Blank pages

Happy Saturday Bloggers,

I guess you know by now that I have been obsessed with stories and writing ever since I was a kid. Blank sheets of paper have drawn me in and I have responded, writing down every stray thought, and occasionally drawing paper dolls (and their wardrobes) for my little friends when we all attended that little three room schools back in Pennsylvania.

Writing is hard, lonely work at times, but the good part is that it is also consuming, edging every other concern out of my mind when I faced hard situations in relationships or my personal economy. Working on a story can remove me from any problem and leave me relaxed and happy when the day is done.

I won't say that writing has fixed my problems, although it has provided an income over the years. I wrote for a daily newspaper for quite some time - providing up to five stories a day for the front page. A daily takes a big lot of stories, an sometimes the greatest challenge was to simply come up with enough ideas to fill the page. In a very real sense there are times in the life of a reporter that it is all the news that fits and the blank page can be a very real problem.

I like paper in all its various manifestations and have paper in neon hues and shades of pastel. I have textured papers and papers that are smooth and shiny - like that expensive magazines are printed on. Paper is great!

Don't get me wrong, I adore paper with words on it too. I read all the books in the three-room school library and tried to read all the books in the high school library. My house is too full of books and even though I purge them frequently, they keep coming back.

But I digress. This is an essay about blank pages, and I will say that it is sometimes a bit of a struggle to think of things to write about every single day. Sometimes the words just won't come, but you know something? There are always work that needs to be edited because the gremlins get in my work and take away punctuation marks and change the write word for the wrong one. Man! I have work to do! Keep on the sunny side, Terry

Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series

"Travel Through Time With Terry"

http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com/