the difficulty of writing

In the end, academic writing is an art. The art of creating structures of ideas, and placing ideas in relation to each other. Sometimes, the structure works, and everything falls into place. Other times, the structure fails, ideas overflow, and all become extremely messy and unsatisfying.

Thinking back to the play I saw a few days ago, I imagine the computer screen in front of me as a stage. How can one build a structure of words on a page that can be most expressive and illuminating? How does one deal with one's own limits (materials, knowledge, time), and still create something interesting and worthwhile?

Writing is a genuine struggle between seeking information and searching for art. This struggle is a collective one--the writer thinks with a collective of other writers past and present. It is a struggle against banality, fixed formulas, lies...

I can hardly imagine what I am doing everyday in my windowless office is indeed this kind of "noble" struggle. Most of the time I feel banal, disconnected, tired.

But on second thought, it must be a struggle of such a nature. Otherwise, it would not have been so damn difficult!