Simmering, Simmering, Simmering ...

Letting ideas bubble on the back burner for a bit.

Let your ideas simmer.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. It’s not a new concept, but it’s one I continue to be amazed by and to come back to. Leaving your ideas alone for a bit works because your brain keeps working even when you stop working. This works in Wordle and it works in writing. I am reminded of this when I temporarily give up on a Wordle and move on to something else. I can’t think of a single word that uses those letters! Then I come back to it later in the day and the word hits me immediately, right in the face.

It’s kind of like love finding you when you stop looking for it. When you stop chasing it, you’re putting a whole new vibe out into the world, right?

I was just talking with a writer about this the other day—she was struggling to find an ending to her story, and I suggested she might stop struggling and let the ending come to her on its own.

I can think of three good examples of this from my own writing, although I’m sure there are many more:

I wrote a short story called “Trash” and, in that case, I had the ending all worked out before I even began writing. It was going to be sarcastic, and it was going to be funny. The story is sarcastic and funny, but the ending caught me entirely by surprise. I left my story alone for a bit, and when I came back to write the ending, my brain had concocted an entirely different ending than the one I’d planned—it is funny, but it is also warm and sentimental, and it makes me cry every time I read it. My subconscious brain is a much better writer than I’ll ever be.

I wrote a short story called “Ghosts,” and I couldn’t think of a story at all. I only had a premise—I wanted a young woman to have a conversation with the ghost of her great grandmother. I beat my head against the wall trying to figure out what the conversation would be and how it would end. Then I gave up trying—I had to because I had to be in Palm Springs the next day. On the long drive down the coast, I listened to the radio and enjoyed the scenery. I stopped in Ventura for tacos as I’m prone to do. And about an hour outside of Palm Springs, the idea popped into my head—it felt like I suddenly knew the entire story, but I can’t take credit. In truth, my subconscious brain had been diligently working on it all along, while I took a break from it.

I wrote a short story called “Trees” and couldn’t think of an ending. I wrote and rewrote and rewrote the beginning and the middle about fifty times, but I couldn’t think of how the story would end. It was so frustrating that I set the story aside. Then, one morning while I was reading something on Wikipedia about how thread is made, the story’s ending came to me, fully formed. I love the ending of this story more than any other ending I’ve ever written—my subconscious brain has a real way with words.

Speaking of Wikipedia, when you look up “simmering,” it says that “[s]immering ensures gentler treatment …” of food during cooking. I like the idea of treating my stories gently instead of trying to hammer them into submission. And this made me think about the way simmering also allows ingredients and seasonings to slowly combine, for the food to become robust and flavorful and aromatic—a feast for all the senses. I like the idea of getting out of my own way and allowing my stories to become all of those things, too.

“I was simmering, simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil.”

—Walt Whitman, Reminiscenses of Walt Whitman (1902)

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

The SLO NightWriters annual Golden Quill Writing Contest is now open!
This year’s judges are incredible! Judging the fiction finalists is Juliet McDaniel, the author of Mr. and Mrs. American Pie, the novel upon which the hit Apple+ TV series Palm Royale is based. Judging the nonfiction finalists is Deanne Stillman, the author of Twentynine Palms, Mustang, Blood Brothers, Desert Reckoning, and American Confidential. Judging the poetry finalists is Caleb Nichols, the current San Luis Obispo County Poet Laureate. Winners in the each of the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry will receive a cash prize ($350 for first place, $150 for second place, and $50 for third place). Winners will also be published in the 2025 issue of The NightWriter Review.

Vicious Cycle by Jaime Parker Stickle
My friend Jaime Parker Stickle’s novel Vicious Cycle: A Corey in Los Angeles Thriller is available for pre-order! I had the opportunity to read an early draft and it is so good! “A former reporter gets a new spin on life in this gripping debut from author Jaime Parker Stickle, whose psychological roller-coaster ride set in sunny Los Angeles tackles motherhood and murder.”

Please join me at the Central Coast Writers’ Conference, September 26th & 27th, in sunny San Luis Obispo, California!

“If I get frustrated, I’ll go eat something, I’ll go open another Diet Coke, I’ll go
to the barn, I’ll distract myself, and then the parts in my brain that were working
click and I get an idea. I read an article about how to learn to play a musical
instrument. You practice, practice, practice on Friday, then you walk away. And then
when you sit down on Saturday, you’re better. Not only because of all the practice
but also because of the walking away. I’m a firm believer in walking away.”

—Jane Smiley

SOME THINGS FOR READERS

April: Birth Is Death
(Jackie Desforges for Women Artists Birthday Project)

Why Can’t I Do This? An Autism Acceptance Post
(Karen Parker for Karen’s Letters)

Bad Body
(Allison Kirkland for Pithead Chapel)

“The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it
consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.”

—Ernest Hemingway

SOME THINGS FOR WRITERS

In a year you will wish you would have started today
(Paul Crenshaw for Establish the Habit)

On Rejection
(Maggie Smith and Sari Botton for The Lit Lab)

6 Common Manuscript Mistakes, and Strategies I Use with Writers to Avoid Them
(Heather Garbo for Writer Your Next Chapter)

Elizabeth Everett: On Letting Story Ideas Simmer
(Robert Lee Brewer interviews Elizabeth Everett for Writer’s Digest)

What Are ‘Comp’ Titles & Why Do We Need Them?
(Jo Roberts for Writing Inside Out)

The Benefits of Taking a Writing Break
(René Ostberg for Lit Mag News)

“I think ‘writer’s block”’ is a natural part of the creative process for almost all writers.
There are times when one is bursting with ideas and inspiration and all the necessary components—time, focus, etc.—are in place. But there are other times when one or more
of those elements is missing and writing is more difficult as a result. I have written for
long enough to accept these patterns, and to understand that the blocks are temporary,
that eventually, if one sticks to a schedule and tries to write on a regular basis, something
will eventually come. I think a lot of what people refer to as ‘writer’s block’ is the period
during which ideas gestate in the mind, when a story grows but isn’t necessarily being
written in sentences on the page. But it’s all necessary, in the end. If I am feeling stuck
or uninspired, I usually take a break and read. That always gets me going again.”

—Jhumpa Lahiri

SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU SMILE

Image Credit: @merriamwebster

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Leanne Phillips
Writer | Book Coach | Editor
​leannephillips.com

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