The Infamous Blank Page

The practice of writing daily is lessening my fear of the “blank page.” You know, when you have to write something, could be a journal, an article, or a school assignment, and you open that new document and see a white page filled with nothing, does that not terrify you? That’s a bit of a loaded question but I was always intimidated by that blank page. I still am. Even starting these daily thoughts, my first post was about how I can be paralyzed by my doubts before I even begin to write. We all have that voice in our head that yells out our insecurities. If I could give you a visual of mine, it’s a miniaturized version of myself sitting on my shoulders (much like in movies where the devil and angel stand on either side) and it has something to say about every move that I make. That’s exactly what self-criticism feels like for me.

While that voice still lurks in my head, I’ve found that the only way to quiet it down, is to do the very thing that it’s criticizing me for. In this case, fill the blank page. No overthinking, just write and release. What’s wild is, just this morning, I began revisiting old articles that I wanted to submit to be published. These were stories I started but talked myself out of finishing because I believed they weren’t strong enough to be featured. Today, I’m proud to say that I finished a personal essay and sent it off in hopes to be published. Whether or not it gets published, or if I even get a response at all, the real win is finishing something I started. So I’m grateful for this process and excited to see what more will come.