The writer’s blank page block
It’s always difficult to star a new project. And it’s even more difficult to start you first project. Well, for me, this project is even more difficult: Not only The G.E.E.K. Society is a new project, it’s also my first project in English, and English is not my first language.
What I find appalling is the vision of that horrible, horrible blank page. Even if it where of any other color it won’t be easier. A blank page is horrible. The first thought of any writer is something like “Holy cow, I haven’t even started writing yet and this thing is already reminding me that.” It happens when you’re writing with pen and paper (I prefer pencils), typewriter and computers. Heck, I’ve been blocked trying to write a plain and simple SMS.Now you, as a reader, try to understand what does that block mean to a writer.
That’s because writing is a difficult task. Well, not writing as in scratching a pencil on a sheet of paper doing doodles that are supposed to represent words, I mean writing as in succesfully communicating an idea in such an extend that makes the reader whistle and say “Now this is one fine piece of [insert your favourite expletive here]!” Everybody can write something as simple as a short message, even a long message. Everybody can write a personal journal, or, if he or she (or both) has no shame, a blog. But writing is hard, and soon you face problems. No wonder a lot of bloggers just write a few entries and then, puff, the post about their cats and how lovely they are, and vanish from the ‘net forever, maybe for even more time. To actually write a blog for a long, long time, the writer has to have a strong force of will, to overcome the blank page block everyday, to conquer the desire to throw all his work to the thrash can and drink some beers instead, to force herself to continue doing the activity she choose, all that stuff the writers want to do instead of writing.
But once the writer knows he has to write, for fun or profit, then the block is more intense. Now the writer see the blank page and, instead of a threat, you see a white space, and what the writer is wondering is “now what?” The writer looks to the roof, then to his surroundings, then his hands, then he starts to scratch his head and there he goes, lowering the scratching hand down to the toes. The writer then reads, turns on the radio, open the windows, goes to the kitchen and makes himself a sandwich, fires his Internet browser, reaches wikipedia, starts navigating all the pages, reaches the end of the Internet and suddenly he decides to take a long bath. There the writer reaches the conclusion that the roof needs a hand of paint… and the list goes and goes and goes without reaching an end, and inspiration, alas, she never came.
When just writing a column or a blog that block is never dangerous. You can just start rambling around about something and instead of speaking or shouting you transcribe it, and voilà! you have your article. The block is dangerous when you are writing a novel. I’ve never been able to start a novel from the beggining, I usually start rambling about something that turns out to be one of the ramblings of my future characters, and then I start to write the full monty. No wonder I don’t have a single published novel, eh? But it’s fun to write, at least for me, and it’s fun to read the stupid things I usually write. Excdept my novels. Those are usually awful, I’m the first one to admit it. My short stories are better, and even a coupleof my novellas are something I could read for fun. But I’m wandering from my initial point, which was the writer’s block. I have a few methods to overcome the block. and the simplest one is simply to start writing. “Ha!” somebody may say, “that’s the problem to begin with, kiddo!” Yes, and the answer too. Start writing. Anything. Try a joke, or the last thing you heard on the street, or just put together some words. That simple step is the one that starts the race. Then read what you’ve written. If you recognize it as garbage, then it is garbage: type something over it. There you are: you are writing now and the page isn’t blank anymore. And your block is gone.
Of course, this is not a solution for everyone. It works for me, because I’m not a professional writer, I’m rather an amateur writer. I want to make writing my bread and butter, but it will be hard to do. Meanwhile I’m keeping my day job and writing as a hobby. I certainly hope I’m in the right track.
Cheerio, partners.
V.
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