About twenty months ago, I was writing constantly. I wanted needed to share what I had learned during my years of experience in a web agency. I was also writing a book and maintaining this blog fairly frequently.
I was living in a rather small city in the West of France, away from the central area where the night life and cultural life happen. After a commute back home, there was not much to do aside from chilling in front of the TV or going back to my computer (writing or coding).
In May 2012, I moved to London to work at the BBC and I also felt like blogging about what I was discovering in the world of mobile web development. My wage barely paid my rent, debts, and the taxes I still had to pay for in France. When coming back home after a day at work, the only things I could afford to do were coding, writing, reading, and watching TV. Which is a bit of a shame in a city like London.
Then I changed jobs and my salary increased substantially. Since I could afford it, I started going out almost every night, jumping on a red bus or a black cab to any venue that had some jazz, rock or acoustic gig playing, wine tastings, comedy shows, musicals, clubbing… I was discovering what this amazing city has to offer, losing focus on web development and finally finding a more normal work/live balance.
"Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson
Commuting, interviewing for new jobs, joining a new company every 6 months, looking for a new accommodation, moving between flats, living in an amazingly cultural city… This routine is tiring and it does not leave much time for writing and reading about web development outside of work. By the way, I admire people who have much more busy lives, children and/or relatives to take care of and still manage to make room in their crazy schedules for writing and reading.
I also have the chance to work with extremely talented people who put the bar so high that I feel like an impostor when writing about web development. Being in a crowd of unbelievably skilled people has this effect on me that I don’t feel entitled to put myself in a teaching position.
In a sense, people may expect me to write good articles and good code, and I fear that I may not live up to their expectations.
Today, I am very tired and I get distracted very easily. Focusing on writing is extremely hard and I have 4 major publishers who count on me to write 3 blog articles and a book. Two years ago, I wished I would be lucky enough to be able to write for those publishers one day, and yet I am delaying writing because every time I try to, it is painfully hard.
I can’t wait to feel that irrepressible need to write about web development again and get back on the writing wagon very soon. Thankfully, people like my girlfriend are encouraging me to dedicate time slots to thinking and blogging…
In a way, writing about my writer’s block is the first step towards recovery…