Pause for thought


I don’t know why people say they’re scared of a blank page. I like the concept.

It’s supposed to symbolise all sorts of mystic nonsense about writer’s block. Block. Smchock. Call me Ikea Minimalist (actually, she’s a minor character in a steam punk drama, who’s really quite charming), but I like a blank page. At least no-one’s been there before. White carpet of snow, just waiting for my imprint.

Sidebar. I used to work with this magic bloke. He would sit in front of the keyboard (and he was old school - a typewriter was really his MO), and when he needed to birth a feature, he’d gaze into the distance in a mystic way for several seconds, hands hovering over the keyboard, then something would click, and he’d set to, and write this perfect piece of prose. Right take, right balance, right word count. Perfect. Total professional.

My contribution was attempting to do the layout to the perfect length - down to the line. And this was in days when you did your page plans on paper. With a ruler!

So, blank page. No probs. It's an invitation.

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