I do not believe that inspiration should be relied upon for creative work.
There is SO much foundational and structural work you _have_ to do before "inspiration" can even make a dent in The Work. Boring organization, cleaning the shop, purchasing supplies, actually getting to your desk, roughing in a concept, stretching, etc.
Do all of that first before complaining that that inspiration didn't strike.
A related idea:
"I think you’ve just got to do it consistently, repeatedly, and you’ve got to be undeterred by the time it requires and the inconvenience in your life that it generates. But mostly you have to do it in a way that continually stirs your personal passion."
(my rss feeds are knocking it out of the park today)
Another related thought before I put this tootstream into a dang blog post like I should have to begin with:
The only way to have a long-running career doing something is to start doing it.
6 months ago I did not have a 6 month old podcast.
3 years ago I did not have a blog that was 3 years old.
etc.
Or, to put it annoyingly axiomatically:
Don't stop yourself from being yourself. Become yourself by doing the work to be who you want to be.
"The best time to have started was 6 months ago. The next best time to have started is now."
@csalzman inspiration is never my problem; the amount of time I can spend on perspiration _always_ is.
@hypomodern yes, same here! I regret how much time I spent not doing the perspiration part back when I had the time.
@csalzman I'm not sure I ever had "the time" :)
@csalzman (in the sense that it's about _making_ the time and inconveniencing oneself into making progress on things; things I strive to get better at always)
@hypomodern well...let's say back when I had the energy to think I had the time when I should have been sleeping :)
Also, skipping out on grad school certainly made my 20s a bit easier on the ol' side projects front.
@csalzman @hypomodern my most prolific and creative times in my life happen when I am super busy. When I’ve had months of (relative) free time in the past (something unlikely to happen again for a long while), I’d watch TV, play games, or otherwise “waste” the time. Something about having a structured, busy schedule gives me more motivation to take advantage of the little free time I have for creative work.