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A quick ramble around the point.
Oct. 24th, 2006 11:30 amSo then, this business of exchanging pleasingly-ordered words for ${KER-CHING!}[1]
I had previously thought it was a case of toddling down to one's Writing Shed or Study, bright idea clutched firmly in paw, and then scribbling/clattering away until one had reached The End. At which point a bespectacled slip of a girl from the publisher pitches up, dumps the manuscript in the wicker basket on the front of her pushbike, and that's about the last you hear of it until the cheque arrives coincidentally with the telephone call from Melvyn Bragg.
This version of events would appear to be somewhat in error.
The other version, the one that involves staring into space for months at a time, waiting for the muse to appear, also seems somewhat at odds with the facts of the matter.
(Although if the muse were to turn up on the doorstep one morning, in the guise of Sharon Stone helpfully holding the milkbottles, I suspect the conversation might turn out thusly:
"Dear God, woman. You'll catch your death. I'm sure wafting about in diaphanous trifles like that is all the rage where you're from, but it'll do you the power of no good round here. Get yourself inside and I'll put the kettle on.")
On the other hand, staring into space while thinking about a hard problem is acceptable in coding-land (as long as one doesn't subscribe to the man-month or KLOC schools of gross management stupidity), so, um, trilobite in school blazer.
Weirdly, the version that goes 'Just crank it out. Throw away the bits that aren't a lion. Continue cranking until the lion is complete.' probably works for writing code, too.
See also 'Good enough for (jazz|folk)[2]', 'Build the first one to throw away' and the one about perfect being the enemy of working. Probably.
[1] It's the sound of an old cash-register, which will make no sense to those unaware of The Goons, skool of Molesworth or Python.
[2] It's funny how the companion phrase 'Good enough for g*th' doesn't exist. Could it be that g*th 'musicians' are a lot further up themselves than the equivalent jazzer or folkie?
I had previously thought it was a case of toddling down to one's Writing Shed or Study, bright idea clutched firmly in paw, and then scribbling/clattering away until one had reached The End. At which point a bespectacled slip of a girl from the publisher pitches up, dumps the manuscript in the wicker basket on the front of her pushbike, and that's about the last you hear of it until the cheque arrives coincidentally with the telephone call from Melvyn Bragg.
This version of events would appear to be somewhat in error.
The other version, the one that involves staring into space for months at a time, waiting for the muse to appear, also seems somewhat at odds with the facts of the matter.
(Although if the muse were to turn up on the doorstep one morning, in the guise of Sharon Stone helpfully holding the milkbottles, I suspect the conversation might turn out thusly:
"Dear God, woman. You'll catch your death. I'm sure wafting about in diaphanous trifles like that is all the rage where you're from, but it'll do you the power of no good round here. Get yourself inside and I'll put the kettle on.")
On the other hand, staring into space while thinking about a hard problem is acceptable in coding-land (as long as one doesn't subscribe to the man-month or KLOC schools of gross management stupidity), so, um, trilobite in school blazer.
Weirdly, the version that goes 'Just crank it out. Throw away the bits that aren't a lion. Continue cranking until the lion is complete.' probably works for writing code, too.
See also 'Good enough for (jazz|folk)[2]', 'Build the first one to throw away' and the one about perfect being the enemy of working. Probably.
[1] It's the sound of an old cash-register, which will make no sense to those unaware of The Goons, skool of Molesworth or Python.
[2] It's funny how the companion phrase 'Good enough for g*th' doesn't exist. Could it be that g*th 'musicians' are a lot further up themselves than the equivalent jazzer or folkie?
