I think so, Brain, but if we have nothing to fear but fear itself, why does Eleanor Roosevelt wear that spooky mask?

This is a fine mess.  I'm mostly just writing this out of a need to write something down.  It's amazing how waiting on "inspiration" just means you never write anything.  Like any muscle, the writing process needs to be exercised.  Sometimes that means just running in place for a bit so the muscles don't atrophy.  Occasionally you'll get to take a fine trip to a beautiful vista and be rewarded for being able to make that climb without much effort.  Bottom line: you're going to produce a lot more crap than golden words.

Of course, it's hard to realize that when you are young.  All you see is the beauty that's been laid out.  You are bombarded with the perfection of others, not ever seeing behind the scenes.  It's easy to get so used to perfection that you think that if you are not perfect all the time, something's wrong.  Depending on how big a pond you swim in, sometimes you can fake perfection for a while.  But when you jump into a larger pool, you'll find out how much work you have to do before any of it pays off.  The more you are around talented, wonderful people, the better you get.  But the more talented, wonderful people you are around, the better you have to be to get noticed.  It's a strange world. 

So here I write, trying to discipline myself to write good and do other things good too.  It's a strange concept, forcing yourself to do sub-par things.  But it's the best way to do great things later on.  Perhaps I will have more to tell, better stories to write.  Perhaps when I'm 80 all I'll have is the deranged memoirs of an old man.  Crazy memoirs are better than no memoirs.  I think.  And as long as I compare myself to tweets and memes, I'm dang near royalty!  Except for that one guy who is writing a zombie story on Twitter.  It's amazing.  It's like real-time zombie updates ongoing throughout my day and week.  Ok, enough of that.

I'm still here.

His mother had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.

Lois McMaster Bujold, "Memory", 1996