It’s not my job to complain

This one’s going to get a bit meta. 

I’ve been blogging every day so far this year. I did this in 2021, and during that time I discovered that occasionally, I’d hit a “hot streak” and write four or five blogs I was really excited about on back-to-back days. I also discovered dry periods—days when I had no good ideas, no inspiration, and not much desire to write. 

This became problematic when I remembered that I committed to publishing a blog every single day. The conclusion I eventually came to was this: it’s not my job to complain about not having any good ideas. It’s my job to go find inspiration and develop a good idea so I can write that day. 

Today was one of those days. I’ve been in a dry period for a few days now. These are days when I stare at the blinking cursor on my computer screen, while a river of bad ideas flows through my mind, so I watch each one pass by. Then I remembered my conclusion.

Usually, I go back to the well. You can’t write every day without reading a lot. So typically, I crack open the blogs of some of my favorite writers, scroll through old research, or read a chapter of a book I’m working through. This does enough. Instead, today, decided to write this meta blog about not complaining about a lack of ideas. 

The job of the hobbyist is to complain about a lack of ideas. The job of the writer is to find ideas and write anyway.