Chex Mix, Writing & Reading

Today I had chex mix for breakfast. It's the "traditional" flavor and overall I enjoy munching on it. In fact I'll probably have the bag close by and nibble off and on most of the day. That's one of the reasons I don't buy it often...I tend to nibble on it way too much.
But as I pondered blogging today, I glanced over at the bag of chex mix and realized that yeap, I can make the chex mix and writing relate. So, bear with me:--)

There are a lot of different parts to good chex mix. The bag I'm nibbling on now has two kinds of cereal, two different pretzel shapes, two kinds of bread and a little breadstick thingy. Not to mention the spices. And for the most part, I like it all. Of course, I pick around the wheat chex and the pumpernickle bread pieces and eat the rest first.

A good story has lots of ingredients too. Great characters, interesting setting, and realistic dialogue are just a few those ingredients. Then there are those "spices" that each writer adds...his or her own voice. Each of us have something special we bring to the story.

And just as I pick through by bag of chex mix picking out my favs, readers will have their favorites too. Not everyone will care for the pretzels.

Plus, there is a chex mix for just about every taste now. Turtle, cheddar, BBQ, sweet & salty and of course traditional. All of them are tasty in their own way. And there is a genre for every reader too...mystery, romance, fantasy, just to name a few.

Which leads me to reading.  As writers we need to read.  We need to read outside our genre.  We need to read nonfiction, we need to read romance, mystery, thrillers, fantasy and science fiction.   We even need to read literary and mainstream novels.  And while I enjoy a good horror every now and then, I won't insist we all need to read them.
 
When we read, we get a chance to see how other writers play with the language, how they do descriptions, dialogue and action.  We see what we like and what we don't then can apply it to our own writing.
 
So, go grab a bag of chex mix, a book you'd not normally read and find a comfy chair.  Now, enjoy.