It has occurred to me that The Week of Dreams may actually be my first piece of writing to depict anyone eating. There was a short story, "Jeremy", which had a part where the title character was given some cake, but he didn't eat it. (Or, if I remember correctly, he didn't eat it. Or it didn't say. Though he was taking an awful lot of painkillers. But I don't count that as eating.)
Seriously, though, what is this thing where I don't talk about eating? Is it this weird reverse oral fixation thing, where I just don't depict it a lot? That said, I do enjoy food quite a bit. But that could be it; food is a mundane pleasure for me that has no place in the realms of fantasies or unpleasant stories. That is, "mundane pleasures" will not occur in stories that are not mundane and/or pleasurable.
Or it could be that I'm reading American Gods and there are a number of references to eating in it (such as Odin taking all the mythological gods out to dinner after they ride the world's largest carousel - I love being able to say things like that out of context). You know how you might experiment with trying to be a writer you like - you might try to be F. Scott Fitzgerald, or C.S. Lewis, or That Creative Writing Teacher You Had Two Years Ago - well, I'm trying to be Neil Gaiman. Which is actually pretty helpful. His sentences are always masterfully crafted, and whenever I'm staring down a sentence that doesn't want to be so cooperative, I just think, "What Would Gaiman Do?" and fix it accordingly. Do you see what I mean?
I ought to get back to writing. I don't think I've done even 500 yet, and I am very much sticking to my "1,000 words a day" rule. I am. What's giving me trouble is, well, food. I'm quite serious. I don't know what my main character's favorite food should be, and that comes up in a very important way. He comes home to find his otherself (sort of a dream-keeping doppelganger) raiding the fridge or cupboard or whatever and eating his favorite food, but I don't know what the favorite food should be. It should be something kind of odd - like fish and custard, maybe, but of course I can't use fish and custard. (The BBC probably wouldn't like it, and I'd have lots of Doctor Who fans realizing how much my works are a ripoff of their beloved program.) I was thinking about having him take meat (any kind of meat, I guess - like beef patty or something), put it in a bowl of milk, and microwave that for thirty seconds or something, but then I realized how disgusting that sounded. It's not even silly, like fish and custard. Maybe he should just like pickles or something. No. Pickles are cliche. I honestly believe that. I must stay away from the cliche of pickles.
I know. He slices up mangoes, puts a little bit of salt on them, and microwaves them in a bowl full of milk. That's it. Actually, that's a pretty good one. It's not too wacky and doesn't sound too disgusting. Sounds like something my little sister would eat. I have figured out my narrator's favorite food and I can continue writing. See, I knew this blog would be useful. I just figured out my character's favorite food, and the writing can commence as usual. I knew this would be good for something.
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