When you say minimal editing as you went along, do mean that you were editing as you typed the first draft? Because I used to do that, and I could never get a first draft finished. I slowed myself down trying to edit as I went, so now I just throw down the bare bones of the story on the first draft.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
