A slump only appears to those who have walked the path properly. 《This week's three-topic story announcement》

Lately, nothing I write feels quite right.

It's not that I can't write. I can write if I try, and I can finish a piece to the end.

But when I read it back, something feels off.

Phrasings that made me smile yesterday seem completely ordinary today, and the more I think a piece is well-written, the more I want to tinker with it the next day.

I suppose this is what you call a slump.

I used to hate slumps. I would think, 'Oh, my performance has dropped,' and it was something I didn't want to happen if I could help it.

But lately, my perspective has changed a bit.

A slump doesn't come to someone who isn't doing anything. Someone who hasn't walked far enough to tell the difference between yesterday and today wouldn't even have the sense that their 'performance is off' in the first place.

That's because they have nothing to compare it to.

A slump might actually be a rather luxurious problem. At the very least, it only appears to those who have been diligently building something up until that point.

I think writing is the same.

When you write every day, there comes a time when you suddenly can't write. Or rather, it's not that you can't write, but that your own eyes have become stricter.

You start taking a red pen to sentences that you would have passed yesterday.

That's likely not because you've gotten worse, but because your ability to see has grown ahead of your ability to write.

It's painful.

Your writing ability is the same as yesterday, but your reading ability has taken a step forward. That distance manifests as what we call a slump.

A child eating spicy fried rice for the first time only thinks, 'It's spicy.'

But someone who has eaten it many times starts to notice subtle differences, like 'The pepper is strong today' or 'There's not enough oil today.'

It's precisely because their palate has developed that their dissatisfaction increases.

Writing is somewhat similar.

The more you write, the more you see the flaws in your own work. That's why you mistakenly think, 'I've gotten worse than before.' In reality, your taste has just become more refined.

Life isn't a tournament, either. If it were a simple rule where you advance after one win and it's over if you lose, how easy would that be?

But in reality, every day is like fighting the same opponent you beat yesterday all over again. And sometimes, that opponent is your yesterday's self.

That's why we repeat winning and losing.

And I think that's fine.

Even if you intend to write the same way every day, your standards are changing little by little within you. As long as that change exists, the slump is also doing its job.

I wear sunscreen when summer comes. Just because I wear it doesn't mean the sun gets weaker, and I'll still get tanned on days I'm meant to, and I have to reapply it if I sweat.

Even so, I wear it because I know the difference that comes from the accumulation of effort.

Writing is somewhat similar.

Just because you write every day doesn't mean you can suddenly write a masterpiece the next day.

Even so,

I write today.

I will write tomorrow, too.

In that repetition, the scenery changes little by little, in ways I don't even notice.

If a slump comes, you can feel a little relieved. You can just think, 'Oh, I've walked this far.'

Those who are standing still cannot tell the slope of the road. Only those who are properly moving forward realize they are on a hill.

《This week's three-topic story》

1. Ghost story
2. April-start planner
3. Parasol

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[Image cooperation: Sachiwa]

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