The vertigo of the blank page
I had heard about it before, but never experienced it live. You have been booked on a session of graphic facilitation. You have arrived at the venue. You’re ready: your brain is switched on, your markers sorted and tested, your topic studied. You know the company you’re working for, you’ve tried to understand the links that connect or divide your clients. Your canvas is stretched tight, clean and white. The title looks great. You’ve spotted who’s who, who could help if needed. You’ve been to the bathroom five times, meditated there, and your wifi is connected.
The room quiets down. Someone starts speaking. Their ideas appear in the silence, like small drops of light, forming a hazy chain of meaning. You grab your marker, choose a color, decide on the shape of your text, your characters, your composition. You listen, or at least try to. You catch one idea, then another. They don’t connect. You fight between the two while new ones keep coming. You start to panic. Slowly, but surely. One minute feels endless when the speaker delivers ten ideas per second. You panic. « I don’t get it, i suck, i have no idea, they can see it, what am i doing here, i hate this job, i feel sick, i’ll just tell them i’m sick. »
You’re stuck in that awful suspended state of indecision.
Choosing a thread
Rule number one! Il faut choisir!
Car c’est en ne choisissant pas, coincé et hésitant, que rien ne se créée. Prends un temps de pose, souffle. Redeviens l’arbre (rigolez…)
Écoutes les 2 ou trois messages qui s’entrelacent – les uns après les autres. Ne cherche pas de résultat. Prends le temps de reconnaître une des trames. Ne juge pas. Chope le début d’un fil. Et agrippes-toi.
La porte d’entrée est l’intention. C’est en choisissant un fil parmi les nombreux fils, que tu crées le corridor. Et si tu arrives à y porter toute ton attention : tu assistes alors à la création d’un monde. C’est comme choisir un angle. Il y a autant d’angle qu’il y a de sujets. Choisis.
Bon, ça c’est la porte d’entrée, bien ordonnée. Il y en a une plus trash qui m’a mainte fois sauvé la mise. Le : je m’en foutisme!
Quand rien ne fonctionne et que l’état d’indécision s’installe un peu trop longtemps, ami scribe, n’aie pas peur de laisser s’infiltrer ton “je m’en foutisme”! Dans ma tête à moi, ça se traduit par :« Vas-y, ça me fatigue, tant pis, je leur fait une daube…! »
Comme pour un saut à l’élastique – quoi vous avez jamais essayé?! 😉 tu décides que tu n’as plus le choix : tu fais taire ton mental, tu te lances et… tant pis où tu tombes! N’importe quelle idée. Allez!
- Flute, celle ci est creuse…
- Ho tiens, celle-ci est super cool…
- Dis donc, c’est pas con ce qu’il dit…
- Attendons la suite pour créer l’ensemble.
Danser avec le flow
Rule number one: choose. Because staying frozen, afraid to decide, kills creation. Take a pause. Breathe. Become the tree again. Listen to the few threads that overlap, one after another. Don’t look for results. Recognize one path and grab it. Don’t judge. The doorway is intention. When you choose one thread among many, you open a corridor. If you manage to give it your full attention, you witness the birth of a world. It’s like choosing an angle. There are as many angles as there are topics. Choose one.
That’s the clean version. There’s also a messier one that has saved me many times: i don’t care anymore. When nothing works and indecision lasts too long, don’t be afraid to let your “whatever” attitude sneak in. In my head it sounds like: ok, whatever, i’ll just make something bad and that’s it. Like a bungee jump — you silence your mind, you jump, and whatever happens, happens. Any idea will do. Go for it.
And suddenly one idea feels empty, another feels amazing, the next one makes sense. You start to wait for what comes next, building the picture as you go.