If I Wrote A Thing…

I have a lot of ideas. And not always a lot of follow through. 

Does everyone (or anyone?) else do the thing where you’re in a restaurant and something is bothering you about it and so you think if I owned a restaurant, I’d ______?

No? Just me? Ha!

(Mine would be very plain food. I have some food sensitivities and I know a lot of people who have dietary restrictions for any number of reasons. It is such a PITA to try to sort through all the sauces and salads to find things that don’t bother me or that I even just like. I’m finicky. Long before I discovered any physical issues, I just didn’t like a lot of foods. So plain dishes, perhaps with a sauce bar or something.)

I’m not looking to open a restaurant  anytime soon. I’m not nearly type A enough to want to do that. But in my armchair quarterback knowledge I’m sure my restaurant would be fantastic. 

The same thing often happens to me when I read books. There is almost always a point in the book when one of the main characters fails to communicate with the other in a pivotal conversation that would have saved both of them a lot of grief and heartache. And probably ended the conflict in the story thereby rendering the rest of the book unnecessary. But I digress. 

So I think gees, these people need to talk more.

But then I get a book where the author has tried to have them talk to each other and I take it back because I can see how hard it is to make the dialogue happen in a real way that doesn’t just sound like it came out of a psychology textbook. 

But I hope that when I finally get around to writing the book(s) in my head, they strike a balance between noncommunication and lectured presentation. 

Writing is hard. Writing well is harder still. Editing is often painful and tedious. I have nothing but respect for folks who manage to write the story all the way to the end, rewrite it as many times as it takes, and then get it out into the world. 

Even if you didn’t write it the way I would have.