The Blank Page

Are you having problems with it?

Image by Author

Better than staring at it

If you've ever sat there staring at the blank page there are many tips that might help.

• Get up and do something else first.

• Go for a walk outside.

• Exercise.

• Make Lasagna.

• ad absurdum

You may have experienced the maddening fact that are in any given moment 10k things to do: other than writing. Let's look at an option that might actually break the ice.

• Start your new Blank Page goto text.

Call yours The Blinking Cursor or whatever you want, it's your goto file when you can't seem to kick into gear. The main difference to other tips that take you away from the keyboard is that you can write whatever you want in this file. For example:
No idea what to write about... doesn't matter.
Going to take that vacation offer, sounds great for the family...Dashing through the snow.
When you see the southern cross for the first time, you understand now why you came this way.
How did this song come to be? What's its meaning for the songwriter; Crosby? Stills? or Nash?
My experience is that at some point, one thing leads to another to another to another... The end of the chain is usually a story.

KISS Keep it simple stupid

This is about writing without any agenda whatsoever.
Keeping it simple means no metadata, no date timestamp, no worries about formatting and no editing as you go. The one exception you might want to make is using headings, we'll explore that down below. The idea behind the blank page is to focus on writing, just let it flow and write. It makes no difference what words you bring together.
It's also a part of picking up on snippets - some call them sparknotes - of text that end up being an idea for a longer text.
Sparknotes can be the beginning of a writers workflow.

• A letter to your future self.

• A letter to a loved one long gone away.

• A sort of long journal.

• A certain topic.

• A piece of fiction.

• Gibberish.
  Of course depending on the mood of any given day, each of these examples and more will end up on The Blank Page. Just allow the file or note to grow.

What is important is that you write and that you write honestly.
Connect the thoughts (or ...) you have right now. If it ends up being the largest document in your storage system it's fine. Rest assured that some thoughts will turn into more of a topic, it won't all be Gibberish.

What for

If you're not used to writing, it can be overwhelming to take in all the advice out there;

• Write a short story every week. Ray Bradbury

• Write every single day. 5000 words.

• Write in your journal.

• Write on your phone, even if you only have 15 minutes waiting time.

Of all the things I've tried What has helped me most is The Blank Page.

Use Headlines / Outlines

There is an advantage to this when it comes down to a simple copy / paste to start a new document with a topic that became worthy of exploring.
If, like me, you use markdown text with some focus writer (iAWriter, Obsidian) you can have the outline showing on the sidebar. In case you don't know much about Obsidian, the plugin Typewriter Scroll allows you a Zen focus mode combined with typewriter where your cursor remains at a fixed position on the screen. I like having the current line always at eye level.

Inspiration

Whenever something starts flowing and becoming more than just an idea, you can decide to turn that section into a new note. Use this as a snippet / sparknote and add it to your workflow. Apropos workflow, I'll be showing you mine soon about using Ticktick, Obsidian and the 3 P's.

So thank you very much for reading this far.
If you found a takeaway here you can do me a very large favor and let me know in the comments what you took away.
Peace be with you.