And it is so exciting.

You wake up, bounce out of bed, full of hope and energy, and you settle down to work.

In your mind's eye, you have such a vivid idea of what you want your masterpiece to be like.

You work, you toil, harder than even you could have envisioned.

And you take a step back from what you've done and realize... things aren't the way you'd hoped.

Let's put it more brutally.

It's terrible... and you're disgusted by what you've achieved.

And the only thing you can think about is the terrible gap between what you wanted to do and what you've actually done.

And it seems your taste is well ahead of your abilities.

You run away in distress, maybe into the arms of someone who loves you, or perhaps you choose to sit alone, where you contemplate your own profound mediocrity.

Look at you.

You're no better than that little guy... at least he works hard.

You're so sad.

You've gone back to bed.

The problem is, this is too easy.

Despair is chief.

The first rule of anything creative?

Forgive yourself for the horror of the first rounds.

Don't hurry; do a little bit every day.

Keep a timetable and stick to it.

Work without hope or despair.

And you work like this for days, months, years, even decades, and eventually one day, your talents will catch up with your taste and you'll have done something in line with your expectations.

You might even be a little proud of yourself. And who knows? Maybe the rest of the world will be, a little bit, too.

So, just keep going!