I am happiest when I am creating, and yet over the past few years I’ve found creativity more and more difficult. I am making a habit of daily writing in hopes of reserving a few minutes every day where creativity can take root again. The initial results will likely be rough, like this post. But as Neil Gaiman said, “Assume that you have a million words inside you that are absolute rubbish and you need to get them out before you get to the good ones. And if you get there early, that’s great.” I am hopeful that I can produce a million words of “absolute rubbish.”
Why is it that we have to write so much garbage before we start to get the hang of it? I’ve found that, for me, it’s a muscle, and the only way to get better is to do it. It takes a while before you can recognize which lines of thought are good, productive ideas and which are rabbit trails. And, sometimes, you can only recognize it after you’ve finished and it’s time for a ruthless edit.
Perhaps I will start producing some quality writing on this site at some point. Right now, I’m primarily interested in producing absolute rubbish.
Jacob N. Given 