Life & Wisdom Quote by Ken Follett

"The research is the easiest. The outline is the most fun. The first draft is the hardest, because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out. The rewrite is very satisfying"

Ken Follett, Author

About this Quote

Follett breaks the writing process into a four-act drama where the surprise is how unglamorous the climax really is. Calling research "the easiest" deflates the romantic idea of the novelist as pure imagination; for a working author, research is a scavenger hunt with clear rules and instant rewards. You can always find another source, another detail, another factual anchor. It feels like progress because it is measurable.

Then comes the outline, framed not as bureaucratic scaffolding but as play. "The most fun" is a sly admission that control is pleasurable: in the outline you get to be god, arranging disasters, reveals, and reversals without paying the emotional cost of making any of it persuasive on the page. It's story as strategy.

"The first draft is the hardest" lands because Follett names the specific cruelty: converting symbolic placeholders into sentences. Outlines are promises; drafts are payments. Every bullet point becomes a demand for voice, rhythm, motive, and continuity. This is where writers discover that "and then" isn't a plot, and that characters won't perform on command unless you earn their choices word by word.

His closing turn - "The rewrite is very satisfying" - is the professional's tell. Satisfaction comes from power restored. Revision is where chaos becomes craft, where you stop being judged by what you haven't written and start shaping what exists. In the context of Follett's career - big, intricate narratives built to be devoured - it's also a quiet defense of discipline: the magic isn't the spark, it's the willingness to return and refine.

Quote Details

Topic	Writing
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About the Author

Ken Follett (born June 5, 1949) is a Author from Welsh.

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