The Hours

It has been a week of comings and goings, of projects started and others finished, of the front door always slamming and mail arriving with new opportunities, and letters from old friends. While it's a good idea to sit back and have a cup of tea, sometimes the most important thing is to simply buckle down and do the work. I saw this Ira Glass quote on a different website this week, but it's so good it's worth repeating. If you're feeling like you're banging your head against the wall today, take some inspiration from Ira and pick up your pencil!

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” 

 —Ira Glass

*Image from here.