It’s interesting to think that when you are staring at a blank piece of paper, or in many cases today, a blank document on the computer screen, that we are all beginning writers.

As far as literally, someone who’s had several books published or been writing for several years is not a beginning writer. A beginning writer is someone like me. Someone who has recently begun to write. I have no published books. I don’t have several books I’ve written waiting to be published. I just have two books I’ve been working on. The one for Mari’s memoir and the fiction book that I had finished a complete first draft for but through all that I’ve realized I needed to start over almost from the beginning. For me, I think I’m the epitome of the beginning writer.

But more figuratively, everyone is a beginning writer when they are staring down at that blank page waiting to write something. Sometimes the writer has something immediately come to mind whereas others might have the dreaded writer’s block. As of today, knock on wood, I haven’t had writer’s block. I’m sure at some point it will come.

The blank page can be daunting. But then the words come and the page begins to fill. The thrill of writing surges through me. This is why I write. The thrill it now brings me is something I never thought I’d get from writing but am so glad I have.