The annoying thing about doing anything creative

All week I dragged myself into the coffee shop, pulled out my laptop and attempted to do some writing. I wrote bits and pieces for my new novel but ultimately spent the vast majority of my time on writing code. (More on that later.)

So, drips and drabs of content got written but hardly a weeks holiday's worth. Today, Sunday, the very end of my holiday and a day off I would have had anyway I wander in and bang out 3100 words worth of sitcom material. Now, I have no idea why it was sitcom material I wrote but 3100 words, wow! How did that happen, I'm still in shock.

Now, quick note before I begin my rant. I did go for a run this morning. This obviously activated by brain in ways I can't explain and really, it's clear that my week of poor results is truly a product of my own laziness. I mean, staying up late and doing fuck all sounds like good holiday material on paper but really it's not. If there's one thing this week of utter aimlessness has taught me is that running is the real ice-cream. Yes, all those fluffy delicious mental messages they put on the ice-cream label, everything they want you to think that icecream will do for you, running does all that for free. Oh yeah, and instead of leaving you a total land whale it makes you trim, oxygenated, powerful.

Now, that was worth writing because the truth always is but I did have a point about the fickle nature of anything creative. It's utterly unpredictable, utterly. Coding is like this too which is why I severely disagree with the assembly line style of management that I always see no matter where I work. If I was writing for money this week I would have had to jump off a bridge I got so little done, if I was coding for money maybe I would have done a little better. The point is that when it's good, it's hyper good and when it's bad a brick does a similar job.

So, let the developers frolic with the writers. They produce not because you tell them to, but because they need to. The alternative is horrible.

Final point, I love writing, yes I do. I'm really happy that I got a good amount done today and I think it's a promising signal that good days lie ahead! Node.js is also fantastic. (But coding is a banned subject on this blog so whatever. I will be starting a new blog soon for that sort of thing though I think.)