The Struggle of the Blank Page

 

"If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word."  (Margaret Atwood)

I’m struggling to write a story now. I love to write. I have always wanted to write. I have always been writing something since I was ten years old and maybe before. I like the feel of a pen in my hand, a notebook open in front of me. I like my fingers perched over a keyboard ready to record whatever words pop into my head. I like filling the blank page. And yet, I often struggle to write. I put it off. I delay the hard work of getting the words of a story out of my head and onto this blank screen.

I don’t struggle to write here in my on-line journal. These words come easy. I grab a picture off my phone or out of my photo files and write something that matches. Or not, as it turns out tonight. This picture is just one I really like and that I took last spring when the tree was blooming. That doesn’t have much to do with the struggle to write a book. But then, maybe it does. Maybe that’s what a writer needs – the seed of an idea that buds out into words that bloom into scenes on branches that lead back to the entire story or trunk of the tree and down into the roots of what the story is really about. Now that was reaching, wasn’t it?

Ah, but pulling those words out of my head is what I’ve always done. I do my best to make my characters get up off the black and white page of my imagination and explode out into the colorful pages, alive and ready to live their stories. Then comes the worry that the story is not going to be right. That’s a worry I have had to overcome with nearly every book I’ve ever written. Somewhere between the excitement of typing Chapter 1 and finally finding the end, I nearly always hit a slippery spot where the doubts bombard me and make me lose my confidence in the story. Then it’s good to remember what James Thurber said. "Don't get it right, just get it written."

I can’t make anything better until I have it written. And after writing dozens of books, I know I’ve done it before and that perhaps, just perhaps, I’ll be able to do it again. I’ll be able to tell the story I set out to tell. Or if not that one, the one my characters reveal to me along the story road.

Here's more great writing advice from Barbara Kingsolver. "Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer."

I tell myself now that my problem is time. My problem has always been time. Every writer struggles for the time to block away their everyday world of chores and duties to go off into their fictional world. And then to use that time wisely. It’s easier to read. Every writer needs to read. It’s easier to write in a journal. Every writer needs to organize his thoughts and keep in touch with her inner self. It’s easier to check messages or post on Facebook and all writers want to connect with their readers.

But here is the advice I’m going to have to keep in mind in the next few weeks as I look at a deadline headed my way with life pulling at me on every side.

"Planning to write is not writing. Outlining--researching--talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing." (E. L. Doctorow)

And writing is what I’m going to do. As soon as I get this blog post finished - and check my messages - and...

Thanks for reading. I so appreciate each and every one of you who read this and those of you who take the time to leave a comment. For those of you curious about my post on Facebook that went viral, it has gotten over a million likes and nearly 12 million views. I have been moved by the many people who have wanted to celebrate with this one child who has defeated cancer. Many have shared their own fights against cancer or those of others in their families. I’ve scanned hundreds of the comments and have been impressed with the joyfulness of the comments. I’ve only seen two or three that were in any way negative. People are ready to hear good news.

Blank Pages, Beginnings and Book Launches

Talking to friends - the best part of a booksigning

A new book means I get to celebrate with my reading friends. I started having book launch celebrations here in my hometown when my first inspirational novel, The Scent of Lilacs was published. We had so much fun that I've had a book launch party for every book since. And now it's time to gather with friends for my new book, The Gifted. That will be happening this coming Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Anderson County Public Library - the good Lord willing and the creek doesn't rise. Not much chance of the creek rising as dry as it's been and I'll hope the Lord will smile down on us celebrating a new book. I'll be talking about writing this fifth Shaker novel and hearing what you have to say about The Gifted too. Question and answer time is always my favorite part of any talk.

  
But I know many of you reading friends live a little too far away to drive over (or maybe down or up) to celebrate with me. So I'm celebrating with all of you by having a contest or two where I can give away a few prizes. This pottery pitcher is the third prize in my Celebration giveaway on my website. You can sign up there until midnight EST on July 31 for a chance to win one of three prizes. This pitcher was made by a local artist here in Anderson County. That's fun - to have a local, one of a kind prize. Then there's the Fresh Fiction giveaway too, plus I'll be doing some guest posts on blogs with the chance to win a book. Some reading friends followed me around to those with Words Spoken True, and I appreciated that so much. 

All the celebrating is good, but here at home, I need to be beginning on a new reason to celebrate. It's time for me to pull up the blank page, ask a few "what if" questions and try to launch into a new story with the hope that in a year or so I'll be able to have another party with friends and giveaways to celebrate it. 

Beginnings - in a story that's when anything is possible. A time when a writer can believe this might be the best story yet or a time when a writer might worry that the story magic won't sprinkle over her fingers on the keyboard. After writing dozens of stories, I can summon up confidence that the story will come - most of the time. It always has before, but with each new story, I want it to be better than the last. That's what can be hard. Believing I can write a better story than the ones I've already written. But I will begin again and search out new people who have a new story to tell. I won't let the blank page intimidate me. At least, not too much.

Thanks so much for reading and if you're in the area, I hope you'll come to the Anderson County Public Library Sunday, July 15th, and enjoy celebrating a new book with me.  

Why Do You Write?

Why do you write? That's a question that has popped up in my life from time to time. What makes one person want to write everything down and another hate to write a two line thank you letter? I suppose it's because we're all wired differently. Some for writing. Some for dancing. Some for singing. Some for a thousand other talents. My son-in-law is flying to Texas this weekend to take part in an Iron Man race where the participants swim and bike and run. Now that's a real "why" question. But he likes challenging himself, seeing what he can do. He knows he's not going to win. The thrill for him is in finishing the race and doing the best that he can do.

But writing? How do you do it? Why do you do it? Are you still doing it? That's the most frequent question I hear in the grocery store or wherever when I'm out about town. Are you still writing? As if I could quit. Even on the days when the words come hard or not at all, I'm still drawn to the blank page. I still want to fill it with words. I still want to tell a story.

So I came across a quote from Irwin Shaw that I shared with a writing class for Community Ed several years ago.

"Why do kids play football? They can get hurt on any play, can't they? Yet they can't wait until Saturday comes around so they can play on the high-school team, or the college team, and get smashed around. Writing is like that. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it." -- Irwin Shaw

And here's another quoted passage from a lecture delivered to journalism graduates at Columbia by Roger Rosenblatt.

"Why write?
Because we have to. Because the thing is in us. It's like a biological fact. We are the stories ourselves, telling one another to one another about one another.
There are good, sound reasons for writing. We learn what we think when we write. It's an odd process, a mysterious process. The sheer play of language, the sheer sound of language.
We also write to undertake a journey, to create an adventure from the past into the future. We move around the bend in the river. Anticipation is all. The vehicle of that journey is the sentence. The single sentence." --Roger Rosenblatt

And so Mr. Rosenblatt has put my answer to the question "why write" into words. Because I have to. Because the thing is in me. A biological fact. It's just what I do. And you know what? I'm glad. I want to fill up that empty page or computer screen with a story that I hope a reader somewhere is going to enjoy so much that they can't put the book down until they read every word.

Hope all your stories are good ones and that you write and read many great sentences.