The blank page

A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.

Sidney Sheldon

For most writers today the challenge is not a blank piece of paper but rather a blank screen.

For me it is more often the half-filled page. I seem to be very good at starting something, assuming the idea is there, of course. But then I reach the point where the idea runs out. Where do I go next? Is that all I've got?

The creation story told in Genesis begins with a blank page. "Now the earth was formless and empty," the New International Version puts it. Fortunately God knew what to do next, and there apparently was no such thing as Creator's block.

For so many writers, blankness can be intimidating. I would much rather revise and improve something I have already written than try to create something new. For this reason I sometimes find it helpful to just write something, anything, even if it is essentially meaningless. Then comes the editing process, where I feel more competent and creative.

One finds this same idea expressed in The Messy Lives of Book People, a novel by Phaedra Patrick that I will be reviewing here soon. In an interview, a fictional author says, "It's getting words down on a page that counts. You can't edit something that doesn't exist."

It has been said that great movies are created in the editing room. Perhaps it is the same with books..

God's work didn't need editing. Ours usually does.