Blank Pages

The risk of creating

For books with pages that aren’t blank, click this image.

The wonderful thing about a blank page is that it has no mistakes to mar it. There are no misspelled words or scratch-outs or accidental smudges. Just pristine blankness.

Infinite potential.

That’s also its most intimidating, even terrifying aspect. Because the simple act of creation or expression demands we mar the surface, disrupt that pristine perfection. Call that potential into becoming something.

We take the risk that what we create may be unworthy of the materials we use.

And yet, the only way to create art, to touch the soul of another, to move the world, is to risk all of the mistakes. Otherwise, the page is only potential. Empty and formless.

And that isn’t the purpose of a blank page.

Every novel adventure was written with you in mind. Click the image to take your journey into intrigue, action, and mystery.

A NOTE AT THE END

I’m frustrated with “potential” and “opportunity” lately. I love both of these. My life has been a series of hops from one to another, like a stone skipping on a pond. I love that God keeps bringing them to me.

I’m frustrated because “you can’t pay the bills with potential,” and “these opportunity checks keep bouncing.” Having a bunch of these things coming in is great because it tells me things will be alright. But it’s the “will be” that’s killin’ me. Struggling sucks.

I feel, though, that there’s a reason for it. To develop some qualities within me, for sure—character, strength, perseverance. But then, yesterday, I recorded an episode of the Wordslinger Podcast, and in the Note at the End for that I said something that clicks pretty well for me.

I have a platform. And I have a responsibility to use that platform to reach and help people who are struggling with the things I’ve struggled with. I also have the opportunity, through that, to share what I’ve experienced with God, so others can have some hope.

I hate struggling. But I’m grateful for it. Grudgingly grateful, sometimes, but I come around.

Suffering makes life feel heavy. But it also builds muscle.

I wish these potentials and opportunities would hatch. I do. But I couldn’t justify a life without them. There is hope, which can sometimes taste bitter and feel toxic, when it goes unanswered for too long. But there is also grace, mercy, love. And growth.

If this is what it takes for me to be the best version of myself, to somehow bless others through my writing and my life, then it’s worth ten times the cost.

Blank pages were made to be filled. Mistakes and all.

I, too, often lay down on a pile of work to read one of my books. (click the image)