In this very new year, I have been thinking about how great beginnings are. When we begin something entirely new, we have carte blanche to do whatever comes to us--as long as it is legal and moral. There's something exciting about having a blank page of paper in front of you. The possibilities of what goes on that page are endless. Consider it one of the joys of writing.
Yes, I know the Negative Nellies will say that empty paper is terrifying. They have no idea what to write. Their mind is a total blank. I don't buy it. It depends on your attitude. Consider the white paper scary and it will be. Think of it as a golden opportunity and that it is exactly what you'll have.
What about having a brand new pencil with a spotlessly clean eraser when you were a school kid? It was fun, wasn't it? We liked opening a new jar of school paste, so smooth and white. Even now, we find pleasure in being the first one to step in new-fallen snow or to open to the first page of a new journal. I love turning to the first page of a book I will read.
Look at this new year as your chance to start fresh in your writing life. That blank page of paper is waiting for you. It doesn't matter if you start with a writing exercise or the first chapter of a novel or a poem. Maybe you've had an idea for an essay swirling in your head. Even if you write nothing more than a phrase or two sentences, go for it. Now is the time to begin!
If you've been in a funk over your writing lately, this new year is the time to climb out of it and start fresh. Let's face it. We all get discouraged or down about what's going on in our writing life now and then. Put all that behind you and move into this brand new year with gusto!
Thank you, Nancy. Your information and advice are particularly relevant to me, ever since my Traumatic Brain Injury which happened so long ago. Yes, I have much I can write about resulting from that injury in late January of 1983. So much has happened since, and the revelations continue now. Every new day is another sheet of paper containing large amounts of blank space; with inconsistent words having been splattered there, next to the white and blurred colors, to create an unusual context of shadows congealing throughout my mind. A mind emulsified many times with that same subterfuge in my murky subconscious. Another New Year, another Blank Page. Sort of.
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