That first blank page is always a bit overwhelming. Girlfriend was my fourth complete YA book in the last two years. I’ve also written a 300,000 word fantasy trilogy. Plus the multitude of things I wrote during childhood and my teens and college. So writing a complete work is not something new.
But the first blank page is still scary. I look at it and think about all the words I have ahead of me that need to come out before the story is something concrete. I can understand why some people never write when faced with that first page.
It helps to think of it in smaller terms. Such as, “Today I have to write five pages. That’s all.” Or when the writing isn’t coming so easily, “Just write two pages. You can do two!”
When I do start writing and that first page fills, things get easier in some ways, harder in others. Harder because I still have to create a logical storyline and believable characters. Easier because the hardest part–the act of beginning–is done. Harder again because that pessimistic little voice in my head always wonders if I can write something I like as much as other things I’ve written.
I wonder if it ever gets easier? Do the writers with long histories of great books behind them still get a bit overwhelmed when facing that first blank page?