Monday, August 14, 2006

Fear of the full page

Many moons ago, I used to fear the blank page. Now with a novel in the can waiting for me to edit it, I think I'm more terrified of having too many words to know where to start. It's funny -- three years ago I don't think I would have ever imagined that such a predicament would be possible for someone like me, but here I am, with my first draft untouched for close to six months now, experiencing a paralysis far more frustrating than writer's block. At least with writer's block you can agonize over whether you were ever really meant to write or not; whereas fear of the full page is not a failure to create, but to convert. I feel like Hannibal at the gates of Rome... only minus the elephants!

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