It turns out Kelli’s Blank Page Syndrome (page 21) may be contagious. Or at least the fear of it is. After reading her What’s Cooking column it got me thinking and I sat down here a bit ago and really did just stare at this white square.
But when has it actually happened that I have nothing to say?
There used to be a file on my desk, a manila file folder, a long time ago when I worked for Anne at the Fallon Star Press, and she let me write the “Losing it” column. All week long as life went about happening there would be moments of clarity watching a conversation play out or a situation present itself when it was absolutely clear, “That’s a column.”
It became a catchphrase with my kids and me and some of my sisters. “That goes in the column.” Even driving through town, when all the really good ideas happen, it wasn’t unheard of to rustle around for the nearest writing surface and scribble a note that got thrown in the Idea Bin for future columns.
Every Wednesday morning at 3 a.m. (because you know that thing was due Tuesday night and if I got to Anne’s email before she turned on her computer Wednesday morning I was ok) I would get up in the still of the pre-dawn in the perfect writing conditions, when you’re still somewhere between sleep and awake and the inner critic hasn’t had her coffee, and I would dig through the Idea Bin and find the one that resonated at that moment.
With the evolution of smartphones, that concept has morphed into a note file on my phone. And what’s even cooler is you can have as many idea files as you want in that thing and they’re always in there for when you get overcome by the writing spirit and you can sit down and just pound out your book. ‘Cause not only is there an Idea Bin for the Captain’s Log, but there’s also one for Novels that are Brewing, another for Fabulous Book Titles, and one for Famous First Lines. I love that one, it’s the “It was a dark and stormy night…” file, “Call me Ishmael,” so to speak.
These files are the investment made in preventing Blank Page Syndrome. Insurance, if you will.
This is funny, I just went through one of the idea lists and realized I may have written a Captain’s Log with this same theme a while back. Even with the file there, sometimes an idea will keep circling back all on its own. I take that as an indicator there is something in that file that wants to be written.
So, while I get the critic her coffee and rustle through the bin to figure out which one of those things is resonating, I’ll be right here…
…Keeping you Posted.
Rach
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