making things is hard - by Ava - bookbear express

There is so much mystique around the creative life. It’s fetishized and coveted and seen as mysterious even by the people who inhabit it. We have a cultural script that says: There’s too much consumption, not enough creation! If you want to be a [tasteful/interesting/admirable/happy] person, you should make more things. But then also: Social media has lowered the bar to creation too much. We’re drowning in terrible content. You should be ashamed if you put mediocre things into the world! I notice a lot of “how to be a writer/how to be a better writer/how to start making things” content out there. Which totally makes sense to me: when I started writing more, I very much was like, how does one do this? Are there are a set of instructions? I read The 90-Day Novel, I read about daily routines of various writers, I read Paris Review interviews. Highbrow, lowbrow, whatever, I was just curious about how people did it. What I found confused me. Everyone’s process is different, which makes it h

There is so much mystique around the creative life. It’s fetishized and coveted and seen as mysterious even by the people who inhabit it. We have a cultural script that says: There’s too much consumption, not enough creation! If you want to be a [tasteful/interesting/admirable/happy] person, you should make more things. But then also: Social media has lowered the bar to creation too much. We’re drowning in terrible content. You should be ashamed if you put mediocre things into the world! I notice a lot of “how to be a writer/how to be a better writer/how to start making things” content out the