It’s been one of those weeks in front of the computer.

I’m revising a manuscript and there’s this one scene in this one chapter that isn’t cooperating. The words are just loitering there on the page. None of them are getting along. No one’s playing nice. Maybe you can relate? Please tell me you can relate.

Some days of revision are more difficult than others. That’s just how this gig called writing goes. But the need to get to that place where a scene makes sense and the prose feels right remains the same. When there’s a buggy bunch of words on the page, words that aren’t taking me anywhere, words that are literally all holding up their middle fingers at me, I’m finding more and more that I have to shift gears. True, sometimes I can write through those tough spots, just plow my way through to stronger prose. But when I’m revising something, stubbornly writing through often doesn’t work for me. Sometimes I have to cook my way though.

This year I joined an organic CSA. (CSA stands for community-supported agriculture.) Each week the farm hauls its harvest down to the city and members get fresh-picked organic vegetables and fruit. So, with the CSA season about to wind down and with my week in words having been a bit bumpy, I thought this latest vegetable bounty might help me shift gears. Maybe as I cooked, the wheels in my head would unwind the crankiness in that troublesome scene, and maybe, just maybe, things would click.

Thus, what follows is Hail Mary to the writing muses: a pictorial Ode to my CSA.

Whether next week will prove more productive in front of the computer remains to be seen. But I think shifting my focus for a short time helped. It always does.

If nothing else, this past week my husband and I ate like vegetarian kings. 🙂