Each of these QC reviews took an enormous amount of time. I sat down and read through the entire book on each one. No joke. I sat with red pen in hand, and read through everything. It’s the only way I can edit – I have to know what came before, reading it in order, and do it in big sittings. Otherwise I don’t have enough context to know what’s redundant with the last chapter or not.

It’s tough work – Like driving late at night when you’re tired, as soon as i get bored I have to snap out of it and focus – I’m the writer here. I’m the one that has to know what the hell he’s doing.

For QC2, effectively the 4th draft of the book, I spent as much time as possible cutting – crossing out sentences or entire paragraphs. The most effective editing is just ripping shit out. A clunky paragraph, or series of paragraphs is often best served by death. Just rip it out. No one will know what else I was going to say except for me – and in many cases they’re better off not knowing.

But it’s been brutal. I totally underestimated how much emotional energy the last 1/3rd of the book process would take.