The Blank Page Is Waiting by Mark Wainwright

My bookshelves overflow with books about writing. I listen to podcasts, attend conferences, and dig into the lives and habits of accomplished authors. I’ve done my homework.

But to be a writer, I’ve also got to do one very important thing—write.

Many people say they want to write a novel or a gripping short story. Goals are wonderful. But we must remember the old Irish proverb: “You’ll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.” While we might enjoy dreaming up unique characters, memorable settings, and exciting plot points, it’s not the same as writing them. To be writers, we need to sit in a chair, open a laptop, and write.

Easier said than done.

That blank screen often stops us cold. The cursor blinks. We stare back at it, waiting for something—the right word, the perfect opening line, the courage to start badly. The wait continues, and still nothing gets written.

But here’s the thing. That first line doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to exist on the page. So write it. It won’t be pretty. In fact, it’ll probably make you cringe. Get it down, move to the second sentence, then the third. Before long, you’ll have a paragraph. After that, a page. Eventually, pages.

Mark Twain put it plainly. “The secret to getting ahead is getting started.”

Messy drafts are normal. Ernest Hemingway reportedly rewrote the final page of A Farewell to Arms dozens of times. Great writers don’t produce perfect first drafts. They produce fledgling ones—rough, uncertain, but alive.

We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Writing is one of them. Our response is simple. Show up, put words on the page, and trust that God will use those words for more than we’d ever dare to imagine.

Open that document. Get started. Be faithful and watch what God does.