There's a quote by Ira Glass, that many of you have probably heard, that talks about being creative. It goes like this:

"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."

The reason I put this up, other than to make this post seem longer than it is, is because creating is hard. I've been struggling recently with the very concept Ira describes: having these ideas in my head, formed from the taste I've developed over years, and not being able to create them to my satisfaction. 

On a good day, I get through moments like this by trying not to focus on the end product, but on enjoying the journey. I do love writing. I do love creating. But there are also days when the thing that really keeps me going is the fact that we promised we would stick to a schedule, and I don't want to break the chain. 

This is normally the point where Philip Reviews Games. I'm going to skip that this week, because I really want to talk about StarCraft II, and I need more space than I have here. That'll have to be for next Tuesday.

Thanks, and see you Friday!

Philip