Blank pages are a new beginning

Posted July 19, 2017 by Kelly Apple in Writing / 0 Comments

I’ve seen a lot of posts lately on Facebook…Hold up. I said that wrong. I’ve seen, like, three posts about this. Which isn’t really “a lot,” is it? I’ve seen a COUPLE posts on Facebook about how writers have a hard time getting started when that dreaded blank page is staring at them. Because beginnings are hard, right?

I remember when I first started writing as more than a hobby. That was a fear of mine. I worried I’d have a blank page in front of me and get stuck on how to start getting down the thoughts in my head. Never mind the reality that I’ve always loved opening lines. Never mind that the perfect opening scene would burst out of me like Athena from Zeus’s head or some other weird visual.

Beginnings are hard. Everybody says it’s something they struggle with. I should probably struggle with it to.

Except I didn’t. Not the opening scene. Not the first lines. I loved blank pages and the potential that was there for me to create a world. Or a scene. Or a snippet of time cut from the day in the life of one of my characters.

If we want to talk about endings, though…endings are my kryptonite. Saying goodbye, making sure the story is tied up neatly with the threads laid out for the next part of the tale…wait, actually I do like that last part. Because they’re their own sort of beginning, aren’t they? It’s the goodbye part I have a tough time with. Letting things go. Walking away from characters who have taken up some quality real estate in your head. It’s HARD!

Honestly, that’s probably why I write series books. A series gives me a chance to come back to the characters and revisit them. I might change up the H and h from book to book, but I *could* go back and play with previous characters if I ever wanted to.

(I guess that’s good news for people who like my books. I can’t seem to close the door on the idea of a follow-up series. Ever. You never know when a new set of issues might pop up for old favorites.)

The point in all this is that the things we *think* we should struggle with and the things we actually do can be vastly different. I love beginnings. Endings make me cry.

I’ve learned to embrace this about myself. Which means you never know when an old series will be revived. Or when previous characters will pop into a current series.

Yeah, I’m just going to run with it.

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