Great quote. Stories, characters, plot bunnies, they can burn inside until you let them out onto the page. It can take some time to write a complete story, almost never in one sitting, especially for full-length novels and family sagas.

First drafts can bear very little relation to the finished book. Unless the writer is very experienced and a rather detailed plotter, the story often changes through the writing process as the writer learns more about the characters, setting and the details of the story. Often the writer doesn’t completely understand the whole story until the first draft is finished.

There are so many ways in which to tell a story. It can take some time and often more than a few rewrites, to find the best and most effective way to reveal, at the appropriate time, all the essential pieces of the puzzle or the fire at the heart of the story.