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How To Triumph Over The Blank Page
Creativity begins with an idea, and then a trip to the craft store. Then what?
When people know you are a writer, they often give you writing-related gifts. Journals. Pens. Books. Books. And more books! And did I mention journals?
The same is true for any hobby, craft, activity. When your friends and family learn you’re interested in cake decorating, they give you books, metal decorating tips, prepared fondants, and paste and gel food coloring. They learn your newfound interest in watercolor and gift you paper, paints, and brushes.
No matter what the hobby or craft, one can always use more of its tools.
As a writer, friends and family often give me blank journals. A comedian once said of this book-giving endeavor, “Why are you giving me homework?”
As a professor of writing, I require my students to keep two different journals. One is a free-write journal in which I instruct them to spend the first 10 minutes of class writing to a prompt and about whatever comes to mind.
Professor Peter Elbow wrote a great deal about the benefits of the free-write. “The idea is simply to write for ten minutes… Don’t stop for anything. Go quickly without rushing. Never stop to look back, to cross something out, to wonder how…
