Spaghetti Squash Writing

 
spaghetti squash by happy jack eats 

Drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with garlic cloves - spaghetti squash I love you.  But when the cravings for something yellow and squash-y appear at 5:30 in the morning... I begin questioning my love.

Spaghetti squash - as hard as you may try - you are not breakfast.  Breakfast is a muffin paired with a banana, cereal with milk, and toast topped with cinnamon.  Breakfast is not a vegetable.  Everyone knows that vegetables belong at the dinner table.

There are rules about these kind of things.
Rules about foods and when to eat them.
And I must obey.

I snuggle up with my write-better-book-of-the-month.  Words pour from the pages and I frantically take note to improve my writing.  I want to write like him.  I want to write like Becca and Ally and Susan.

I sit down to write.  Despite how many books I read, my voice never sounds exactly like Ray or Jill.  My technique improves but I still sound like Angie.

I walk away from the computer.  Cut the spaghetti squash in half, scoop out the seeds, and toss it in the oven.  The morning sun still hides behind the darkness of the night - and that is okay.  Rules about writing and spaghetti squash are never permanent and applicable to everyone.

Writing demands that we embrace our own individual voice.  The world does not need books of imitation, rather we need dreams and originality.  The challenge of writing is found in the spaghetti squash served for breakfast, the crazy quirks that make the world spin, and honesty with who we are.

Writing - for me - is only fulfilling when I dare to write wholeheartedly.  Absorbing advice from the masters, refining my voice, and daring to write like Angie.  Honestly and imperfectly.  Not like anyone else.


{What crazy foods do you eat for breakfast?  What is the challenge of writing for you?}