I love to cook.
As a kid, my mom started me in the kitchen young. I’d always help prepare the food, mix the dough, or set the oven to the right degree. By the time I was fourteen, my mom had me making dinner for the whole family completely on my own! I used to complain about it (mostly because I had an irrational fear of setting myself on fire with our temperamental gas stove).
“Alli,” she’d say. “I don’t want you to get to college and be scared of the kitchen. I want you to be capable.”
Well, fast-forward ten years, and here I am, not only competent in the kitchen but enjoying my time spent over the stove. (Thanks, Mom!)
Alli, you must be thinking, what on earth does cooking have to do with writing?
Sit down and shut up. Imma tell you ‘bout green beans.
When you get a bag of fresh green beans, you have to tear off the ends, then tear them in half and set them in a bowl. When you first get the bag, you’re excited. You’re like, “Oh my gosh, these are going to taste so good with some garlic.” But by the fifth green bean, you’re looking at the bag and thinking, “Oh my gosh, this is going to take forever.”
You could give up and decide to get takeout instead. You could also throw the extra buck into the budget and get frozen green beans. I mean, after all, green beans are a great antioxidant, so does it really matter how you’re eating them?
But sometimes, to achieve something good and worthwhile, you have to spend a lot of time on it, accomplishing the work bit by bit.
See the analogy for writing yet?
Writing is hard. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of time. You could give up. You could throw in the towel.
But if you want to do this whole writing thing, sometimes you have to settle into the pace, snipping the green beans one at a time. Eventually, before you know it, the bag is finished, and you can move on to the next step.
It might not always be easy and enjoyable. Just like cooking, writing is a process.
Discouragement is going to come. With any major project you undertake, that moment where it starts to feel like work instead of fun is going to hit. You’re going to get halfway through a project and think about all the effort you’ve put in already, and wonder if you have what it takes to make it to the end.
Don’t think about the end just yet. Just think about the next green bean. 😊
Math is pizza. Just saying.
Haha! I’m here for it!
This is great.
Thanks for reading!
You can do it! I believe in you!
Thanks Lindsey! I believe in you, too!
Right when I hit a block with my novel, I read this, lol. What are the odds?
Glad it could help!
Awesome blog post, Alli! Lot of wisdom and wit coming from my favorite author 😉
Haha thank you for reading!
I can’t relate to the writing, but I can relate to the frustration of snapping the ends off of green beans!
Haha! But it’s so worth it in the end.
The best things require patience. Great analogy, Alli! Thanks for the perspective.
Thanks for reading!