Sunset: 5:40 (getting close to 6)
Pizza: Cauliflower crust combo
Question: Is it legal to have pepperoni on a cauliflower crust pizza?
One of the problems with these “As The Pizza Cooks” posts is that when I sit down to write, while the pizza is in the oven, the two strongest thoughts in my mind are: “Is the pizza ready?” and “Have I burnt the pizza?” It can be really hard to think of anything else.
There are priorities in life.
Normally it takes me days to think up something interesting to write. This whole, “I’ll write while the pizza cooks”, sounds like a great idea and a good way to practice my writing skills, but in practice it’s not what I expected it to be. Turns out my brain just keeps recycling the same thoughts over and over and the originality detectors in my brain often say, “You wrote about that last week.” I’d like to be original here and not repeat myself too much, but …
wait a second …
No the oven isn’t up to temperature yet. Now where was I?
You must know how it is with us older guys – we tell the same story over and over again. That’s fine when your with family and you’re the one paying for dinner, but how many of you would keep reading my blog if I kept posting the same story every week.
My dear old daddy (and he liked being called my dear old daddy) used to tell me, “Don’t get new jokes, get new audiences.” Sure, but after awhile you do run out of people to listen and with that comes this great inner urge to not repeat one’s self. Maybe you don’t agree, but that’s how I’m feeling at the moment.
Hold on, I’ve got to go put the pizza in the oven — I’ll be back in a few minutes … it’s a long walk to the kitchen. Yes, it’s a big house and my writing desk is as far away from the oven as you can get here.
I’m back.
I’m only 10 posts into this whole pizza thing and I’m already feeling like I’m running out of things to say. That’s not really true, I have a lot say, but I just can’t think of it while I have the stress of not burning the pizza and the kitchen being in the next county …
So I’ve been thinking that what I need to do is to have a list of subjects I can write about already to go before I start cooking the pizza. That way, I don’t have to worry about what to write about. Yup, just look at the top of the list and we’re off. Then I had this other idea.
Hear me out, this might be good or at least take me three minutes to type. Recently I paid for a one year subscription to Spotify. I’ve been using Spotify for awhile for creating play lists of songs that I listen to while writing or doing woodwork, but the nearly constant commercials started to drive me crazy so for my birthday I paid the subscription. The other day I was working on some poetry and “Sound of Silence” started up. Now I love that song. Its poetry is powerful and inspires me so naturally I thought, “That would make a great As The Pizza Cooks post.”
But then, part of my brain said, “No that’s not a pizza post, but a As The Music Plays, post.” I’ve got nearly 30 songs in my play list, so there’s 30 posts without even thinking about it.
Then I thought, you know there is a prototype here: “As The [noun] [verb] post”. No reason to stay with music or pizza, we could have, As The Poet Speaks, As The Tires Turn, As The Boots Walk, etc …
I know, brilliant, right? This will take some time to setup as I’m not the best at planning but it could work.
I’d like to discuss this further with you, but the timer went three minutes ago and I think I’ve now burnt the pizza.
Andrew's View of the Week 
Your inner voice comes out with your ATPC episodes, and I can relate. I don’t think I multitask well at all anymore. I’m not sure I ever did, but it feels more pronounced at this stage of the game. The cauliflower crust can handle any toppings you’re craving, I’d say!
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Thank you. I find as I get older my multitasking skills are fading.
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Cauliflower crusts work for me as long as they’re the store-bought versions with cheese as the binder. Tried to make my own once and, well… disaster. And pepperoni is not breaking the rules, no sir.
The “As The [noun] [verb] post” concept is like standing on the edge of a vast, new, endlessly creative writing frontier. Question is: will you take that first step?
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I’ll be make some change. whether it works or not is a different question.
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Uh-oh, I hope the pizza was un-burned! I’ve never heard of a cauliflower crust. It sounds dangerously healthy, but I guess it’s okay as long as it has pepperoni on it. 😉
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We just saw it one day at the store and give it a try. It’s nice and lighter than bread crusts so we get it once in awhile. and you’ll be happy to know that no pizza was burnt while writing this post.
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I hope the pizza wasn’t burnt, and it’ll be interesting to see what you come up with. I just post when inspiration knocks, similar to Robbie’s motto: fly by the seat of your pants. 🙂
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No pizza was burnt during the writing of this post. 😉 This year I want to have a bit more discipline around my writing, but most often I do just fly by the seat of my pants.
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Keeping a list of blogging topics sounds like work, Andrew. It is much easier to fly by the seat of your pants. Which version of Sound of Silence do you like. I like the Disturbed version best.
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I like the original and Disturbed. I have to say that Disturbed’s version is the best cover of the song and it added a lot to the original.
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It is a great version.
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I admire that you can write at all while baking pizza because my mind would totally be on pizza and not being able to wait to eat it because pizza is probably my very favorite food to eat. And whew, that was a long sentence. But anyway, here’s my solution — when you get ideas about what you could write about for “As the Pizza Cooks”, write those ideas on the outside of the pizza boxes with a Sharpie. Then every time you get a pizza out to put in the oven, you’ll have blog fodder!
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Now that’s a great idea. I’ll go find my Sharpie …
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I’d keep a list of possible topics if I were determined to post regularly. Or maybe even have some posts already written ahead of time. But I certainly wouldn’t try to write with a pizza (or anything else) in the oven. Wouldn’t want to burn a perfectly good pizza, and pizzas have priority.
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I’d like to post regularly just as a matter of writing discipline. I’m currently leaning towards keeping some kind of subject or prompt list so I don’t waste time thinking about what to write about.
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I understand the difficulty of filling your screen with words while anticipating a distraction. There is no wrong way to make a pizza. It is created to your taste and interests. Blogging is the same way. Choosing songs is a fun choice for a writing prompt.
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I might do a series on songs. I have a number that I really like and would find easy to write about.
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I like posts that ‘just talk.’ Sometimes, I find they are the ones that most interest me. I was truly thinking of another place to blog besides my art blog where I could just ‘write’ about what I was thinking at the moment. I don’t know if it would be interesting to others, but it would sure feel good some days to get these thoughts out and I wouldn’t even mind if anyone read it. (I know – they call that ‘journaling’. )
So far this year (which hasn’t been going on too long) I have managed to do a blog a week. That was the goal, as I wanted some regularity so my followers could know what to expect. It takes time, as you know, and has eaten into my supposed ‘day off’, but I think it is rather worth it because I do feel accomplished and as if I am at least meeting my goal.
I think once you settle on a format for your posts you will do well. Sometimes it takes trial and error to feel comfortable with things. Then you have to consider that “life” doesn’t always cooperate, so sometimes loosening your expectations of yourself would be for the best. (HA! I speak of this as if I know all these things! I guess you just have to try until you feel good about something.)
As I said before, I enjoy your posts. No sense burning pizza over posting, though. Although I like my pizza darker and crispy on the top. But that is just me . . .
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I’ll find someway of doing something. I’ve never really tried doing an “editorial calendar”, but I might just so I don’t have to think of a subject. Once I have a subject, I can blast through a post in 20-30 minutes, but I’ll spend hours figuring out what to write about.
And I think there are governmental regulations against burning pizzas … 😉
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(Thank goodness I am in Canada then! :D)
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My desktop computer is at the opposite end of the house as the stove as well. I’ve learned that it’s not a good idea to come in to write anything if I’m waiting for something on the stove. (Crockpot is okay.) Hurrah for cauliflower crusts (no gluten). Love those possible titles!
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It’s also distracting to write for 10 minutes, get up, come back and try to write for another 10 minutes. I have to say I’m surprised how good the cauliflower crust pizza is.
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“As the pizza burns” ?
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more often than I care to admit to …
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