Writing Thoughts #1

This Author's Writing Thought of the Day #1:

Nothing is scarier than staring at a blank page, knowing you have a month to write however many words, on top of your normal, hectic, everyday life. Beginning is the worst. What do you write? Where do you even start? How on earth are you going to come up with a believable, solid plot, that won't get you laughed out of wherever it is you happen to be at the time? (Not that it won't happen anyway, at times, but hey; unlike reality, fiction has to make sense.) How is it possible to fill so many endless planes of empty white, armed with nothing more than a pen or keyboard and your own- faulty as it may be- brain?

But you have a deadline. You signed up; no going back.

So you put your pen to the paper, or your fingertips to the keyboard, and then, suddenly, it isn't scary at all.

So you take the plunge, and begin to write, and you start to fill the page with ink (or digital ink, depending on your preference), and then, suddenly, the white isn't so white anymore.

Then you get to see your story come to life, and experience that moment of panic when your characters begin to write themselves, without your consent, and without giving a darn about your plotline. You get to see this new world of yours- all yours, did I mention?- start to run by your own rules. You begin to discover your characters, fall in love with a few, play favourites, try your hand at manipulating fate, and try not to cry when your plot demands that a few of them die. You get stuck often, are tempted to chuck your writing utensils across the room even more often, and grind your teeth at the horror of a sentence you thought was acceptable a second ago, most often. You even, at times, throw out giant sections of your work because you can't stand to look at them anymore, or you hate your plot, or your characters. Sometimes you'll hate your world, but did I mention that it was all yours?

There's nothing scarier than staring at a blank page, knowing you have a month to write however many words, on top of your normal, hectic, everyday life.

But there's nothing else quite like it, either.