Facing a blank page

A blank page can be a little intimidating as a writer. Staring at a blank page and being unable to fill it with something intelligible is a common experience of writer’s block, the bane of most writers. I say “most” because there are probably some writers who find the challenge of writer’s block to be just the thing they need to break through it.

I’m not one of those writers.

Lately I’ve realized that despite all the writing that I do in my day job, I don’t do much personal writing. When I realise this and decide to start writing more frequently, I go utterly blank.

Well, that isn’t entirely accurate. I have ideas that I want to write about but they seem to fade awfully quickly and seem silly the next day so I shelve them.

One of my most effective muses when I do write is my collection of feeds and I came across a very appropriate item that I want to share. Brain Pickings has a post titled “Facing the Blank Page: Celebrated Writers on How to Overcome Creative Block” that includes a video with snippets of interviews from various writers about the dreaded blank page:

It is a highlights video drawing on a series of slightly longer interviews with each writer that were published by the Louisiana Channel on YouTube:

I think I resonated most with Philipp Meyer’s and Lydia Davis’ thoughts about the blank page but each interview is worth watching if you, like me, find yourself staring at a blank page frustratingly often.

You can find the Brain Pickings post with selected quotes here:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/09/13/writers-blank-page/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+brainpickings%2Frss+%28Brain+Pickings%29

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