August 7th, 2009
The Secret Ingredient
At times our words flow like glossy honey. Other times they are dry as stale cupcakes. When going well, writing is similar to baking, everything turning up cherry turnovers and lemon crepes that melt on the tongue. We are in the zone, cooking up sentences that zing. Look what we’ve created! Do taste. Eat. Here, you want more? We’ve got plenty. Boy, do we. We’re turning out stuff left and right. Take them off our hands, please!
Wouldn’t it be nice if fresh words were always on our fingertips? Like flour and raw sugar. To be honest I’m a little salty right now. Ingredients aren’t quite as exotic as I’d like. I’ve thrown in comma’s, period’s, apostrophe’s, colon’s, semi-colon’s, etc… but the main constituent, the prose, has gone missing from my pantry. Why, those dang kids have gone and moved my prose. Isn’t it just like a mother to blame the children? Well, maybe my husband hid those spicy words somewhere. Then I turn to the dog and he looks so innocent lying on blankie, fluttering his eyelids and waiting for nothing but love. No not the dog. He didn’t do anything.
Has your prose ever gone missing? Ever forgotten where you put the secret ingredient?
What to do. When I’m going through a rough patch in my writing I often think of how long it took me to learn the trick of making melt in your mouth biscuits. Even when they looked like flying disks, which was usually, I still served them for breakfast and called them scones. Everyone ate them, snarky comments included. I’d smile and say, “Yeah, I meant them to look that way.” Buckling down, I’d make them again and again, until finally I had the fluffy fanciful biscuit I remembered my Mom making. This did take awhile. Okay, a year. But even now, with all that practice, they are sometimes yet flat. I chalk it up to humidity and know if I persevere those biscuits will rise once again.
And so it goes with words. They are never really missing, but waiting to be coaxed, kneaded, risen, sugared.
What do you do when your words won’t rise?
August 7th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Oh, Dorraine, if you only knew how true your words ring to my life at the moment, in more ways than one. I love the way you associate cooking with writing, by the way. It’s so true. This past week has been kind of rough for me – in rushing to prepare for vacation next week, I’ve made several mistakes at work, (I blogged about it of course, The Perfectionism Syndrome). Anyway, when I got off work yesterday, still miserable, I whipped up a healthy meal for my people, from “whatever we had available”. My son is in football camp this week, so we’ve not had a chance to eat decent in a month of Sundays. When I called everyone to the table they did nothing but whine about the meal. I was already so wracked with nerves, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I burst out crying. But anywho, we’re talking about writing. Because of all this nervous tension I’ve been hoarding, I have been completely blocked with my writing. Every time I sit down to conduct a story for my column, nothing happens. I’ve decided I’m going to use that vacation next week to really rest. I’ll ask the editor if I can skip a week, and do my best to not even turn my computer on, much less the internet. If something comes to me, I’ll grab pen and paper, but not be so anxious about what will become of the words.
Whew! I didn’t mean for this to be so long. Thank you for another lovely post, and the comfort in feeling that I’m not alone. I suggest you do the same as I plan – just rest. The writing will come, when we least expect it.
August 8th, 2009 at 2:01 am
Oh, yes, I’ve heard the whining too, when I’ve taken time to cook a decent meal. Mine don’t do that much anymore, thankfully. All it takes is a few less home cooked meals and they learn to appreciate mom in the kitchen, doing her thing.
And thanks,Deanna,I’m glad you could relate. Sorry about the writing block. I think it does happen to the best of us occasionally. Bet that vacation will clear out the cobwebs and get it flowing once again. And great idea re: leaving the computer off. Better yet, you might want to leave it at home. I usually do, and have found it a refreshing break. When I get back with fresh material I’ve experienced and enjoyed, I’m always ready to hit the keyboard again. Have tons of fun on your vacation. Relax. Refresh. Renew.
I will get away soon, too. Late August I’ll be heading to the Hawaii Writer’s Retreat for six days, so I’d better take a break before then for sure!
August 16th, 2009 at 10:38 am
I still cant get over the picture of the biscuit with honey on it……….Y-U-M-M-O!!!!!!!
August 16th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I know, I know! Really should not post pictures like this. You know I went and made biscuits afterwards!