Many people are awakening to the power boredom can have in prompting one to make new things, but they have not yet considered the call to make slowly. I have a bit of experience in this because I’ve written seven novels and only one is just now going to be published four years after my first draft. So hear me out for a second:

Yes, boredom is great for this: I wrote as much in my Defense of Boring People. And yes, you ought to create into the void as I said in Moral Courage in an Age of Crisis. 

But.

Don’t just put content out into the air, as I said in Content vs. Substance. You ought to study, reflect, actually make something that will help the world or make them think or make them better. More is insufficient. Richer is insufficient. You need to make something that’s better and that the world will be better for having encountered. Don’t consider yourself a master, consult the masters. Don’t consider yourself a guru, humble yourself and learn.

And then make something slowly, carefully, and better. 

It doesn’t mean you can’t make a lot of something — I’m rather prolific and see proliferation as crucial to honing a craft. 

But it does mean that simply shooting a bunch of content out there isn’t the same thing as substance. It takes moral courage to do the slow and boring thing. To study the thing no one else will study. And then to really hone your craft and make something beautiful in the midst of all of this. 

So yes. Make. Make it slowly. Wield your boredom for the sake of study.

And then release it into the world.

But every step of the way will take moral courage: so do it right, tell it true, make it beautiful. 

Not merely more.