I constantly have this urge to write about the arts or places I've visited in the past. If I'm looking through my memory box of my travels, I feel like creating a story out of it. For example, my amazing trip to Washington D.C in 1995. But once I open that word document....there it is -- the blank page. The hardest part about the blank word document is actually writing something worth reading...in the first sentence. I know for some, a blank page is more of an inspiration to create something out of nothing. But for me, I need something amazing in the first sentence to start off with a great story.

As a Journalism student, I'm trained to come up with a lead -- a sentence summarizing the story in 25 words or less-- after I write the actual story. Sometimes I have this urge to write the lead before the story is written (which is the difficult part.) But most of the time, that doesn't work, for me at least.

I need creativity. Sometimes it comes to me and sometimes it doesn't. I need some sort of inspiration. When I look back at stories I've written for the campus newspaper, I've noticed some of my leads were boring, and some were good. I want great! I'm aiming for great.

So here goes...

Back to the blank page. I think writing this blog helped just a little.

Labels: blank page, fear, inspiration, stories