I think some of us (including myself) look at a blank Word (or Pages for all you Mac users) document and feel incredibly overwhelmed by the idea of starting to write, well, anything.
But alas, whether you’re starting a manuscript or a poem or, heck, Mac and Cheese, you have to start somewhere. Then you’ll get those annoying people (like me) that say, “Well, I start in the middle/end of the book and write out of order.” Great, but you still have to start somewhere. Actually I was talking to one of my friends recently about the overwhelming need for a machine that attaches to your head and writes down all your thoughts, but until that happens we’ll have to suffer through ‘blank-page-syndrome’. *Shiver*
So in my attempts to impersonate John Green, I shall form a metaphor in hopes that it makes sense to other people and not just me.
Writing is like Mac and Cheese… Yes, Mac and Cheese.
First you have to boil the water and it just sits there bubbling for several minutes. When you think about it, the boiling water part takes the most time in the Mac and Cheese making process. But without the boiling water we would have hard, unbaked noodles.
The boiling water is like the first draft. You put all this extra ‘stuff’ in it because it’s necessary for you to develop the world and characters. That part takes the most time.
Once you have all the crappy stuff down and you’ve decided where your book is actually going, you add some noodles, the concrete ideas – the main substance.
The readers don’t really need to know every single detail you developed, so you pour out the water. You pour it out even though it took a long time to boil. Because who really wants watery Mac and Cheese?
You’re left with noodles. The foundation and main substance of your story.
Then you go wild with the milk and butter and cheese and fun stuff to spice up your noodles.
Oh crap, my Mac and Cheese is over-boiling… I hope you enjoyed my attempt of being metaphoric through the only thing I know how to cook. That surprisingly found a path and some-what reasoning along the way. 🙂
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