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wolfandboar Oct. 29th, 2009 07:10 pm)
wolfandboar Oct. 29th, 2009 07:10 pm)When I was young and had a high school writing class, it was a question the other kids would ask me when I had to share my writings. I'd heard that question since I was little and it seemed kind of dumb to me for them to ask it. I don't know. They just...come...ambush you when you're not even expecting it even. I never knew what to say. It got so I wanted to say "How come YOU don't get these ideas? Or even ANY ideas?"
A few years ago, there was a commercial with M. Night Shyamalan where he was in a restaurant, if I remember right, and the very ordinary people there began to become very UNordinary. I jumped up from my chair and said, "That's what I do!"
Well, after my family laughed at me, I sat back down and realized that it's a good thing, not a bad one. Useful, even.
So writing's a stew. Everything that happens during a day (or night) is prime to be added as an ingredient! Hear an interesting song: into the pot with ye! Someone interesting walks by, their stunning eyes go into your main character's head. A laugh you hear. A movie you watch. Yup. Yummy spices.
So, anyway, now you throw all that in the pot and it's simmering and bubbling and the aroma fills the whole house. But sometimes when you taste it, you wonder what happened. You used the same kind of spices and vegetables and everything but it's not the same. It's different. At times it's a bad kinda different. Others it's a good kinda different and you wonder just what it was about it that you did. More of something? A bigger onion than usual? More water? You just never know. All the threads of taste somehow joined together into a whole that didn't carry any of the flavors of the parts. It also depends on what you're hungry for. If you really wanted stew and it turned out that what you got was soup, that can be pretty disappointing. If you'd had a late lunch, this stew might be way to filling.
Yup. Dumb metaphor but it does kind of work.
Writing is fun and for your own pleasure sometimes but other times, it turns out to just be something you have to do at the end of the day because of the whole man cannot eat by bread alone conundrum. You never know when you're going to be just going through the motions when some new song comes on from your playlist and give you the missing spice you thought would never show up.
Where'd I get that idea from? I blame the cooking that goes on inside my head without my even being aware that my mischievous muse put on his follow-the-leader-apron and tall chef's hat. I sort of scent at the aroma but it's too far away to really tell what's cooking. Until he serves it up, I have no idea how it's going to taste. And even then, most times, it tastes better the next day! :D
crossposted from 4casualwriters
A few years ago, there was a commercial with M. Night Shyamalan where he was in a restaurant, if I remember right, and the very ordinary people there began to become very UNordinary. I jumped up from my chair and said, "That's what I do!"
Well, after my family laughed at me, I sat back down and realized that it's a good thing, not a bad one. Useful, even.
So writing's a stew. Everything that happens during a day (or night) is prime to be added as an ingredient! Hear an interesting song: into the pot with ye! Someone interesting walks by, their stunning eyes go into your main character's head. A laugh you hear. A movie you watch. Yup. Yummy spices.
So, anyway, now you throw all that in the pot and it's simmering and bubbling and the aroma fills the whole house. But sometimes when you taste it, you wonder what happened. You used the same kind of spices and vegetables and everything but it's not the same. It's different. At times it's a bad kinda different. Others it's a good kinda different and you wonder just what it was about it that you did. More of something? A bigger onion than usual? More water? You just never know. All the threads of taste somehow joined together into a whole that didn't carry any of the flavors of the parts. It also depends on what you're hungry for. If you really wanted stew and it turned out that what you got was soup, that can be pretty disappointing. If you'd had a late lunch, this stew might be way to filling.
Yup. Dumb metaphor but it does kind of work.
Writing is fun and for your own pleasure sometimes but other times, it turns out to just be something you have to do at the end of the day because of the whole man cannot eat by bread alone conundrum. You never know when you're going to be just going through the motions when some new song comes on from your playlist and give you the missing spice you thought would never show up.
Where'd I get that idea from? I blame the cooking that goes on inside my head without my even being aware that my mischievous muse put on his follow-the-leader-apron and tall chef's hat. I sort of scent at the aroma but it's too far away to really tell what's cooking. Until he serves it up, I have no idea how it's going to taste. And even then, most times, it tastes better the next day! :D
crossposted from 4casualwriters