I just read a great article by Scott Berkun: How to write 1000 words. He has a lot to say about creativity, about allowing ideas to flow and multiply. He also spends about a paragraph to tell us that “writer’s block” is where real writing begins. My favorite part comes at the very end, where he says:
As I reread I refine like a river into a canyon, chipping away each time at little pieces, polishing the bits that hold up, and pushing away the ones that don’t. And when I can read through the whole piece without much changing I know I’m almost done.
This is a comforting idea to me, because it is exactly how I write. It’s the writing technique that got me through college. It’s rapid development in English. I’ve never tried to write a book, but this is the first time I’ve ever thought I’m on the right track!
I don’t write code this way… in code, one might consider this debugger-oriented coding. But I think this creativity and speed is something that very writable languages strive for.