About that blank page...

Over and over I make the point — in Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy, on Twitter, here on the blog — that the two scariest things about MAKING THE THING THAT IS NOT are starting and finishing.

Before you begin, you are faced with that BLANK PAGE, whether a literal empty piece of paper or word processing document, or a figurative one of stone or clay. It’s horrifying, that blank page: WHAT IF YOU MESS IT UP?

That’s why one of the key Precepts of Lichtenbergianism is ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS. Just start. Mess it up. Make a mark. Use that blank page as a portal — explore the path.

If you go to BrainyQuotes.com and search for blank page, you’ll find that the quotes are evenly split between those artists who dread the blank page and those who at least claim to find it exciting. (You’ll also find some TASK AVOIDANCE advice in there.)

The point is simple: the blank page will always be a scary thing as long as you’re scared of it. As soon as you make that first mark, that first sentence, that first musical phrase, then you have something to work with, something to add on to or erase or improve.

And what if you fail? What if that first mark in fact ruins it?

As I told parents of the 3000 students nominated for GHP when they asked what if their child were not one of the 700 finalists, “Not all baby sea turtles make it.” Not all art gets finished. However, you have not failed; you have ABANDONED work that is no longer your work. Real artists know this. ABANDONING your work doesn’t make you less of an artist; it makes you more.

Go. Make a mark. Mess it up.