A blank page

Is a beautiful thing.

But the more you write, the more you get bogged down.

Committed.

The words you want to write have to fit in with the words you've already written.

Chapters can have their own identities but still must fit in with the storyline.

This is why writing a novel is the most structured of the forms of creative writing.

Once you've gotten deep enough into writing a novel, what you write has to conform to the story you've already written.

On the other hand, you never get anything done until you blemish the blank page.

I once saw a piece of art in a museum that was just a blank canvas.

I've seen this idea repeated in multiple forms in different places.

The art of complete blankness, complete openness, total possibility.

But that's an obvious, easy idea.

So you're caught between having your blank space, having the anticipatory joy of all possibilities, and the hope for all of them.

Then once you're committed, it's more difficult.

If it turns out not to live up to your expectations, there's despair at first, then realization that hard work is required. And sometimes it still doesn't work out in the end. But then you can always wad up that piece of paper and start again with a blank piece.

The tough part is deciding once you've gotten halfway into a piece or halfway into a story—do you stay committed? Is it good? If not, can you fix it? Is there something better that it's about to become?

Or is it better to start over with a blank page?