[andai]

All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. plumbers don't get plumbers block, and doctors don't get doctors block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working and then expects sympathy for it?

—Philip Pullman

[dataviz1000]

> "Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.

> This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: Must I write? Dig into 1 yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple 'I must,' then build your life in accordance with this necessity..."

--Rainer Maria Rilke

Meanwhile Rilke gives no sympathy saying don't write because it is easy, hard, or your job, write because your existence demands it.

I've found writing software for domains is agnostic; there isn't much difference between make a CRM for Real Estate or ERP for car mechanic shops. It is curious that I know one person who is as passionate about the event ticket industry as Rilke is about writing -- they would rather die than not scalp tickets.

I would have to read `Letters to a Young Poet again`. Rilke addresses the difference between being an artist (Rilke a Poet apprenticed under Rodin to learn not sculpture but guidance to live as an artist) and entering a structured profession.

[sedovsek]

Beautiful.

Charles Bukowski said something similar…

> /…/ no baby, if you’re going to create you’re going to create whether you work 16 hours a day in a coal mine or you’re going to create in a small room with 3 children while you’re on welfare, you’re going to create with part of your mind and your body blown away, you’re going to create blind crippled demented, you’re going to create with a cat crawling up your back while the whole city trembles in earthquake, bombardment, flood and fire. baby, air and light and time and space have nothing to do with it and don’t create anything except maybe a longer life to find new excuses for.

[andai]

I said last year, "if I'd known I was going to be homeless for this long, I would have just kept working on my game the whole time."

It seemed logical, at the time, to postpone such frivolous affairs until life was more orderly. But it sure didn't help speed things along.

On another note, I have also heard it said that one must suffer for one's art, but I haven't found much correlation personally between suffering and art... except perhaps to the degree that JavaScript is involved!

[andai]

A while back I started a substack and diligently posted every day, for about a month.

The first few posts had some actual substance (a kind of backlog I suppose), but eventually I realized that I was just posting because I had decided to post and I didn't actually have anything left to say.

So I just stopped posting. I guess it'll probably be a few more years until the next one :)

(Gosh, just imagine if YouTube operated on this principle...)

[sedovsek]

I just bought "Letters to a Young Poet" for Kindle, thanks for the recommendation.

[cwmoore]

“. . .a lonely room, with a cup of coffee, facing a blank piece of paper.”

Wouk elaborated on that predicament. He said that writer William Faulkner was asked, ‘Mr. Faulkner, do you write on inspiration or do you write on a schedule?’ Faulkner replied. ‘Well, of course I write on inspiration. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at a quarter past nine.’

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/10/30/inspire-nine/

[Gud]

I'm not a plumber, but I'm in the trades, and we absolutely get a "block", but we grind through it.