Grit

Some writers like to make a show of their struggle, thereby demonstrating just how great their own grit is. Perhaps the most famous among them was Gustave Flaubert, who wrote letter after letter to his mistress Louise Colet, groaning about the difficulties he encountered in composition: struggling all day over a paragraph, achieving no more than a single page after a full week at his desk.

My own preference is for those artists who try to make it all look easy. Maurice Ravel, who said that he got more for his art out of a few hours of joy than out of a month of suffering, is exemplary in this regard.

Blood, Sweat, and Words