I tell them that I’m interested in many things, so I read a lot of book and magazines, and also articles at Medium and other web sites.

And inside my head I say “And very seldom from talking to people at parties, though that can happen.”

But pain of writing? I’ve been writing nearly daily on the web since 1994 and in magazines before that. I have never felt pain. Perhaps because writing has always been extra money for me, not needed for survival. If I don’t know what to write next, I don’t write. That’s rare, but it happens.