14 Oct The stages of writing as meal prep – from sous chef to plating

If Writing in Community is training as a sous chef,
Then Build a Second Brain is figuring out my mise en place,
And Write of Passage is teaching me flavour profiles and plating.

How three writing courses helped me improve as a writer.

“What are we grateful for this year?” 

We are all gathered around the table to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. It has been a year like few others. One by one, I hear my children give thanks for simple privileges I had previously taken for granted – the health and freedom to gather, to hug and to travel.

“How have we grown?”

“You forgot something. You published a book this year!” Whoa! That’s right. I have grown quite dramatically this year. I have added an identity I had never imagined before. Not never imagined possible, but just never imagined. 

Author.  

“It was probably the longest dragged-out launch date, but you got it done, Mum!” the kids joke. I see the bold colours of “Contours of Courageous Parenting – Tilting Towards Better Decisions” on the table and I have a tremendous sense of pride.

Publishing a book might have been unintentional. But my writing journey is one of intention. I wanted to get into the habit of publishing regularly. And I want to include the climate conversation in my discussions on the Future of Work. It is the next big futurism topic on my personal agenda and a very sensitive one. 

“How do I strike the right tone?
Can I invite collaboration rather than shaming?
How do I hold the space for possibility but also stress the urgency?”

I look at our Thanksgiving table. Writing, for me, is very much like creating a meal that invites others to share. I want to move up from opening cans of soup for a quick meal. Over this past year, I have invested in learning how to write. I want to write meals that also nourish and nurture my family (and readers). I want them coming back for more. 

Writing Meals that Nourish

Sous chef

Writing in Community (WIC) launched me on this writing journey in June 2020. Many joined with the intention of publishing a book. I joined for accountability. My aim was to write consistently with the intention that I would get into a steady rhythm of publishing regularly on LinkedIn. 

It was like discovering the fundamentals of food prep. A sous chef learns to sharpen their knife, discovers how to dice onions and carrots quickly and efficiently, and how to turn vegetable peels into a robust stock. I learned to deliver something daily, to work on my craft. Some days my writing sang. Many days it fell flat. 

Many days I was just plain exhausted and didn’t want to enter the kitchen. But I have friends waiting in WIC. Some are showing up to peel potatoes, others are asking me to taste-test their latest creation. They give me feedback on my work. “Well, I am on the platform, so I might as well dash off a few lines of my own.” … And before you know it, I am at 482+ days of publishing daily – on LinkedIn, Instagram, or on my website.

Mise en place

As I analyzed my behaviour, I was watching for the points of friction. “What interrupts my rhythm? When does cooking turn into a chore? ”  As I grew in confidence and learned to quiet my imposter syndrome, I could dash off an Instagram or LinkedIn post with ease. But they were often easy pickings – more like opening the fridge and throwing together a sandwich or a salad for dinner. 

For my bigger essays, I was standing at the kitchen counter hungry. But without shopping or planning, it would take me time to deliver work that fed the mind. When I did not have all the necessary ingredients in place, I found myself giving up in frustration. It was the equivalent of stepping away from my kitchen and ordering out. 

Enter Build a Second Brain (BASB). This concept has revolutionized the way I capture information so that I can easily categorize it and retrieve it. It is a mindset rabbit hole! But for me, it was the equivalent of mise en place. As we head into the Future of Work we need to be able to sift through the tsunami of data. Now I have material at my fingertips when I sit down to create an essay. For years I had been collecting interesting data points and storing them. With a BASB mindset, I can now retrieve tendrils of an idea parked in my second brain, distill the information, condense it and connect it for my reader. Suddenly, I am remembering the excitement and joy of being back in the kitchen again.

Flavour profiles and plating

You can eat a left-over turkey sandwich. Or you can eat a turkey sandwich that reminds you of Thanksgiving dinner. When you add a smear of cranberry sauce and a precise dab of the gravy, with a smoosh of stuffing trapped between two wonderful slices of rosemary bread you are instantly transported back to the chatter at the table. H/t Andrew.

I wanted to write like that turkey party in your mouth. I needed to understand how to make my writing pop, how to layer the ingredients so that the palate could savour each separate element, and then bask in the collective flavours of the complete meal. I was going to bring a temperamental topic – climate – into this conversation. Used incorrectly it could sour a meal. “Can I learn how to balance this ingredient correctly? And how do I plate it so that it stays appealing?”

I am discovering the secrets to making this happen through Write of Passage (WOP). The first version of this essay was an eighteen-course meal! I am now discovering how to re-assemble it as a tasting menu. I am breaking down my writing and learning how to scaffold it. I’m slowly learning how to separate my effusive writing from my critical editing. And how to create the discipline of delivering a more nutritious essay on a regular basis.    

Community – the key ingredient that brings it all together

My writing in the past was a solo act, alone at a desk with no sense of when a topic would resonate. I’m discovering Community has the special ingredient that is making the consistency in my writing journey richer this year. Like umami, it brings the components together and leaves me with a feeling of satisfaction and warmth. 

Much of the joy of a Thanksgiving Meal happens in the prep. It is planning the menu, inviting the guests, arranging the decorations. It is also the bustle in the kitchen as one person peels carrots, another is tasting your gravy to make sure it tastes right, and a third takes control of the beats (get it?!) so all the prep stations are humming. And it is the joy of plating, sharing, and savouring the meal. Together.  

Through WIC, BASB and WOP, I have gathered a community around me. These new relationships – once 2D names on a zoom screen calling in from New Zealand and Seattle, Perth and Mississippi – may have started virtually. But I look forward to meeting many of these wonderfully warm humans in person. Meantime, they reach out, we gather often, work in hand. They hold me accountable. They are generous in their feedback. They nourish me with their support but also ask me to nurture them by bringing my better self to the table. They make the creation of new writing possible. And also very enjoyable. 

“Let’s give thanks” 

Abundance. Support. Evolution.
So much to be grateful for.

How would you describe your writing practice?

Make. Take. Talk.

Make: an analogy that you can share with others.
Take: some time to analyze what is working, or where you need to switch things up.
Talk: Commit publically if you intend to create a persistent writing practice. And get a group together to support you. They will become your friends. I promise!

Good luck. I cannot wait to see the wonder you will bring into the world.

CREDIT & THANKS; DEFINITIONS & RESOURCES:

• Resources:
  1.  Writing in Community is an Akimbo workshop headed by Kristin Hatcher. Create a book and get it to kindle in six months with the right support.
  2.  Build a Second Brain is a Forte Labs 5-week intensive knowledge management program run by Tiago Forte. Learn if it is right for you.
  3.  Write of Passage is David Perell’s writing school. It is also a 5-week writing program.
• My book “Contours of Courageous Parenting – Tilting Towards Better Decisions” is available on your local Amazon site
• Find a version of this thought for today article on LinkedIn, Instagram
• Photo, audio & video credits: Karena de Souza
  • https://www.canva.com/media/MAEGqeOzIuo
  • https://www.canva.com/media/MAEMczqMYfw
  • https://www.canva.com/media/MADQ4hMcjiQ