When it comes to writing, your ideas are just like dry-aged steak.
If you've never had a dry-aged steak, it's one of the secrets of fancy steakhouses - it's where cuts of beef are uncovered and aged for weeks before being trimmed for the grill.
Here are the reasons why people love dry-aged steaks, and what they can teach us about how to treat our writing ideas.
As the meat loses water, the flavor becomes concentrated.
Ideas fresh to your mind, are often raw, bloody, and juicy. Aging ideas allow them to shed some of their superfluous attributes, and helps concentrate the "flavor" of the idea. With time and the right treatment, ideas tighten up, and the very core insights underlying the idea often become clearer.
Dry-aging breaks down the connective tissue between the muscle fibers.
When you first encounter them, ideas tend to be encased within the specific context they were presented in. It's not always clear how they link up with your model of the world. Conversely, I've found that it's easier to connect older ideas to personal stories or anecdotes than it is fresh new ones.
You can control the aging environment to make sure the steak doesn't spoil.
You can't just dump your ideas in a damp, dark corner of your mind and expect them to work out. You need to treat the idea right. Depending on what the idea is, it could be seeing how it sits alongside other wins, or it could be airing it out through a conversation with a friend. The environment around the idea is how it will take on unique flavors that give your ideas their signature texture.
There is a sweet spot for how long to age the steak for.
Ideas can go stale if left for too long. Revisit an old journal and Ideas and insights that once seemed revolutionary to you, can now seem pedestrian. Old ideas can feel leathery, unexciting, and unappealing. There is a sweet spot for how long you should let your ideas sit, but really, only you know when it's ready.
Ideas are the core ingredient in good writing. The next step is to cook it properly.
Original Tweet Here: https://twitter.com/DrErnestLim/status/1453484826489614337?s=20