The Paralyzing Blank Page ...

Chapter 1 … cursor blinking … waiting for your brilliance to skillfully unroll the clever, original masterpiece framed out in your head in a way no one else can. But what comes first? What comes next? What if it’s not right?

Maybe you’ve written one book or twenty, but that blank page and that taunting cursor can pose the greatest threat to a writer’s confidence. I myself have finished three big beautiful books that I am incredibly proud of and yet … almost every time I sit down with that blank page of possibilities I start to doubt myself. When does this end? When will I earn enough stripes, or reviews, or accolades to feel like less of a neurotic mess every time I type those two words?

I’ve talked with enough writers and authors to know that this is not a unique struggle. That blank page is daunting. There’s no real cure because our minds are stubborn. Not just in our self-doubt but also in our need to precisely weave the story we are compelled to tell. A big task. A gigantic commitment.

A LOT of pressure.

Maybe it’s the pressure you mount on yourself. Or maybe the external pressures of expectant fans and agents and publishing houses help keep us in that perpetual state of insecurity, but I do know this to be true …

And this …

And THIS! (lest you start thinking I have a thing for Stephen King - wise and talented as he is!)

Don’t give up. Nothing that is worth having comes easy. Great stories are birthed out of a passionate struggle to present the words just right. But don’t let the fear of failure stop you. Each word, each chapter (that will undoubtedly need to be re-written more than once) is a victory. And one step closer to completing the story of your heart you will hone and edit to perfection.

Just write. And keep writing.

The labor is worth it. <3

TALK TO ME: Has your creativity ever been stunted by that intimidating blank page? Or what other challenges have you faced completing your story? Happy Friday, dreamers! 

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Amy Leigh Simpson writes romantic mysteries with honesty and humor, sweetness and spice, and gritty reality covered by grace. When she’s not stealing moments at naptime to squeeze out a few more adventures in storyland, she’s chasing around two tow-headed miscreants (Ahem)—boys, playing dress up with one sweet princess baby, and being the very blessed wife to the coolest, most swoon-worthy man alive. Amy is a Midwestern-girl, a singer, blogger, runner, coffee-addict, and foodie. Her Sports Medicine degree is wasted patching up daily boo boo’s, but whatever is left usually finds its way onto the page with fluttering hearts, blood and guts, and scars that lead to happily ever after.

Check out her NEW romantic mystery novel FROM WINTER'S ASHES! Available NOW!

When the Inspiration Dries Up: Writing Quotes

Sometimes as writers we need fresh inspiration. Sitting down to the keyboard one more time seems like so much drudgery. So we stare at the ceiling. We kick cabinets. We yell that we need something to happen.

On the days like that, here are a few writing quotes that might just inspire you in  your search for fresh wells of creativity.

Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many notes or colors, there are only so many flavors - it's how you combine them that sets you apart.

Wolfgang Puck

Writing means sharing. It's part of the human condition to want to share things - thoughts, ideas, opinions.

Paulo Coelho

I read and walked for miles at night along the beach, writing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.

Anna Quindlen

Learn as much by writing as by reading.

Lord Acton

I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done.

Steven Wright

What are you favorite writing quotes? I'd love to read them!

____________________

Cara Putman

An award-winning author of twenty books, Cara is a lecturer on business and employment law to graduate students at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management. Putman also practices law and is a second-generation homeschooling mom. She lives with her husband and four children in Indiana.

Favorite writing quotes

Today I thought I'd bring you some inspiration in the form of some favorite writing quotes. 

Some of these make me nod in agreement, with that deep soul-connected feeling of "Yes! someone gets me!" Others bring a wry smile to my lips; still others make me think, and reflect on my own work.

I hope they do the same for you.

Image by Simon Howden, freedigitalphotos.net

Good writing is like a windowpane. ~ George Orwell 

 There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. 

~ W. Somerset Maugham

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it. ~ Anais Nin  


 When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature. ~ Ernest Hemingway 



Easy reading is hard writing. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne  

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.
~ Truman Capote  

The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary. ~ J. K. Rowling  

 Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers. ~ Isaac Asimov 

Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.
~ Gloria Steinem  

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no 
Image by -Marcus-, freedigitalphotos.net
concept of humanity. ~ Hermann Hesse  

Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.
~ W. Somerset Maugham  

However great a man's natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.
~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau  

Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people. ~ Roald Dahl

I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.
~ Ernest Hemingway 


Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself. ~ Truman Capote  

For me, writing has always come out of living a fairly to-the-bone kind of life, just really being present to a lot of life. The writing has been really a byproduct of that. ~ Alice Walker  

For me, writing a novel is like having a dream. Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I'm still awake. I can continue yesterday's dream today, something you can't normally do in everyday life.
~ Haruki Murakami 

The desire to write grows with writing. ~ Desiderius Erasmus 

Which of these resonates with you most? Any you disagree with? Do you have a favourite quote you'd like to share?

Karen Schravemade lives in Australia. When she's not chasing after three small children, she spends her spare minutes daydreaming about the intricate lives of characters who don't actually exist. Find her on her website and Twitter.