The Winter Pear

Whiskey, wine and well-crafted writing all take time to develop.

Recently, I was discussing my fiction writing process with my daughter. My stories, I told her, sometimes took years to develop. The layering process that gives the story richness, depth, intertextuality, symbolism, motif, metaphor (all the good stuff) sometimes takes a minute. Guaranteed, it bubbles away in the writers’ subconscious when the writer consciously steps away from the work, too. Yes, sometimes stepping away for quite a while. This is true of all creative professions, I believe.

When you’re young, you’re impatient. Fair enough. But as William Allingham points out, thoughts, just like pears, take time to ripen. There are challenges in both youth and age. But if you give a thought some time, it may eventually ripen like a winter pear.

The Winter Pear

Is always Age severe?
Is never Youth austere?
Spring-fruits are sour to eat;
Autumn’s the mellow time.
Nay, very late in the year,
Short day and frosty rime,
Thought, like a winter pear,
Stone-cold in summer’s prime,
May turn from harsh to sweet.

-William Allingham (1824-1889), Poem in the Public Domain