I'm sitting here eating pistachio
nuts. Next to cashews, they're a favorite. So, who cares, right?
It occurred to me that pistachios
make us a promise. I had this bag sitting around for a couple of weeks before
deciding to open it.
Promise 1: Until you
open the bag, we won't get to taste their delicious flavor. As writers, we
won't discover the amazing joys of a story until we open that document and
begin the process.
Eating pistachios requires a
certain amount of work. While some pop out of the shell with no problem, others
require strong teeth or a nutcracker to pry them open.
Promise 2: There are
days when ideas flow and writing is almost effortless. The other days - let's
say they're enough to make an author quit ten times over.
While pulling a shell from the bag,
I discovered it was empty. Remember the old, "Where's the Beef,"
commercial? Yeah, this was, "Where's the pistachio?" Here I'm looking
forward to another yummy morsel only to be disappointed. (I wonder if that's
how Jesus felt when the tree had no figs.)
Promise 3: A new
story or article idea can set our imaginations on fire. We open a blank page
and...nothing. Nada. Zilch. We're left with an empty promise.
A bag of pistachios promise a party
for your taste buds, but you've got to open the bag, get them out of the shell,
and sometimes you come up empty. It's a whole lot like writing and life in
general.
Writers: The strangest things can trigger an idea for
a story or blog post. What was the most unusual experience/visual that inspired
you?
Readers: What lessons have you learned from day-to-day
happenings in your life?
Photo Credit: Pawel Zawistowski
Photo Credit: Pawel Zawistowski
2 comments:
Hi Susan - good post and explanation ... we can get ideas from anywhere and I do - some I'd never write up ... but others ... well just check the blog. The 'best' from my point of view and learning scenario was about Tycho Brahe and his prosthetic nose - in the 1500s, history, astronomy and a book ... a brief note in the book and off I went - then the post. I love pistachios too ... cheers Hilary
It's interesting how much of real life parallels writing. Enjoyed the analogy here. I'll never look at pistachios the same way again! :)
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