I listened to a conversation with Rhianna Pratchett the other day. It was a great discussion all the way through, but here I want to go into a small detail which was quite inessential to the conversation. Rhianna mentioned her father a couple of times, at one point talking about how disciplined he was, how he did not believe in writer's block, and how he was usually way ahead of deadlines.
Which made me wonder: did he consider writing hard or not? I have often thought that things we do which seem the easiest to others are not the same ones we find most challenging or interesting ourselves. The things we really care about we also tend to worry about, sweating details, trying to improve, getting stuck, feeling pressure, and so on. It sounds as if Terry managed to make writing his job without getting hung up on things which would make it feel hard. If so, what was the challenging part, what kept it fresh? Was there some other activity he thought of as the difficult one, so that writing could remain the simpler one?
Or perhaps he had just found the right thing and balance for himself, and a way to keep the feeling that he was getting paid to do his fun side activity all the time.
Either way, there is something to be inspired by in there.