🤫 How to Handle the Blank Page Syndrome 🤸♀️
Newsletter from August 4, 2026
Hi dear student,
You have probably experienced it too. You picked up a new piece of paper, wanted to type a message or letter, but then you froze, and the words just didn’t want to come out. You kept staring at the blank page, paralyzed.
It is a common psychological block, characterized by anxiety, fear of making a mistake, messing it all up, and needing to be perfect. Typically stemming from possibly long-forgotten experiences in the distant past, this detrimental behavior can sabotage our enthusiasm and joy of creating before we even start writing one word, drawing the first line, or, in the case of our students, carving a single woodchip off a block of wood.
So here it is, the “Blank Piece of Wood Syndrome”, a very typical theme in our courses. It takes on all sorts of variations, all possible excuses of why not to start carving. The wood is too hard or too soft, too big or too small, the character in the making not exciting enough, the perfect tool not yet purchased, and besides, the refrigerator needs defrosting, and the carpet needs to be vacuum cleaned one more time … I need to call grandma … and of course I am not good at this whole creating thing anyhow!
After realizing that almost all of us experience this detrimental behaviour and thought pattern, we might be fortunate enough to find the needed support in our online SKOOL community, surrounded by nurturing like-minded creative minds! We get that crucial nudge and reminder to snap out of this procrastinating and avoiding behavior. We pick up any piece of wood we have, the simple pencil we already own, and draw a line on this piece of wood, we take the knife we have and just make this crucial first cut. Let that woodchip fly! Breathe in the scent of that single woodchip being removed … and the sweet smell of success! You did it!
Yes, we need to practice to get better, enjoy better tools as we come along, keep making mistakes to fully understand … all will come to us once we decide to make this first cut. Don’t allow this imposter of the past to rob you of your creative joy today!
Sending warmest regards from the Whalefjord in Iceland,
Bernd
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