Fear of a white page
Inspiration doesn’t always come easy, especially when you’re waiting for it to save you.
A white page is full of potential: it contains infinite possibilities of plots, characters and worlds; it has the power to transform itself into light and darkness, humor and desperation, mystery and romance, all at the same time. It’s like the universe just before the Big Bang: everything is contained in that infinitesimal dot, and the amazing energy of the primordial explosion will push atoms and energy into existence, creating galaxies, systems, planets, and life. The author has the same power of creation: from a white nothing to a flow of black marks that can tell a story, and ignite the reader’s imagination.
A white page is also the scariest of enemies, the trickiest villain in the author’s life: what if your most precious ally, the Knight of Inspiration, doesn’t show up, and you’re left fighting the big white monster on your own? Being face to face with one’s own nemeses, in a tense one-to-one duel, is the most challenging of situations. It makes me think about the Nothing in the Never Ending Story, by Michael Ende: a silent enemy that we cannot quite see or grasp, yet a terrifying presence for most of us. What can save us from the Nothing? Dreams and wishes, the most simple and natural expressions of our own creativity.
The Knight of Inspiration will hopefully arrive on his black stallion, ready to kill our enemy with its dark sword.