Starting with a blank sheet of paper can be intimidating. Most would agree it’s much easier to start when something is already there.

I’ve never been one to pick up where someone left off. I find it easier – and more challenging – to capture the idea and nurture it to maturity rather than pass it off to an adoptive parent.

Carrying that analogy further, I do, however, indeed benefit from a nanny intervening at times. Someone to proof me, make sure that I’m still a fit parent and rising my idea to become a proper citizen of the world.

In Keith Richards’s autobiography Life that came out a couple of years, he talks about being able to start a song but getting stuck at a certain point. Almost every time. That’s where Mick Jagger’s brilliance came in. He was able to pick up where Keith left off.

I suppose some of this is the difference between writers and editors, or designers and production artists. All are valuable in making the final product shine.

When confronted by a blank sheet of paper (or screen), ready to create something, I almost always hear in my head the opening chords to Sonic Youth’s The Empty Page.

But that’s all right
You’re here to stay
Sing out tonight
The empty page

Sonic Youth, The Empty Page