How does writing resemble cooking an omelette ?

I have the fortune of watching somebody else cook me omelette right now. Most of you know the debate .... add milk or water ? I'm an add milk type of gal, for no other reason than that is how I was taught to do it. I'm well aware that it's fairly difficult to distinguish the difference in the real world. When a restaurant dishes you an omelette can you tell instantly which ingredient they are leaning towards? If you can, you're a bigger foodie than me ! However, it is rare I get to watch others cook, and as I do so (gazing disapprovingly on at the water diluting the eggs) I can't help but think about the correlation between this basic recipe and writing. Yep, these are the random wanderings of my mind, who'd have thought it!

I was taught to cook an omelette when I was fairly young and I have stuck to the basic formula ever since, not because I don't like change (I am the girl who sleeps on different sides of the bed on a regular basis in fear I might get 'stuck in a rut') but because it works. I can throw in other ingredients to make a Spanish Omelette, or French Omelette, but the foundations of my culinary skills in this part of the egg world remain steadfast to good effect. Just incase you aren't convinced, I will say again, I do it the way I do because it works.

Whilst writing is a skill to some degree, many of us were taught methodologies in our younger years. The majority of us were at least taught basic principles of 'beginning, middle and end' even if (in the UK at least ) you were born recently enough to have seen the demise of grammar as a curriculum topic. My point here is that as writers of any form we all have our foundations, our basic ingredients, which might differ in constitution, but aim for the same thing...write quality stuff which people can read and engage in. Quite often we repeat that formula and others start to recognise our 'writing style' and occasionally we might swap them out to try the methods of others to see what we're left with? The talented will manage to produce a perfectly nice omelette no matter which ingredients they throw in, whereas others will see the demise of their works (if our standards are set by desired outcome) and end up with what can only be scrambled eggs.

It is often the changes of our steadfast ingredients which result in a dish outside of the norm. There was a trend over recent years to leave story lines unanswered, cliff hanger endings, disappointing outcomes. It strikes me that these are the scrambled eggs of the writing world! Beginning, middle and ... what ? no resolution ? I'm not just talking about the works written with serials in mind, I mean those works such as The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas, Pans Labrynth, etc. Acknowledged as great by many, but few would have failed to reach the concluding scenes of the book / film without reeling. We just weren't programmed to anticipate those outcomes, and yet there they were in all their glory, and after we got over the shock and disappointment of the scrambled eggs we were dished, many admitted that they tasted rather good!

Many will say that writing is an art form. It is certainly a skill set which some tend to show a flair towards more than others. In any art there are often basic principles to guide you on your path, but exploring other techniques and mixing up your ingredients you might find that much like the omelette, the outcome isn't broken, it's just different.