"You Don't Start None, There Won't Be One ... Really!"

If you start something, you should finish it.

I hear a lot of stories as an interview transcriber.  Many of them, I can't repeat in a family blog (hope you all have given up on finding one here).  I mentioned to a publisher that I could take all the libelous material my editors cut from my transcripts and put them into a book, Comic Book Babylon.  My publisher went pale at the thought ... and I can't blame him.

But I can tell one story: In Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur by Jim Amash, Eric Nolen-Wethington and Carmine Infantino (with transcripts by Your Humble Freelancer), Infantino tells a story about artist Mort Meskin and the time they spent together at the Simon-Kirby Studio.  Mort could not begin working on a comic page until someone, often Carmine, drew a single pencil mark upon the page.  Once the virgin paper had been defiled, so to speak, Mort could begin work (and brilliant work it usually was).

Available from your favorite book monger or order directly from www.twomorrows.com

How many of us succumb to what I call "the tyranny of the empty page?"  It's almost as if that blank sheet of typing paper ... or those unmarred parallel lines on the writing tablet ... or that perfectly sterile while screen on your computer monitor ... it should remain inviolate, untouched, unaffected forever.

I feel your pain, brother.  I know what you're going through, sister.  Well, at least I used to ...

A long time ago, I didn't want to really mess up a virgin sheet of paper unless I had enough ideas and words to fill it.  I think it stemmed back to the 7th grade when a substitute teacher burst into tears -- and I'm not talking about just weeping here, but full fledged wailing -- when someone scribbled one line on a sheet of paper before wadding it up and tossing it away.

Well before the environmental movement took ahold of our imaginations and our consciences, this outburst stunned us and our class vowed to be more globally considerate.  Of course our consciences were battered into submission within a week when the daily tirade covered some new international crisis that apparently 30 midwestern school children -- yeah, us -- had created.  We couldn't even drive and somehow, we were a team of evil super-geniusses on the express route to destroying the planet?  How did that slip by our guidance counselors?

Well, I obviously didn't listen to the lady and kept on writing down my story ideas.  In fact, we all swiftly inured ourselves to her caterwaling, being the insensitive whelps we were (and probably still are).  Anyway, as I developed my writing skills, I soon found that I had more ideas than time, something you will also learn to develop as you follow this blog.  Promise.  And I needed to immortalize those creative thoughts because I have the attention span of a mayfly and still do.

As I'd come up with a halfway decent idea, at least one worth thinking about to see if I had the ability to milk it for its full potential, I'd write down the notion and place the paper in my pocket.  Eventually, I trained myself to carry notebooks or at least eventually transfer my notes to those notebooks.  Sometimes, I'd carry the paper with me until I could get some quality computer time and then I'd input the idea and expand upon it as I went.

This knowledge came from the times -- and I wish I could say I'd only committed this sin once -- I'd written down what I thought was a good idea and then dropped my trousers into the wash without checking them as thoroughly as I could.  My ideas and my dreams turned to squishy pulp ... almost a metaphor for life. 

"I Can Remember Everything ... Just Not All At Once."

I didn't realize how long I'd been doing the note thing until a couple of years ago.  I unearthed a box of old letters (for all of you who think a no-number X-Box belongs in a museum of antiquities, this was a means of communication that was quite popular just prior to e-mail and not long after cave paintings) as well as various magazine articles I'd clipped as reference for whatever reason.  I remembered compiling this ephermia with the intent of revisiting it when the muse hit me.  It was also before the Internet so I was probably concerned with losing this data to the ages.  You know, vital things like articles from Time Magazine about the role of hot pants on the Nixon Administration's foreign investments.  Or maybe I just liked the pictures.

Buried in the midst of this was a single lined sheet of college lined notebook paper.  I'd written a single word on it ... I can't tell you now what the word was because I've forgotten the inspiration it carried on that day from shortly after I graduated from college.  Whatever inspired me to take the time to grab a blue ballpoint pen and write down that single word, I may never recall. 

Perhaps that's how the legendary "Croatoan" came about.  The sign was probably a note one of the colonists wrote to themselves to remind them of a great idea.

These days, I have several notebooks going at any one time, at least one of which I tend to carry on my person.  Two are filled with notes from webinars I attend.  A good student takes copious notes, you know, and mine are the copiousest!  Another is filled with story ideas and titles and stage play concepts.  There's one that's just for day-to-day lists of things to accomplish or reminders that will be torn out and tossed away once the event is past.  Still another gets dragged along when I feel the tickle of my subconscious telling me another writing problem is about to be worked through and I transform from author to transcriber. 

There's also a couple of pieces of paper in my pocket at any given time that contains a note or two, awaiting transfer into a larger volume or a file on my laptop.  But whenever inspiration strikes, I'm ready for it.  Or I can use these to develop an idea when I'm not near a computer. 

You may use a fancy journal or a diary or day planner for your notes.  Me, I've been using these 5.5"x4.25 sprial bound notebooks, 200 pages, lined with perforated pages that can be pulled out when no longer needed.  I won't endorse the place where I buy these for a dollar (because this blog gets no product placement bribery, darn it), but let's just say that when I wondered to myself if these would suit my note-taking fetish, I said, "That's easy!"

Anyway, never let the blank screen or the unmarked paper intimidate you.  It is your duty to fill it with your brilliance.

But you also owe it to yourself to add to that first spark.  You need to place it someplace where it will continue to tweak your imagination until you can flesh out your concept and bring it to full life.  Who knows whose life you are denying inspiration or comfort until you get that story or article or poem written?

So don't let that golden slip of paper wind up in the laundry or sit in your pocket so long that you forget why you wrote it down in the first place.  Act upon your inspiration!

THIS WEEK'S ASSIGNMENT: Purchase a small notebook that you can fit into a briefcase, backpack, purse, or even your back pocket.  You don't have to spend a lot on it, but judge this book by its cover and make sure it can take whatever punishment it's dealt.  Train yourself to write ideas, good or otherwise, within its pages.  Revisit the book frequently and expand upon those ideas as soon as possible.

Then see about writing an idea every day into your book.  Read a newspaper.  Watch a television channel you've never watched before.  Go to the park or the public library and imagine a stranger's life story.  Write it down in your journal.

I want to welcome everyone who's now reading this blog on their Kindle devices.  If you would like this humble assemblage of words sent to your blog, go to http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009SNG8GA and sign up.  The price is 99 cents a month and you can then claim to be a patron of the writing arts.

And if you want to have Freelance Words pop up in your computer's e-mailbox for free, go to the upper right hand corner of this page and fill in your e-mail address in the appropriate place.

Should you have an idea for a future column, I'd love to know about it.  You can leave your comments below or drop me a line at bkmorris56@gmail.com.  In fact, if your creative ideas cannot be restricted to a mere comment, pitch your idea to me at the aforementioned e-mail address and perhaps I'll let you write a guest blog on what fires your creativity.

And I might be persuaded to write one for your blog, if you're interested.

Currently, I'm working on my first book which I hope to release in early to mid-December.  It will be available on the Kindle reading device initially with a paperback release in late spring or early summer of 2013.  Ignore what your parents and Rick Springfield use to say about talking to strangers ... I know how to take the fear out of the process and so will you once you read it.

And if you have a writing assignment in mind, come on over to www.freelancewords.com.  

Until next time, you have a great one!  Take care of yourselves and take care of each other!