Not Just "Plain Vanilla"

Not Just "Plain  
       Vanilla"

Good writing is a lot like vanilla: it awakens your senses.

Crack open the seal on a bottle of vanilla extract and its concentrated aroma tickles your nose with its rich scent.

Salivate as you remember the yummy taste of that vanilla frosting your mom always used on your birthday cake; the way the creamy frosting swirled, forming peaks and valleys.

Roll a vanilla bean pod between your thumb and forefinger and allow its natural oils to coat your skin even before the bean has been split open. Slice open the bean and rub the seeds between your fingers. Contrast this texture with the smooth amber liquid extract used in cooking.

Sift the pale vanilla tropical sand between your fingers before the sun warms it. Run your toes through the sun-warmed golden vanilla afternoon sand. Contrast the feel of the cool wet morning sand to the toasty afternoon sand that your friends piled atop you while you napped like a cat in the sun.

Indulge in the vanilla-based shower gel that awakens you during your early morning shower or the body spray that goes on just before you rush out the door.

Breathe in the heady vanilla scent that wafts out the front door of your favorite bakery.

Boring? Bland? Plain Vanilla? Think again.

Visualize the subtle tone-on-tone patterns hand-stitched into a quilt, rub the nubby textured yarn in a fisherman's knit sweater between your fingers, inhale the fragrance of fine linens lightly spritzed with a vanilla scent, and savor that dab of frosting your mom pretended she didn’t see you take.

Good cooks know that a blending of flavors often produces the best effect. Good writers pay equal attention to sensory details and sprinkle them throughout their writing to evoke their readers’ senses.

Tomorrow I’ll be adding a pinch of color: Saffron.

Photo:

http://www.sherwin-williams.com/pro/paint_colors/explore/color/index.jsp

Variety IS the Spice of Writing

 Variety Is the Spice of Writing

If variety is the Spice of life, it's also the spice of writing. Just like an appetizer differs from dessert, each story needs its own distinctive flavor. It's not all plain vanilla. (Although vanilla is a perfectly delightful flavor.)

 My culinary talents trail far behind my writing skills. I'd much rather go out for dinner than to cook it. Many of us are content with what others have to offer. Others prefer to create. My preference is to create on the page, not in the kitchen.




 
Each spice alters what we eat. It can affect the flavor, the texture, even the duration of our heartburn. 
The same applies to the impact of what we write.

Look for today's blog about VANILLA, the first in a series of :
   Add a Dash of Spice to Your Writing!