“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.”

Ira Glass

“What would it look like if we didn’t use productivity to have more time to dick around or to do less?

What if we used our productivity to do more interesting and scary things?

Merlin Mann

From the wonderful Back To Work podcast.

[paraphrasing Stephen Pressfield] The closer we get to the thing that we want, the more we feel Resistance.

For a lot of us that might be writing. Let’s be honest, it’s not that hard to type – it’s really hard to write something good. It’s not that hard to do anything, really. But the problem is if you start really actually doing it – instead of thinking about it, instead of, like, polishing your beret – when you actually start doing it it’s scary.

It’s not being a writer that’s scary, it’s scary to write. If you don’t believe that, ask yourself why so many people who try to do it all the time have such a problem sitting down and typing.

It’s not because typing is hard, it’s because getting close to that thing is scary.

Merlin Mann

From the wonderful Back To Work podcast.

Here’s some more writing tips on this site, and for all you freelancers out there (or wannabe freelancers), here’s a big ol’ guide about how to become a freelance writer.

According to Merlin Mann, there’s two fatal rookie mistakes for any client work:

1. Something a little deeper than not charging enough – it’s not valuing what you do enough.
2. Not having the stones to realize #1 enough to be really strong with clients. Not being able to say, “I couldn’t do a great job for you by charging that much.”

From the wonderful Back To Work podcast.

“It’s easier to defend the work when you’re not busy doing the same for your ego.”

@leeclowsbeard via @coudal