Crazy ingredients

Well Elbow had me all the way until we got into the kitchen (so to speak). I was kind of lost at the beginning with the cooking analogy as far as putting words onto paper. I understood what he was getting at; I just did not see how it worked for me. I think that Elbow is correct to point out the “Even if you are writing from an outline, you still wander off the track”. For me I think that realizing that it is OK to wander off the track is good.
As I read further into the chapter though I started to see more of what Elbow was getting at with the “cooking” in the process of writing.
I like that he talks about people dreaming and that “everyone dreams”. I cannot tell you how many stories I have been able to create just by making sure I have written down just the idea of the dream.
I do disagree though when he suggests that you allow yourself to start writing and switch from formal to informal or first person to third person, even fiction to non fiction, to me that would seem like a heck of a mess to correct and edit on the back end. I guess that is his point though – lots of words and phrases to cook with.
His section on desperation writing caught my interest because I guess that I seem to write in this way already. I will write down maybe a page of words and end up with maybe two hopefully three good sentences that I can use in what I really want to write about. Sometimes I even just have a sentence in mind that I want to work into a story and that starts my inspiration.
Finally I really like how Elbow tells you that this is just one model or way of writing. It is not meant for everyone, but at least try it. He says to “Make each cycle complete” and that makes sense to me more than anything. He tells you to write for ten minutes, then sit back and see what it adds up to be. I will use this for sure!