"Why is it still hard?"

Quoted by several folks on the f-lists:

...the ACT of writing is hard. When Buffy was flowing at its flowingest, David Greenwalt used to turn to me at some point during every torturous story-breaking session and say "Why is it still hard? When do we just get to be good at it?" I'll only bore you with one theory: because every good story needs to be completely personal (so there are no guidelines) and completely universal (so it's all been done). It's just never simple.

- Joss Whedon

*tears self away from SnuSa tangle to focus on billable work*

notes for a later rant

Opening sentence of Quidditch Through the Ages:

No spell yet devised enables wizards to fly unaided in human form.

Initial reaction: either the narrator of QTtA or DH is unreliable
Follow-up reaction: HP Lexicon lists the publication year of QTtA as 1952. However, the edition released to Muggles in 2001 mentions a 1994 Quidditch match (and several other events between 1952-1994, so one can't argue typo).
Watsonian interpretation: Snape devised his flying spell sometime after the publication of QTtA in the Wizarding world (1995? But it had to be available in 1991, because Snape confiscated it from Harry in SS/PS, and Oliver Wood had it checked out the previous April).
Watsonian interpretation x 2: QTtA was discreetly updated with additional chapters on more recent events in the manner of NYT obituaries and books such as Van Loon's History of Mankind (where the original author's name remains on the cover in order to sell it, but it includes chapters penned by another author after his death)
Watsonian interpretation x 3: Text of DH automatically takes precedence over text of QTtA, because DH narrator is omniscient (and therefore by default is not wrong) whereas QTtA narrator is a wizard (and therefore could be either wrong or underinformed)
Ribbons' reaction: Och, tae hell wi' it! *stomps off to write broomstick/blowtorch*