As a writer and someone obsessed with creativity, I am often caught up with what works. What sells? What moves people? What’s current and popular?
This can stop me from taking that real leap and writing something new and challenging. I stay in my cozy bubble and pump out more of the “expected.” I end up stopping my own creativity and writing more mundanely as a result.
What I’d like share with you is a way in which the world recently humbled me, and made me think about how we go about with our intentions.
The Soup Story
This story is simple. I am my house’s cook. I am by no means a classically trained chef, but I like to think of myself as a very successful home-cook.
Last Wednesday, I had decided to make some nice creamy chicken soup for dinner. It was getting colder and darker and this felt like a great way to capitalize on that comfy feeling.
I spent all day building a stock from bones and rough-cut veggies, made a béchamel to thicken it with and browned up some nice chicken breasts to chop in. All was going well.
When my partner got home from work, I was on the last stage. The final 45 simmer before it could be served. I had just put the black rice, chicken breasts and new vegetables into the pot and was feeling quite satisfied with myself.
We sat to talk about our days when the next thing we knew, nearly an hour had passed and everything should be fully cooked. Dinner time!
Then I looked in the pot at my “creation.”
“IT’S PURPLE!” I shouted.
I expected a semi-fake tirade calling me silly, a messy cook and “it’ll probably still taste okay.”
I instead received “Wow! It’s so pretty! How’d you do that?” followed by the speedy blur of a ladle pouring soup into a bowl.
After explaining that it must have been the black rice that somehow dyed our meal and a profuse apology, my partner simply said:
“This is amazing! I’ve never had purple soup. It’s like something from a book or movie.”
Without my noticing, I had made something special. My whole plan for the soup had gone sideways, and yet my partner still liked it, specifically for how its accidents had made it special.
Thinking back on that soup, I’ve found a lesson:
If by some accident, you make a new and exciting way to consume a product or medium, EMBRACE IT.
How Purple Soup Applies To Writing and Creativity
My soup would have been great if it had come out as expected. It would have been rich, tasty and satisfied both me and my partner. Those three points were the whole purpose of my cooking. I also used up nearly my whole day on one project, so naturally I wanted a good return on my investment.
What my “mistake” caused however was a whole new benefit. I added fantasy to my soup. I accidently made it way cooler than ever intended. No amount of creativity would have led me to this point, as it had never entered my thoughts beforehand.
Even in biology, a science in which everything is very guided and purposeful, accidents in reading genetic code can cause incredibly helpful and species defining mutations.
Writing can be like this too. You can add all of the expected elements to your writing and do perfectly well. But what if in your drafts, or lost somewhere in the revisions and “typos” was a whole new perspective?
I spent a considerable amount of my day just on this one thing, and it was my “mistake” that pushed the sale over the top. Should I count the day as a loss because of my mistake, or embrace what made it through revision and be glad it hadn’t blown up?
If you overly water down your creativity to the point that it can pass under the radar easily, you may be missing incredible opportunities. Maybe some of our mistakes are much closer to purple soup than we think?
It may be wise to keep our eyes open when in the editing stage. There’s possible treasure in those errors, ones that may appeal to people who would have been simply fine with our writing but are won over by creativity and innovation.
Thanks for reading! This is a bit different than my other, more informative posts. I found the situation just so ripe for a good story that I couldn’t stop myself though. If you are new to my blog and want to learn more about what I regularly talk about, consider reading Why Your Business Needs Strong Copywriting. You can also check out my LinkedIn and follow me for daily inspiration or copywriting tips https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachary-coulson-3785b6223.