Tossed Fantasy

Fantasy, or creativity even, is like a salad.

Sometimes there's something in the fridge that you never would have picked, but it looks good and sounds good, so hell...why not? You chop up the red pepper, the apples, the nuts. You grab a raspberry vinaigrette instead of ranch.

You throw it all on the obligatory base of lettuce. It's colorful, unusual, and explodes in your mouth with strange combinations of flavors and textures.  It's adventurous and original - yet it's still recognizable as a salad, not a souffle or fondue.

But it tastes even better than it would have if you'd just stuck with the basic lettuce, carrots, and caesar.

I'm trying to go that direction with my writing. Sometimes an ingredient will work out, sometimes it won't, but it's so much more freeing to toss it all in and see what happens, than to stick with what everyone else has done before.


Quickie update on my manuscript. I'm reached 218 pages of my first draft today! Now that I know what I have left to do, 250 pages seems like a more reasonable goal for the first go-round.