proper' writing :p

On a side note, can't believe you've said you find no upside to writing! Daydreaming can be counted as time productively spent and almost every behaviour/ activity is admissible on the excuse of research. Huge upsides.

Oh, and also, did you never consider splitting up into a trilogy or something rather than cut?

You are astute as ever: DOTG was originally three books that I later mashed into one. I'll tell you the reasons why on a separate occasion. As for my saying "no upside" ... that's my cheeky response to the reality that once the writing's done and the real world comes marching back in, the shock can be freakishly depressing.

Is the little one enjoying Alice? :-)

We aren't on to Alice yet. We're still busy with the novel adaptation of Frozen she got for her b'day off her BFF :p (it's a terrible book).

And guess I have the freakishly depressing part of the process still to come. Well, wow, that's...depressing.

Nevertheless, don't give up :-)