thread: 2011-06-26 : Q & A time
On 2011-06-28, Vincent wrote:
Jim: "What's the secret to staying motivated in a project when your excitement wanes, and you're convinced that no one's going to be interested?"
No secret. Discipline, hubris, and resignation.
I keep a cycling stable of projects in progress. When my excitement for one project wanes, I procrastinate with another project, then another, and another, and eventually procrastinating on the last one means working again on the first. This way, sooner or later I'm bound to finish SOMETHING, right?
There is a stage in every project when I hate it and wish it would die forever. It turns out that this isn't when my enthusiasm wanes, though. This is when the project's almost done, and it drags me out of my bed and keeps me from my meals to finish it.
Mrs. Nacca always said that an unwritten thought is an incomplete thought. I add that an unpublished text is an incomplete text. When I have an idea, the only way I can be finished with it is to put it in front of its audience. I never worry whether they'll be interested - that's up to them. I answer to the idea, not to its audience.
