Today I am pleased to welcome Brian O’Reilly to Great Thoughts’ Great Authors. Brian is the author of the delightful book, Angelina’s Bachelors. My review is here.
Here’s Brian:
The old chestnut implies that there is nothing so terrifying for a writer as facing the blank page (and who doesn’t like chestnuts?). That bracing moment of ultimate freedom, pure potential and unconstrained creativity can also feel like teetering over a precipice, wavering on one poorly balanced foot at the top of a steep, steep slope over a rocky ravine. What if you slip on your first step? What if you get halfway down, run out of handholds (or ideas) get stuck and eventually fall to your death when your strength, wholly inadequate to the task, gives out- or you’re forced to simply hang there and starve to death? What if there’s only one way down, and you don’t see it? Or don’t see it in time? Sprained ankles, cut knees, bruised egos, doom and destruction may be all that lie ahead.
Why doesn’t an empty stove cause the same reaction?
I think that good cooks feel a sense of comfort, not panic, when they first stand in front of an empty stove, turn a knob and watch the heat come up under a pot or pan. It’s the same penultimate moment, the moment not of, but before, creation. What’s the difference?
I think that the answer may be mise en place.
Mise en place means, essentially, making sure that before you light a flame that you have a place for everything and everything in everything in place. When you’re cooking, it’s because you’re ready; if you’re not, you’re just going to be passing around empty plates to your friends and family in a half hour or so.
It’s a law of nature. You can’t cook really unless you have implements and ingredients. You need pots and pans, salt and pepper, spatula and spoon, liquids, proteins, veggies and the like; then you’re good to go as far as your skill and a good recipe will take you.
I think it’s the same with writing. Before you start cooking, you must shop. Before you start writing, you have to live, move around, talk to people, see things, have experiences, save them up, sort them out, get them in some form of useful order in your mind, think about what sort of a dish you want to serve up- then write.
Then the page should be no scarier than a good six burner. Then, you’re cooking!
What are you reading and where are you going?