Overcoming the Blank Page and Blinking Cursor
By Jordon P. Frye
Author of The Church That Caesar Couldn’t Shut Down
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6 min read
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You’re finally going to do it! You sit down at your computer and open up a Word doc. You type in your title, set up your page settings, and make sure autosave is turned on (you can thank me later for that one).
You are ready to write that article, that book, or that blog post. You’ve been so excited to get started that you couldn’t hardly see straight. But now that you’re here, and the blank page and blinking cursor are taunting you, all of that excitement suddenly starts draining from your veins and is replaced by a new feeling—writer’s block.
There aren’t too many things that give me anxiety. I’m not generally a very anxious person. But let me get stared down by a fresh, blank page, and I start to feel what the Mayo Clinic characterized as, “a sense of impending danger, panic or doom.”
But you aren’t reading this article to commiserate with me, you’ve clicked on this link to find out how NOT to do that every time you sit down to write! I can’t say I’ve figured out how to completely eradicate that feeling, but I do want to share with you four practical pieces of advice that will make the duration of that sensation as short as possible, and get you writing!
The Notes App Is Your Best Friend
The human brain is an absolutely incredible thing. It is more advanced and efficient (while having more processing power) than the most powerful supercomputers we’ve ever built. Our brains excel at figuring out problems and making connections between interdisciplinary abstract ideas. Believe it or not, your brain does it’s best work when you’re not even trying to think hard!
If you will feed your brain quality content, allow yourself to ponder meaningful questions, and then step back—you’ll be amazed by how much inspiration and motivation will start coming to you. But I guarantee that the vast majority of those inspiring ideas will come when you aren’t within arms reach of your computer. Thank God for the notes app.
I can’t tell you how many writing outlines or sermon thoughts I’ve frantically typed out on my phone’s tiny little keyboard at 3:00 in the morning. Or how many times I’ve been on the verge of falling asleep when it suddenly dawns on me how to communicate that idea that has been giving me so much trouble.
Whenever or wherever inspiration hits—make sure you have access to a notepad or a notes app. When you sit down and are staring at that blank page, there aren’t many things more thrilling than being able to copy and paste an entire writing outline that is riddled with typos (since you tried to write it at 3 am on your phone without waking your wife up). It may need some work, but at least you’ve got something to work with!
There is an old Talmudic conversation that asks, “How do you know when a man has mastery over the yetzer hara (evil inclination)?” The answer comes, “When he goes to bed with a question of Torah and wakes up with an answer!” There are three powerful ideas here:
Rest with important questions
Let your God-given faculties (your brain) mix with the Spirit and lead you to the answer
Find somewhere to write it down!
Believe In What You’re Writing
I never cared much for writing essays in school. They didn’t seem meaningful. I didn’t see the point. They didn’t feel important.
The quickest way to get over the slump of questioning if the time and effort of writing is even worth it is by only writing about things that you believe in. Only write articles that you believe are important.
If you truly believe that what you are writing is valuable and will be helpful to your reader, you’ll find endless resources of motivation to push through and get words on the page. Even when you feel like burnout is just around the corner, if you really believe that your project is important, you’ll find the strength and the inspiration to keep going.
How do I know if I really believe in what I’m writing? You’ll find out pretty quickly as you start trying to put words on the page that your brain and fingers may be engaged but your heart and soul aren’t interested. When that happens shelve the project and revisit it later.
Spend your time and energy writing about things you really believe in. Because when you do, you will truly believe in what you are writing.
Everybody Feels Imposter Syndrome
The creative process is an absolute emotional roller coaster. You start out with an inspiring idea that you are convinced will change the entire world until you get to page three and suddenly you start asking questions like…
“Is this even worth it?” “Why would anybody care what I have to say?” “Who am I to be telling anybody anything?”
If you’ve ever fought those questions, congratulations—You’re not a narcissist! And that’s actually probably a good thing. But do you know what else is a good thing? Those questions are entirely normal. You’re going through the normal cycle of the creative process.
One of the most freeing books I ever read was by Austin Kleon. He wrote a book titled: Steal Like an Artist. In the book, he included a chart detailing the life cycle of the creative process. In summary, here’s what it looks like:
This is the best idea ever
Ok, this is harder than I thought
This is gonna take some work
This sucks-and it’s boring
(Dark night of the soul)* This is where you stay up all night fighting imposter syndrome
It’ll be good to finish because I’ll learn something for next time
It’s done and it sucks, but not as bad as I thought
As comical as his descriptions are, there’s a lot of truth in them. You don’t have to be the greatest writer to ever walk the earth to write meaningful content. You don’t have to know more than all the great authors in the world to contribute to the conversation. You just have to be willing to study, to think, and to write.
When you find yourself in the dark night of the soul fighting imposter syndrome, just remember—you believe in what you’re writing! Keep pushing through. Somebody, somewhere will be thankful that you did.
Don’t Be Afraid To Produce Bad Writing
I went more in-depth on this idea in my article, So, You Want To Write? But it's worth summarizing here: Don’t feel like every sentence you write has to be the best sentence ever written in literary history. Get your thoughts on the page. Get that blank page filled to the brim with bad writing. Then go back and edit it ruthlessly.
For some strange reason, I get more enthusiastic about fixing bad writing (and end up producing more quality writing) than I ever could have while staring at a blank page.
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TLDR;
If staring at a blank page gives you anxiety (like it does to me), then get something on the page as quickly as possible! Whether you copy and paste an outline from notes, quickly grab your computer when inspiration strikes, or you just start producing bad writing…do something to get words on the page!
Once you have words on the page, and the dreaded blank page and blinking cursor are a little less intimidating, you can settle in and start adding to the conversation in a meaningful way.
Jordon P. Frye resides in Anderson, Indiana with his wife and helpmeet Katlyn, where he serves as Student Pastor at the First Pentecostal Church of Anderson under the leadership of Senior Pastor Luke St.Clair. Having traveled nationally and internationally as an evangelist and speaker, Jordon continues to minister through preaching, teaching, and writing.
Get your copy of The Church That Caesar Couldn’t Shut Down: How Paul Prepared The Church In Philippi To Stand Against The Attacks of Antichrist