I have a case of the multi-disciplinary writer's block.

I'm having a hard time writing the outline saving code in Iron Lute. I have an essay I want to post here, but it is obstinately refusing to go into focus. (I may yet just post it in a nebulous state, as I'm not convinced it's ever going to focus, by its very nature, but I think it's important that I write it.) I also have a technical post on the inner workings of Iron Lute which I'm having a hard time writing; I've mostly written it, but it's quite dull.

Yes, that's right, even more dull then the existing postings! I figure someone ought to be interested in those because I would be, but I wouldn't want to read this posting as written.

Going backwards, I know why the Iron Lute essay is dull, though I am surprised. For a change of pace, I was going to show a failure I've experienced, to contrast the successes I've mentioned to date. I've been able to explain why it should have been a success, but explaining why it is a failure has proven difficult. (Perhaps this is because the only real failure is that it is too difficult to use, not that it "doesn't work", and it's hard to show in prose why that is. You really have to try to use it yourself to understand why it is hard to use.) I am intrigued by how this is almost exactly the opposite of conventional journalism, where disaster stories write themselves (assisted with a heavy helping of cliches and standard idioms) but good news is hard to write.

I haven't been able to work on the code out of lack of motivation. I'm sure it will come back, it always does, but that's one of the major downsides of Free Software; it gets released when I'm good and ready and if that means I want to take a month off to play video games, well, that's what I'm gonna do. ;-) (OK, it's only been the last week, but it has been quite relaxing and rejuvanating. I'm sure the code-monkey will get back on my back here soon.)

Finally, the essay has been just plain, ole' fashioned hard to write. It's about negativity in weblogs and journalism, and how it is affecting me, and I believe others, emotionally, but I've had a hard time keeping a strong thesis in it, mostly because the emotional effects are quite diverse. Hopefully it will come together, because I feel quite strongly we need to start critically exploring the new media world we are building to see how we fit in as humans, and indeed, whether we fit in as humans.

Here's hoping at least one of the blocks breaks soon.