“… you must not come lightly to the blank page.” Stephen King, On Writing.

There’s a reason why there are so many articles and posts written about the blank page. It is daunting and scary: What should I write? Do I have the ability to write? Will it be good enough? These are the questions that keep me awake at night, especially the last one. Unfortunately, a good night’s sleep is conducive to a more productive writing session the next day, but sleep is frustratingly elusive when my mind’s busily planning and questioning my writing. And it’s never worse than when the blank page of nothingness awaits.

There is one way in which I like to trick my brain into thinking I’m not starting from scratch: adding a title. It doesn’t have to be a particularly creative title, one that has been endlessly played with during repetitive tasks or as a replacement for counting sheep. Simply writing “Chapter One” seems to satisfy my brain and put a smile on my face. Look! I wrote two words! I’m well aware that I’m fooling myself. The story is still as unstarted as when I began, but there is great satisfaction in seeing that there are indeed a few black marks on the no longer entirely white page. And after that? Now it’s just a matter of putting more black marks on the page and hoping that they’ll be just as understandable and relevant as the two words that mark the beginning of something that may not be perfect, but will at least be something rather than nothing. After all, every piece of writing, both good and bad, has to start somewhere.