Paul GrahamVerified account

Prolly depends where you are in your creative journey no? For beginners, creating is surely harder but once you developed the habit of, say, writing everyday, editing becomes what's most difficult? Or maybe it's the act of compression that's harder, more than editing as a whole

This may just be a semantic distinction, but isn't editing an integral part of the creation process? In that sense, all that's being said is that a part of of the process of creating is easier than the whole process of creating

True, but editing is an extra step. You'll have to create regardless. You just edit to shorten it or not.

An unpolished outline is all you should really need to evaluate the quality of a work in my field. But the journal you publish in is all set by the polish

really? I can bang out words all day long like a chain-smoking chimpanzee named Kerouac.... ...but just to reread that dribble is painful, much less all the effort it takes to make it clear and compelling

Ehhhhhhhhhh I mean not always. I have been a freelance writer for about 5 years and it's not always so clear to me, which one is easier or more difficult. Both require concentration and a desire to produce something good.

Editing requires cutting down and cutting down what you have created is time consuming. Atleast my experience.