Coping with a Writer's Fear of the Blank Page

by Henry McLaughlin @RiverBendSagas

Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good. William Faulkner

How many of us hesitate to start writing? Even authors who have been at it for a while have this hesitation.

This is sometimes referred to a writer’s block. Sometimes, writer’s block comes because we have no idea what to write next.

Sometimes, it comes out of fear. Like the fear we can’t write, that we’re only deluding ourselves if we think we have talent. Or the fear our story is junk that no one will ever want to read. 

It’s the fear of failure for writers.

I think Faulkner gives wise advice in the quote above. 

There are times the blank page stares back, accusing and ridiculing. Our fingers freeze over the keyboard. And we let it defeat us. This has happened to me over and over. When it does, I turn away and go do something else. And when I come back the page is still empty.

This happened recently as I was my work in progress. When I looked at my notes of what needs to be fixed, the page laid there, daring me to come up with something.

I next tried to write this blog several times without success. Ideas wouldn’t come or, if they did, I’d dismiss them as trite.

I skimmed my folder of ideas, rejecting one after the other, until I found this quote from Faulkner. The simple truth of it smacked me upside my head. 

A blank page is a dark hole. 

A page with words on it is something I can work with. It may stink, but I can see it and tweak and rewrite until it’s something worthwhile.

I looked at my work in progress. Instead of revising, I began a scene between my protagonist and antagonist. As I wrote, I discovered some of the protagonist’s deeper motivations. He became a more complex character which adds nuance to the story that was there before.

The key is to write. Something. Anything. One sentence may trigger a whole chapter that will take our story in a new and better direction. 

Write an incident from our protagonist’s past. Something that happened before the story began. It may reveal a new aspect to explore and develop. It may show the story world in an entirely new light, one that peels back layers to show deeper insights into our story.

Or create a scene where a secondary has the POV and gives his or her assessment of the protagonist. It can be funny or penetrating.

As Nora Lofts says, “I can fix a bad page. I can’t fix a blank page.”

What are some of the things you do to overcome a blank page?

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Coping with a Writer's Fear of the Blank Page from Henry McLaughlin (@RiverBendSagas) on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Henry’s debut novel, Journey to Riverbend, won the 2009 Operation First Novel contest.

Henry edits novels, leads critique groups, and teaches at conferences and workshops. He enjoys mentoring and coaching individual writers. 

Connect with Henry on his BLOG, TWITTER and FACEBOOK.