You can always edit a bad page but you can’t edit a blank page
Those are the words of a famous writer Jodi Picoult when she was giving a talk about the habits of an effective writer. These words got me thinking about most how we try to edit a blank page and I am also a victim of this sometimes.
It is so easy to have a blank page and yet have a mind-full. I mean, there is nothing wrong with having the ideas in your head and thinking on them over and over again and the best part even execute them well in your head. Wouldn’t it be more exciting to actually start on these ideas and not just think them???? The important thing is always to start. What sets great people apart from everyone else is the willingness to start and diligence to continue.
I do have dreams for my life, things that scare me even when I think about them and I always ask myself, “how will I do it, will I succeed, do I really want to?!?” These thoughts race through my head and I start to feel like I am probably not the best person to carry out such a thing, I still need to grow and learn more about the trade, I still need to see how other people did it, if they succeeded, I don’t want to be a statistic of failure and so forth.
The mind is such a powerful tool, negative thoughts can play hide and seek with you all day and the sad thing is they will find you no matter how hard you try to hide if you allow them to. Sometimes I wake up with a sentence in my head or even as I am going about my day a phrase can come into my head and I know I need to write something on that. Before I used to just brush it off and be like it will come back and guess what it hardly does and when I crack my head and try remember what it was, for the life in me I just can’t seem to and it’s so frustrating!!!!!!
I have since learnt to write down the sentences and come up with a paragraph that will eventually turn into paragraphs and voila I have a story.
*I have so many phrases, sentences written all over my note book (I will get to them…eventually).*
When I do sit and write I always go back and read, reread and reread until I am satisfied, I can edit a story a thousand times before I am satisfied with it and I don’t mind at all because it’s easier to edit a bad page than a blank one.
How many times have you had a blank page and a mind-full? If you really reflect back on those times you will probably realise that nothing ever did materialise of that blank page, it just remained what it is a space of nothing. Think of all the dreams you once had from the smallest to the biggest, the smallest of tasks you wanted to do but didn’t get around to doing them cause of whatever reason you might have had at that time, that college application you wanted to do, that scholarship you wanted to apply for, just think of all these things and just imagine where you would be had you started, that phonecall.
Fair and fine you might not succeed at the first attempt and no I am not going to say but try, try, try again, 🙂 I will say, Fair and fine you might not succeed at the first attempt but at least you have a page with something, you can work from there, edit it as you like to fit the situation, maybe along the way you will realise you are going about it all wrong and you need to change your strategy, whatever the case it beats having a blank space!
