Encountering the terrain

“Running into the inherent difficulty of the task and not knowing which way to turn is not being blocked. It's just encountering the terrain, the territory where you'll be spending more time than you ever thought you would spend anywhere. Relax. As I've said before, if you're spending the time struggling with it, then it's going well. It is ALWAYS going well if you're working, whether you're finding it easy or not. And if you're not working—not taking the chances and suffering the stumbles through it—then get to work. Be stubborn and go on and make the mistakes and take the blind alleyways. That's the way it gets done. I'll repeat myself here, too: you can't ruin it. Truly: you cannot ruin it. You can only make it necessary to do it again. So, you do it again. And again. As many times as it takes to become itself, solid and so strangely, happily, separate from you.”

— Richard Bausch