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Writer's pictureChristopher McHale

The Pure Joy of the Blank Page: Celebrating the Human Touch in Writing

Updated: Dec 28, 2023






The Irreplaceable Thrill of Starting from Scratch


I like to run my hand down a blank page just before I write. The tactile feel of skin against paper. It doesn’t matter if I’m getting ready to write an essay or a song. The sight of a blank page raises my pulse.


Drawing Inspiration from the Masters


Before pen meets paper, I immerse myself in the wisdom of literary giants. James Joyce once said:


Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives.

Whether it’s Joyce, Murakami, or Faulkner, their words ignite a spark within me. Just a sentence or two, and I'm compelled to return to my own blank canvas.


The Physicality and Rush of Writing


Then, I begin. The act of writing is more than just mental—it's a full-bodied experience. An actual rush. There's nothing like it. Writing is discovery. Ernest Hemingway put it perfectly:


There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

One sentence leads to another, a chain of inspiration born in the process.


The Surprising Journey of Expression


As I write, I find a flow, a challenge to keep up with my racing thoughts. This propulsion, this urgency—it's both exciting and surprising.


Like Mark Twain said,


The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.

Writing in the Age of AI: The Beige of Digital Homogeneity


In the era of AI's rise, I think about its impact.


Them Silicon Boys always get their way. Can’t stop them. Can’t love them either.


The digital world, with its beige uniformity, lacks the spontaneity and vibrancy of human creativity. AI, for all its prowess, lacks the heart that races at the sight of a blank page.


Embracing the Human Element in a Robotic World


The color of the Digital High-rise is beige... That’s Your AI. It’s all kind of the same. AI might be the future, but it's a future painted in 'institutional beige.'


Yet, it's clear to me that we should not let the robots have their beige world. As Virginia Woolf once stated:


Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.

This is something AI cannot replicate—the sheer joy, the human spirit, the soulful rush of starting with a blank page.


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Christopher McHale
Christopher McHale
Nov 29, 2023

That moment is so real to me. Writing has alway been my escape from reality, and yet reality shows up there no matter what. Reality is fused into the words. No escaping that!😀

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