I love editing, which is a good thing since it's a part of my occupation, but there are some downsides to it. First, is the tremendous amount of time it takes. At this point I've already spent a ton of time constructing and writing my story and I just want to be done with it. It would be lovely to just finish writing something and know that it was perfect and didn't need any editing. But that's just not how it all works.
The second downside is the realization that what you've written isn't nearly as good as you thought it was. You read along and suddenly notice all of the typos or you realize that what you wrote doesn't make any sense whatsoever (this must have been the part I wrote while simultaneously trying to play princess with my little girl). And it just isn't fun to realize that your precious manuscript isn't as great as you thought it was the day that you finished it.
Fourth downside: all of that red ink.
But along with all of the downsides comes a tremendous, and ultimately worth-all-of-the-hassle, upside: your story gets better. And in the end every writer wants their novel to be the best that it possibly can be.
And after almost all (it's hard to get all of them) of the typos are gone and most of the story makes sense and you were able to fix that one really weird part and make it just perfect, it's a great feeling. And it makes you strong enough to face the next obstacle...actually showing your manuscript to others (and getting more edits).
