Blank Page Anxiety - How to Write Anyway
The blank page represents infinite possibilities and yet, it can be the very thing that prevents us from writing. How many writers have agonized over the centuries as they stared at the empty canvas before them waiting for the words to flow out of the pen (or the cursor)?
I know I've had those moments. Times when I sit down wanting to write. No, needing to write. Like the pent up creative energy was threatening to burst out of me if I didn't put words to the page right then and there.
Until I met the blank page.
Then all that ambition and desire just slams into a brick wall like a test dummy. Sometimes you can almost physically feel the whiplash from impact. It's tangible and real, yet difficult to describe.
The blank page has that power and mystery within it.
On the other hand, it can be the very inspiration that leads to beautiful art flowing out of you like a river. It's almost as if you've tapped into an invisible source of energy and it passes through you as a vessel or a host. The muse, some might call it. I've heard others say it's your truest self showing up.
Either way, it often starts with the joy of a blank page.
What a beautifully complex relationship one can have with it. Frustration at times of dryness and elation when the banks of your creative river overflow. In many ways, that's a picture of all relationships, isn't it?
Yet, the blank page never judges.
It's simply there. Waiting to be embraced and danced with, should you be brave enough to ask. It may be a slow-dance that builds momentum and intensity after you fumble through the first awkward steps - and that's okay - but, it might just be a fiery salsa or tango that sparks right away.
What matters is that you show up and engage the blank page like a friend.
For some of us it's an old friend we've been speaking to for many years. Some perhaps haven't rubbed elbows with their friend (or frenemy) for a long time. Others still will be forming a brand new relationship and aren't sure where to start or where it will go.
All are welcome by the blank page.
So next time you stare at a blank page and feel stuck or uninspired, try to remember how good of a friend it's been in the past. Start slow and just write stream of consciousness until the creative flow naturally takes place. You can always edit away the "bad" parts once you're done.
Thank you, blank page, my old friend, for decades of partnership and creative flow. I couldn't do it without you.