This is not a wise adage

The writer Richard Price rewrote one manuscript from page one to the end three times through. It took him and his editor 18 months. And while he was writing the first draft (that's the very first draft, not the final draft that then got edited three times), his editor allowed him to ring up at the end of each day and read out what he had written, while the editor said affirming things. That went on for a year. Richard comments, "It was like wrestling a zeppelin." (Paris Review Interviews, p385)

Goodness.