The holidays are on their way. We like to start planning early. This year we’re doing a de-construction menu. What you do is make different dishes from traditional recipes. For instance, you might make a turkey casserole with dressing and cranberries instead of a roasted turkey with stuffing inside. You can find recipes to use or you may make up your own. I think I’ll make pumpkin soup.
It’s the same way with writing. You can take things that have already been written, either your own, or someone else’s, and deconstruct and reconstruct them. Is that cheating. Is it unoriginal? No. The Bible says there’s nothing new under the sun and if anything is true that is! So how do you keep your work fresh and original? You use whatever you have as a launch pad for you’re thinking. I use cookbooks to get ideas for cooking and then change the recipes into something that suits me better. For writing, I use books, magazines, poems, paintings, people, and nature, what else is there…use that too.
Originality is not in saying something that has never been said before. How possible would that be? Originality is saying it the way you see it, understand it, and feel it. Try your best to write well and really communicate and you’ll have all the ideas for creative writing you could ever want.
One thing that’s fun for me is to know what’s supposed to be happening in a certain month. October is National Clock Month, Right Brainers Rule Month, and Dryer Vent Month. What? Dryer Vent, oh yeah, that’s what Jill Badonsky says in The Awe-Manac. Great. I have a story about a critter that got into our dryer vent. See how it works?
Now about the pumpkin soup. I’ve read some recipes and I have eaten about a ton of pumpkin pie in my lifetime, so let’s see, I’ll start with pumpkin. I may have to experiment a bit, toss some mistakes, or eat them in spite of their not being perfect. I’m not sure whether I’ll share the recipe or not. It’s too difficult for other people to follow exactly the way I do things. That’s originality, too.
Happy Writing
Love, DiVoran