Writers: Be open to criticism, even if it’s from another species…
Category Archives: creativity
What I wish I knew as a creator
I’m porting this retirerenew post over to this blog.
A fun five-minute video with plenty that speaks to us as writers.
Can you adopt this perspective for 1/24th of your day?
Reasons to write [90-second video]
This video is just a little something to keep up the momentum within my free AOK Writing mini-course.
If you’re interested…
I should be writing.. Instead, apple crisp…and apple cake.
I really had no choice.
It’s officially apple season and the golden delicious tree is burgeoning.
So, last Sunday I slapped together an apple crisp sans recipe, though my trusty assistant in culinary crimes–my wife and herder of Buddy the Rescue Dog–pulled up an Epicurious recipe for a crust topping as a guide. For the filling, I just knew what ingredients I wanted and went from there.
Result: a caramelly ooze —gee, go figure, when the cook indiscriminately tosses in plenty of brown sugar and enough flour…well, there were the sweet cherries and their juice, and the chunks of golden delicioius–well, you get the picture… and the crust was as good as the apple-goo.
Autumn…I love you.**
***
A few days later, within hours of finishing the crisp, and with plenty of Act of Kindness Writing chores I could/should be dealing with, it was time for an apple cake…or, as the recipe calls it, a ‘moist’ apple cake.
On its own, this is a ‘will bake again’ item. As always, though, I did stray ‘just a bit’…
- I added allspice to both the apple mixture and the flour mixture.
- When it comes to cinnamon, I just don’t get the low doses in most recipes. Can’t remember the last time I actually measured cinnamon.
- I added rehydrated Craisins.
- I made my own ‘apple sauce’. I just mashed away at, and then seasoned, chunks of golden delicious with the pastry cutter. And mashed away some more.
- Figuring on a more moist result, I used a loaf pan instead of a 9” x 13” pan.
- Fearing there might be spillover, I scooped out about a cup of the mixture and slathered that into a greased pie pan. Gotta say, when revisiting this recipe, I’ll be tempted to go exclusively with pie pans. It’s a quicker bake and four smaller cakes open the door to more experimentation, say a little creme de cassis reduction for one of them…and Ree Drummond’s Easy Caramel Sauce for another. Come to think of it…I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have those on hand for slices of this current version…
He fully approves of fall flavors.
**“No, deeeear! I don’t know anyone named Autumn!”
I should be writing. Instead, drifting…toward chocolate cake.
- Raise your hand if:
- you’ve ever left a measuring cup in the bag of flour or sugar.
- you’ve intentionally left a measuring cup in the bag of flour or sugar for the next baking venture.
- you skipped the ‘firmly pack the brown sugar’ step and instead just poured in an extra tablespoon or two of the stuff.
- you would consider breaking off a hunk of this cake rather than resorting to a [pinkies up!] utensil. Recipe below…Note: Feel free to overdo both the chocolate chips and the cocoa.
2. Best way to get rid of the redolent odor of wildfire smoke in your kitchen? Four batches of roasted tomatoes, with generous supplies of garlic chunks, rosemary sprigs, etc. [It ain’t pretty here in Oregon right now…]
3. And then there’s this: Do you think dogs lying peacefully on the floor know the difference between our giving them half our attention [one hand scratching their chin and one hand clicking links or entering a passcode] vs. our full attention? Do we send out a ‘semi-distracted’ vibe when we are, in fact, semi-distracted?
Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
**
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
**
- 2 and 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp. allspice
- 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 4 TBLSP cocoa
**
- 3 six-inch long zucchini
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Directions:
- Cream first four ingredients together in large bowl.
- Add next three ingredients and stir well to mix.
- Measure next six ingredients into sifter; then sift into bowl of other ingredients.
- Finely grate zucchini into bowl; stir until blended.
- Fold in half of the chocolate chips to mixture.
- Pour into greased 9″ x 13″ pan –or- two 9″ cake pans.
- Sprinkle rest of chocolate chips on top of batter.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. [Check it about the 37-minute mark. Hey, different ovens, right?]
*Cutting the oil in half barely changes the final result.
Telepathic writing…whoa!
Today I’m sharing an insightful 2014 piece by Jon Brooks entitled Quentin Tarantino’s Telepathic Writing Technique.
It is packed with concepts and ideas that I hadn’t before run across.
Brooks introduced me to ‘mirror neurons’, which “fire both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another.” [Wikipedia]
Okay, where does Quentin Tarantino come in?
From Tarantino’s 2013 Oscar acceptance speech: “You guys [friends] don’t realize how important you are to my process. I don’t want input; I don’t want you to tell me if I’m doing anything wrong. Heavens forbid. But, I write a scene and I think I’ve heard it as much as I can, but then when I read it to you – I don’t give it to you to read, I read it – but when I read it to you, I hear it through your ears. And it lets me know I’m on the right track.”
As he reads, then, Tarantino’s mirror neurons fire and he picks up the listeners’ reactions to his work.
What does that mean for the rest of us who are not quite chalking up multiple Oscars?
Take that one extra step beyond reading your work aloud–find an audience who follows the rule of: No feedback, please! Brooks justifies this rule with his observation that people often don’t effectively express their impressions and misguided feedback may well lead you to the toss the whole project.
Brooks closes with this: “You want to know what you think about your work as a first-time reader, not someone else.”
Considering our current pandemic conditions, you may be relegated to telepathic writing over the phone. Hey, it’s called playing the cards we’re dealt, right?
I also tried recording a piece of my writing aloud–and then listening to that recording. I’m not sure if that recreated the mirror-neurons experience, but I will try it again. It does add some distance between yourself and your work.
So, give it a try.
Let me know how telepathic writing worked for you.
Curation Corner: toasted-cheese.com
Picked up on this interesting site via my weekly Internet Scout Report.
This link takes you to its calendar of writing topics/prompts, but check out the other menu items as well, including the Writer’s Excuse Bingo, which strikes me as potential Zoom meeting fodder for your writers group.
[Note: Ignore the ‘Resources’ menu item. Lots of dead ends there.]
Enjoy!
Curation Corner: Check out WritingRoutines.com
Whoa…the 100 Interviews page alone abounds with lessons and insights from successful writers, researchers, and award-winners.
Some favorite topics covered:
- The trap of calling yourself a ‘writer’ [Neil Pasricha]
- Drawing to Spark Writiing [Dana Simpson]
- Carving out distraction-free creative blocks [Dr. Michael Greger]
- Declaring a ‘shut-down’ time [KJ Dell’Antonia]
- How to be indistractable [Nir Eyal]
Just think of the self-customized online course you could create this site.
And if you’re in a writers group, this is tailor-made or a fun and informative Zoom meeting.
Curation Corner: You Can’t Write What You Wouldn’t Read
Word Inventions 