Andy Weir

What I tell them is that.

Imagine you're a sculptor instead of a writer and you're driving along and you see this big chunk of marble out in the field and you're like, you know what?

The shape of it and the texture of it, that would be perfect for like a statue of Zeus.

You buy it from a farmer who owns it.

Then you go and you get your truck and you get like a winch and you do all this stuff.

This thing weighs like four tons.

You've got to get it up into your truck, then you drive it to your workshop, and then you've got to do just all this back-breaking labor to get that chunk of marble into your workshop, and there you go.

Now you're ready to start carving the statue of Zeus.

So all of that work you did right there, that's like the first draft for a writer.

You have completed the entire book before you've really started the book.

Project Hail Mary, for instance, I think it was the 18th draft that went to print.

It's not just like I sit down at my keyboard, type magic and then walk away.

It's hard work.

And also, there's another thing I try to tell writers that like some people really just enjoy the process of writing.

They really enjoy the creativity and getting things out on the paper.

It's like cathartic to them or or something.

I'm not one of those people.

For me, it's hard work and it's unpleasant and I don't like doing it.

Okay.

And yet here you are.