The act of beginning

BY ZIGGY SCHUTZ

There is something so humbling about an empty page.

Hands run over the surface, as though a simple touch will reveal the story this paper was always meant to tell. Sculptures whisper through marble lips that their creators reached through stone to carve out their waiting forms. Music trills its stanzas about being born on the wind, from the beaks of birds to notes peppered across waiting bars and beats.

There is no such relief in an empty page.

It is simply blank, brimming with potential, and terrifying because of it.

Every piece of writing has been born like this. Spilled onto the paper like so much spent ink, some with crosses and corrections, some simple, with clear curves.

That shared origin, the blank page, holds power in it, hand in hand with intimidation. It could be just words, ramblings that no amount of editing can correct. It could be the birth of a whole world, one that will fill thousands of pages just like this.

It could be anything, anything at all.

There are few places as neutral as an unused sheet of paper. It holds no special weight, no hidden depths. It is the rest before the concert begins, the bare stage before the set goes up.

As soon as the pen touches it, the page changes. It takes on the fingerprints of its author, shows them in every letter’s shape, every word used in place of another.

As soon as the pen touches it, it becomes something.

But before that, it is nothing. Just a piece of paper.

Just a door to a world no one knows but you. Just the first lines of characters who will reach into the hearts of readers and gain pulses of their own.

Just a piece of paper, and everything it can be.

So, take a deep breath. Pick a favourite pen. Forgo all that planning. Create something from nothing, all with a line of ink.

All you have to do is begin.

Ziggy Schutz (she/him/he/ her) is a queer, disabled writer who is at all times looking for ways to make his favourite fairy tales reflect people who look a little more like her. You can find more about her writing on Twitter at @ziggytschutz.