Jared Ingersoll on… writing

I truly love communicating a thought or an idea through the written word. I find writing about food especially wonderful because it is such a joy to be able to illuminate a concept, idea or ethos about food, not by cooking for you but rather stringing together a couple of sentences into a coherent paragraph.

When you get the chance to sit down at a computer, punch out a few paragraphs and have it work, it is such a buzz! I knocked out my first book in just three weeks – freaking awesome! But sometimes writing is a real bastard. It is harder than all the homework you have ever done. You start your piece, re-write, re-edit, chop and change a dozen times, only to re-read it and discover that it sucks.

It is at moments like that when I start to apply my two favourite strategies, which are:  “What point am I trying to make? Stick to the point,” and my personal favourite, “Start with an idea, walk through a story and bring it full circle and back to your original idea – boooom, job done.”

Then there are the odd occasions, like right now, when I would like to take writing outside and beat it with a very large stick for being so damn frustrating! To help you understand my mindset, let me take you into my writing process over the last few days…

• I start off by thinking about global economic values attributed to gastronomy. How do you make that simple?
• Goats cheese is simple, I love goats cheese!
• Goats can be nasty like that one that knocked me out on my 10th birthday!
• Being 10 was cool.
• I wonder if my 10-year-old will look after my Basil Brush toy to pass onto his own kid?
• Why do we call goats ‘kids’?
• Where was I… oh yeah, goats cheese! Love goats cheese, back to my column about goats cheese.

It is upon my re-read that I realise that my strategy has failed…

Words: Jared Ingersoll,
www.danksstreetdepot.com.au.

P.S. If you warm some Kalamata olives and a sprig of rosemary in honey then serve it with goats cheese you will enjoy one of the best flavour combinations in the world!