“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
— Jack London, John Barleycorn
I had a piece sitting half-finished in my drafts for six weeks last fall. Every time I opened it I felt vaguely defeated by it, like something was missing that I couldn’t name. I kept waiting for the right day, the right energy, the particular mood that would make it come together.
Eventually I just sat down on an ordinary Thursday morning and finished it without feeling ready. It took about two hours. It wasn’t the best thing I’d written but it was done, and done turned out to matter more than I’d been giving it credit for. The piece after it came easier, I think because I’d stopped treating completion like something I had to feel my way into.
Inspiration follows the work more reliably than it precedes it. Showing up unready is still showing up.