I finally bid farewell to a manuscript I have been working on for over a year as of just yesterday.  My mom’s going to proofread it, then it’s off to my agent friend and the world beyond.

Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good about the accomplishment, and stoked to start a new project–until I opened a fresh word file and found myself staring into a vast and empty WHITENESS. I almost started running a spell check on the old one just to  be around some words again.

Yes, starting a story from nothing can feel pretty damn overwhelming, however, as Anne Lamott says in her book on writing and life, there is really one way to do it, “bird by bird.” In other words, you can’t do it all at once, but by starting and keeping at it, you will eventually get there.

So here goes.