Why no writer should ever fear a blank page.
Ever since I have been writing, two things have been regularly thrown in my direction.
The first is that at some point all writers get writers block, the second is that a blank page is a scary thing.
I’ve written about writers block before so I won’t go over that again (however, to paraphrase it for any newbies, in essence I believe it’s a myth designed to excuse one of any number of basic failings) but the issue of the blank page is something I’ve never really discussed before. Having had one thrust into my grubby hand last week, now seems as good a time as any.
However unlikely it might be, all writers have to believe that somewhere deep inside us is the ability to pen a booker prize winning novel, an Oscar winning screenplay or an article which will finally secure us our long overdue Pulitzer prize.
The blank page signifies what is possibly the start of work on that very book, script or piece but generally speaking, it only takes a few words on the page for most to acknowledge that if it’s ever going to happen, it won’t be this time and even as you sit there, you will literally see all hope evaporating. That’s a horrible feeling. But there’s more.
Dig deeper still and you uncover the standard writers fears of exposure, of failure, of making yourself look stupid and possibly worst of all, of being boring and who on earth would want to risk any of that? Yet many would have you believe that all of that and more lurks on that single A4 page or a blank screen filled with nothing but white.
Reading that, is it any wonder people fear it?
For me however, the very opposite is true because I don’t fear the blank page at all, I love it! And for one very specific reason: it signifies power. Power to create anything I like be it non-fiction, fiction, thriller, comedy, male, female, sex, crime, football… anything.
A blank page gives me freedom to develop characters from my own imagination and make them do whatever I like be it good, bad or even evil. That can be based on germs of ideas which might have been festering in my warped brain for years and if I don’t like those characters, I can kill them off. Horribly if I want. And all of that comes from nothing. Well, nothing but little old me and my desire. Now that’s what I call power! Real power!
That, in essence, is exactly what I’m doing at the moment. For last week I was introduced to an actress and asked to create a movie for her. That was it. My entire brief.
As a writer, have you any idea how exciting it is to be handed that kind of creative freedom and told to get on with it?
It took barely two days to take this woman off into areas of fiction I’ve never even considered writing about before but I now have what I consider to be one of the best ideas I’ve ever developed sitting on two A4 pages waiting to be sent to her.
She may hate it, everyone may hate it, but I love it. It’s certainly been brilliant fun to write and at the end of the day, I write for me so that’s all that matters.
Blank page… don’t be frightened of it, love it. It’s everything any writer could ever want.
The Crew. Still #1
The Crew continues it’s run at #1 on the Amazon and iTunes free sports download charts which means we’re well into the tenth month at the top now. I continue to be humbled by the mostly brilliant reviews the book receives and am more determined than ever to write a truly blinding third book in the The Crew/Top Dog series. Hopefully, that will be released next summer.
Before that, Wings of a Sparrow is almost finished now and will be out within a couple of months. Plans are also advancing well for the movie version so please, watch this space!
Sales of The Art of Fart are going well and the response has been excellent. I love gross humour and I certainly loved writing it although I genuinely don’t know if I could do it again. I’m not sure my poor old heart could take it!
Finally, my ongoing troll hunt continues albeit in slow time due to pressure of work. I must say however, that the bigger it gets, the more confusing and tedious it gets. I’ve actually been literally bombarded with emails from people telling me of their experiences whilst the forums are full of people slagging me off because they say there is no such things as bullying of authors.
Trying to sort out fact from fiction is incredibly time consuming but with others now helping out, I have little doubt we’ll get there in the end. It may take a while though!
PS: on the subject of trolls, since reviews are at the core of this problem, could I please remind everyone that if you have read a book, leaving a review somewhere is a great way of letting people know you have enjoyed (or hated) it. It’s also a great way of making contact with the authors!
