The blank page. So full of potential, yet perhaps the most intimidating for some people. If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo or just starting a new writing project, you may be facing the blank page wondering where to begin your story or what you even want to say. Here are some famous quotes by authors who have come before us to inspire and encourage us when we’re faced with a blank page:
So often is the virgin sheet of paper more real than what one has to say, and so often one regrets having marred it. ~Harold Acton
The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. ~Vladimir Nabakov
The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it. ~Jules Renard
If you haven’t got an idea, start a story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you’ll only have to throw away the first three pages. ~William Campbell Gault
Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth
Find the key emotion; this may be all you need know to find your short story. ~F. Scott Fitzgerald
There are thousands of thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen and writes. ~William Makepeace Thackeray
Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable. ~Francis Bacon
First thought best thought. ~Allen Ginsberg
Every writer I know has trouble writing. ~Joseph Heller
How do you approach a blank page?
Stephanie Nikolopoulos 
It’s interesting how every form of art has it’s frustrations and moments of missing inspiration. From painting, to the written word, to the culinary arts etc.
I guess we can’t all be geniuses all the time!
My $0.02 – Something you wrote sometime, regardless how bad, asks a question you were trying to answer it. Answer it this time!
I agree! In fact, i was talking with agents last week, and they said the same thing — that sometimes you need to overwrite so you as the author understand the subject matter. Then, you can cut back and only keep what’s necessary and well written.
Loved the post! I endorse Thackeray’s view in particular. I often feel that I think in written form 🙂
I usually have to write to figure out what I’m feeling and thinking.