Easter Resolution

The struggle has finally come to an end. I’m back working on my blog, and determined to stay. Over the last few weeks I haven’t written any new blog posts, because I was looking for a way to write every day. It seemed that I got stuck in longer stories, which I couldn’t do more than a few times per week. I like writing them, but the purpose of the blog is best served by writing regularly, and about the little thoughts as well, I think.

So here’s my solution: From now on I will sit down at the end of the day and spill out in 15 minutes any thoughts on writing, reading, big or small, that have stuck in my mind that day. After that I will sit down and translate it, and put it up. This way I should be able to write a post for my blog almost every day. Like this:

Yesterday I had an Easter brunch for six people. The preparations of food for feasts like this give me a lot of fun – and some stress as well, but not too much. I love the flipping through cook books the days before Good Friday. Finally I make a selection of dishes of which I think they go well together, are fun to prepare, and offer enough diversity in taste, structure and colour. Sometimes I know my guests will like certain dishes, and I take this into account as well.

After this, and after the shopping for groceries, I start without a lot of planning, or thinking out of the whole brunch. It is a matter of diving straight in, and relying on my ability to alter and adjust along the way as well as my (sometimes limited) cooking experience. Recipes are not sacred. One should never panic when having to find an alternative ingredient, but trust on some basic rules, and find ways around the problem. It is a matter of knowing when to take control, and when to let go and trust the process. And, above all, it has to give some pleasure along the way. I savour the process of cooking. When finally the table is set the result always pleasantly surprises me.  I’m not able to, in advance, comprehend the total of my dishes combined. It’s only when I give my guests their full plates, and let them enjoy, that I see how and why it works.

And this made me think of writing.

Writing a novel could very well be somewhat like this. I should be able to, after learning to control the different elements to some extent, trust on this ability to make a comprehensible total of separate parts of a story. Without having to think the whole thing through in advance, I should be able to, in the end, present a full story to my reader.