After a lifetime of hounding authors for advice, I’ve heard three truths from every mouth:

(1) Writing is painful — it’s ‘fun’ only for novices, the very young, and hacks;

(2) other than a few instances of luck, good work only comes through revision;

(3) the best revisers often have reading habits that stretch back before the current age, which lends them a sense of history and raises their standards for quality.