24/01/2020

The archive contains older posts which may no longer reflect my current views.

# Liked: Basics 7: Writing More, Writing Better - Nicholas Bate...

# I used to worry about running out of ideas, scared of a blank page, yet something has changed, something has opened up. I don't know if it's as a direct result of the switch to pen and paper but it would certainly be a coincidence if it were not.

There is a difference between a blank screen and a blank piece of paper: the blank screen is impersonal, unforgiving, whereas the paper is tangible, tactile, you can feel it in a way you just can't with a piece of glass. When that page is in a notebook that you have chosen it becomes almost an extension of yourself and that is far easier to deal with.

I now find a blank page inviting, a place of discovery where I don't know what I am going to find but will enjoy the hunt. The trepidation felt about not doing the pages justice has finally gone.

Who cares if you make a mess. Who cares if you have to cross things out and start again.

As Brian G. Fay said to me recently, the only wrong words are the ones you don't write down, the ones you didn't think we're worthy.

They are!