Erica O'Rourke

Let's Talk About Snacks.

Being a Real Live Writer is a tricky business, and it's important to have a little something on hand to nibble now and again, to keep your strength up. Alas, my house is currently lacking in proper snack food. A dire situation, and one I feel compelled to remedy post-haste. The culprit is my inability to demonstrate any kind of restraint when presented with tasty snacky goodness. I buy treats, and they magically disappear within 36 hours. I would blame the baby, but she's not the one with Dorito dust staining her fingertips.

*excuses self to wash hands*

Writing friendly snacks are especially tricky. They need to be filling but not coma-inducing. No preparation necessary. Easy to eat one-handed. They need to not coat your fingers or keyboard with shmutz and be relatively drip-free. Tasty at room temperature. Crunchy, but not painfully so. Neither cloyingly sweet nor so salty your mouth feels like the Sahara. A bit indulgent, since you're working so hard, but not so rich that you feel guilty about it.

It's a lot of pressure for a single food item.

Happily, I've done the research for you, and found tasty things you can eat while writing/editing/working on the computer/watching YouTube. If I were to go out right now, here's what would make it into my cart (and likely be gone by 3pm tomorrow). What can I say? I'm a giver.

FIVE SNACKS FOR WORKING

1. Wasabi peas: You can get these anywhere, but I am not a fan of the ones in the cute metal can, as blindly reaching in will give you wicked cuts along your knuckles. Also, monitor your intake -- I often wake up the next morning unable to feel my lips, thanks to wasabi's numbing powers (see restraint, lack of, above). Crunchy, vaguely healthy due to the peas, spicy enough to keep you awake, and easy to eat one-handed.
2. Trader Joe's Soy and Flaxseed Tortilla Chips: Most chips need salsa or guacamole to make up for their blandness. Flavored chips don't need a dip, but they leave cheese dust on your fingers, which then smears all over the place. But these chips are delicious all on their own -- a little nutty-tasting, crisp and substantial, and not too salty. TJ's makes two other versions, spicy and veggie-flavored, but why mess with perfection?
3. Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds: Everyone says almonds are healthy, and it's easy to think that dipping them in dark chocolate only makes them healthier, what with the antioxidants and all. But eating an entire bag will make you sick (ask me how I know). Plus, your fingers will be covered in melted chocolate. These almonds, however, have a baked-on cocoa coating that gives you a nice hit of chocolate flavor without making a mess. You still shouldn't eat the entire jar, but you're less likely to slip into a diabetic coma if you do. If you are into the portion control thing, they also come in 100-calorie packs.
4. Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Wedges: Speaking of portion control, if you're going to go with unadulterated dark chocolate, as one sometimes must, these are perfect. 16 bite-sized wedges of 70% dark chocolate in an adorable tin. You can tuck them in your bag, if you're working outside the house. You can virtuously close the tin and pretend like you're not having any more. Once you've stopped pretending, you can use the tin as a travel jewelry case, or to hold small office supplies.
5. Trader Joe's Cinnamon Schoolbook Cookies: Not too hard, not too sweet, not overpoweringly cinnamon-ish, and perfectly bite-sized. They are the Goldilocks of cookies, and I am not above justifying my purchase with "But they're shaped like letters! And I'm a writer! It was meant to be!"

So, what am I missing? What snacks do you require in order to Get Stuff Done?

*Happy Sigh*

It is the most ridiculous show on television (man in a monk costume ziplining into a gondola, anyone?), but the news of Human Target's likely renewal makes me very happy. Some people would say it's because I am a sucker for heroes who are Broad of Shoulder, Square of Jaw, and Tormented of Backstory.

Those people would be right.

Five Things I've Learned From Writing

I've learned a lot more than five, of course, but I'm trusting you can google "proper manuscript format" and "goal motivation conflict" all by yourself.

1. Pay Attention

Watch what people say, what they do, why they do it. Watch the world around you, and notice the way things look and smell and taste and feel. I write about magic, but even when talking about magical woo-woo and impossible things, it still needs to be grounded in a way that people can relate to it. Big things -- telling things -- happen in small moments, and if you don't train yourself to see them, they'll pass you by entirely.

2. No Shortcuts

Writing is hard work. It is often lonely work, too, but you can alleviate that by finding a writer's group. What you can't do is cheat. If you don't actually sit down and put the words on the paper, you won't finish the book. If you don't submit, you won't get an agent or a sale. If you don't promote, you won't get the sales necessary to sustain a writing career. Perhaps there is someone for whom this does not hold true, whose lengthy and illustrious career is all a matter of luck and happy accidents, but I have yet to meet this person.

Unfortunately, this also applies to real life as well. If I want clean socks, I have to do laundry. There is no happy accident that results in a clean kitchen floor. Someone is going to have to take the car for emissions testing, and it's not going to be the ozone fairy.

3. It's not personal.

Rejections are an unhappy fact. You don't win a contest. Your dream agent rejects you. Your critique partner says with a firm shake of her head, "This scene? It has to go." It's not because they hate your guts. It's not because you're a terrible person. It is not -- although sometimes it feels this way -- because the universe is out to get you. Sarah Prineas (author of the delightful Magic Thief series) put it perfectly when she said, "You are not your work."

I love writing. It consumes a huge amount of my brain space. I think about my books when I'm in the shower, when I'm driving to Target, while I'm watching TV, while I'm scrubbing up cat barf. But writer is only one of the roles I play, and to assume a rejection of my writing equals a rejection of me...diminishes the importance of the other things I do.  Rejection hurts, but it is part of the business. Writing is my job. Agents and editors are doing their job. Presumably, the cats feel they are doing their job when they hurl all over the bedroom carpet at 2 AM.

It's not personal. (Well, okay. The cat barf probably is.)

4. There is such a thing as too much coffee.

I did not think this was possible, but it is true. As it turns out, after six large coffees, I tend to lose perspective. When even your texting has become incoherent, step away from the Italian Roast and have some peanut butter crackers.

5. Your mileage may vary.

A good critique partner will not only tell you what your manuscript needs, they'll have some suggestions on how to provide it. And after they offer their advice, they'll say something along the lines of, "But this is only my opinion. Use what you want and ignore the rest." If they're a great critique partner, they will actually mean it.

(Good CPs are like a perfect pair of jeans -- incredibly rare, capable of making you look amazing, and to be treated carefully, so as to last a long, long time.)  

There are many roads to Oz. We all march to the beat of a different drummer. One man's trash is another man's treasure...blah blah blah proverbcakes, but the truth is, what I've learned might not be what you need to learn. Use what you want and ignore the rest.

I mean it.