The Good Work

There's that transcendent moment of inspiration, (where does it come from?), and then there's the hard slog. Somehow the transcendent part must carry you through the slog part.

Put another way, there are those incredible moments of unexplained magic, which come unbidden, which overtake you, with no effort, no work; and then there's the wading through the mud part, where discipline and persistence carry you through.

Maybe you hope for the first part, without the second part, but it doesn't seem to work that way. Those transcendent moments usually do not come like a string of pearls.

And you can make the slog part less sloggy, maybe kind of make it a game. That's what some of us call the "good work."