Editing is like...
...A longtime relationship, right after the proposal, when the bride gets cold feet, or the groom has a swell of doubt, and they fight, but the bride knows she loves the groom/book desperately and want to make it work, so they go to couples counseling, and at last they reconcile, and hopefully they have a healthier, more stable relationship.
...Those CSI/murder investigation shows where the cop spends the entire episode trying to work through false leads, has a nervous break where they think the case will NEVER be solved, but in their gut they know they can't give up because it's their job and the answer is there, somewhere, so they keep going and then a lead comes out of nowhere and the pieces begin to click and click and click and then case is solved and the whole office drinks coffee and toasts to the cop's skills.
...Baking a cake (you knew I'd go here). Except you have no idea if the ingredients you're using are the right ones or how it will taste, so you sniff it and taste it and break a ton of eggs and spill flour on yourself and maybe have to start over because the oven was too hot and you burned the edges or the middle fell down, but you can be damn sure that by the time anyone has to see or eat the cake, they'll never know what a beast it was to make.
...Surviving the fire swamp (you knew I'd go here, too). Because Wesley and Buttercup know that it's going to be almost impossible ("We'll never survive." "Nonsense. You only say that because no one ever has.") but they do it anyway because they are being chased and don't have a choice, and they learn the pitfalls and how to avoid them, and after getting singed, and nearly drowning, and attacked by ROUSs, they finally get to the end. And it doesn't matter that Wesley is capture, because they survived the swamp and they'll survive all those other things by the end of the story.
So, yeah. Editing is like a lot of things. It's NOT easy. But it's also NOT impossible, and the end product, whether it's a loving marriage, or a case solved, or a yummy cake, or surviving the fire swamp with only a few burns and bites, is worth it.
