Why I’m Grateful for the Blank Page: A Fresh Look at Writer’s Block
The blank screen blinks in front of me, increasing my anxiety and filling me with a special kind of anguish. I wish it were a portal to another dimension where words just write themselves. I wish I wrote more quickly and took the time to create a whole finished body of creative work. I sip my tea and take a deep breath, thinking how sometimes writing is my biggest challenge—yet it’s the best kind of challenge.
While the blank page can feel like a mockery, it is also the thing I am most grateful for. I have endless journals from my youth that remind me of where I’ve been, journals from adulthood reminding me of all I’ve survived and thrived through, and shared poems that inspired some folks. I am grateful to be a lifelong writer.
Humility wins when there’s a blank page. The blank page can create fear, dread, an anxious spirit. How could my words inspire folks? I’m just a woman with a laptop of endless bright white light staring back at me.
Still, I am grateful for writing, for blank paper journal pages and white screen pages and all that both have taught me about my writerly life. I’m just a woman who gets intimidated by blank pages. How on earth could I fill another one? What if it’s not good enough or enough words or enough sentences or a well-created plot, thesis, or thought pattern? What does this say about me as a writer if I fail to fill a blank page?
I often embrace the wisdom of taking “one step at a time” and embrace the idea of enough-ness. When a blank page is filled slowly and mindfully or even quickly and intensely, one letter can become two, and a letter can become a word, a sentence, and a paragraph. I mistype and delete. I freely write and keep it all, typos and everything. When a page is blank, it is full of possibilities, potential and hope.
Not being able to press “delete” in a paper journal makes it a great palace to get lost inside. It’s a palace* decorated by the possibilities of my mind—the art on the walls are poems, the refrigerator is covered with freeform magnetic poetry, and typos become things not to be scared of, but words like “palace” come out of my fingers like a well-placed mistake.
I encourage you to not fear the blank page, considering how hopeful it can be if you approach writing mindfully and prayerfully. Try to feel that fear and do the thing you love to do anyway. The world needs your authentically written words, sentences, paragraphs, books, poems, and writing creations. You might help someone feel less lonely, encourage someone to keep going, and/or make a small ripple of hope that keeps spreading.
Even if you think you don’t write well, please write what you can with whatever tools are around you. You don’t need a fancy journal or a fancy laptop! Heck, write a poem on a napkin (I have!). Write anything that comes to mind—ah, the beauty of freewriting. If you don’t like it, or if it’s not writing you want to share, then safely burn the paper you used.
Be not afraid of the blank page—it is a palace to be decorated with your words, a portal to a dimension of possibilities, a chance to share your truth and your stories with the world! I’m grateful for the blank pages in my life. What will I say? What will I write? Who might I inspire? What if I only inspire myself or get myself out of a funky mindset? For me, any of these are enough to keep me writing.
* Palace was a typo, and I kept it to prove a point—even our mistakes can be meaningful teachers.
Meet Amber Brown
Amber is a deeply spiritual writer, certified yoga instructor, and spiritual director. She empowers people to embrace their innate creativity and resilience—while encouraging them to embrace spiritual wellness through healthy forms of recreation and restoration. You can find her spiritual writing on mindfullyamberbrown.com. She also developed a spiritual direction program model where people can “Create, Connect, and Move!” and currently voluntarily delivers them in various communities.
Where to find her . . .
Begin Within is a series to inspire a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only your own life, but the lives of your neighbors as well. Gratitude is a theme we talk about often around here because it ties so closely into other missional living rhythms. Practicing gratitude reminds to keep our hearts soft and expectant and our eyes open. Therefore, the more we embrace gratitude, the easier it becomes to truly see our neighbors and where we can join what God is already doing in our neighborhoods.
If you would like to contribute to Begin Within, you can find the submission guidelines here.
Creating Ripples
If you would like to cultivate rhythms in addition to gratitude that will empower you live on mission in your neighborhood, check out Cultivating a Missional Life: A 30-Day Devotional to Gently Help You Open Your Heart, Home, and Life to Your Neighbors. This small book will help you make a big impact in your neighborhood as you learn to let missional living flow from the inside out. Get the 30-day missional living challenge free when you purchase the book.
