{"id":89993,"date":"2015-09-21T16:18:11","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T20:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=89993"},"modified":"2015-09-21T16:42:12","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T20:42:12","slug":"layering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/21\/layering\/","title":{"rendered":"Layering"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo: Darwin Bell<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Life is an onion\u2014you peel it year by year and sometimes cry.\u00a0\u2015Carl Sandburg<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s a practical writing tip: if you\u2019re stuck, write \u201cOnce upon a time.\u201d Go on, try it\u2014I think you\u2019ll find that even the action is soothing. It\u2019s not just that now you have something on the page, although you do. The words themselves are calming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Where did I encounter this piece of advice? I don\u2019t want to rob anyone of credit, but misattribution would be bad, too. I think<\/em> it was in the cookbook The Splendid Table\u2019s How to Eat Supper<\/em><\/a><\/em>, but I can\u2019t swear to it. Anyway, in this book, one of the authors relates a time-honored tip passed down from her grandmother: if you don\u2019t know what to make for dinner, just cut up an onion and put it on to cook. The action, the aroma, the fact that an onion is the basis for so many dishes\u2014these factors will conspire to prompt a plan. And if nothing else, you\u2019ll enjoy the savory smell of industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is good advice, and with a bit of adaptation it can apply to many things in life. Any sort of improvisation must arise from a basic technique. And just as important, the advice understands that there\u2019s nothing more intimidating than a pristine kitchen, a blank canvas, an empty screen. (The blink of a cursor can become downright insolent, when you\u2019re in the wrong mood.)<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce upon a time\u201d has been my onion for as long as I can remember. Ninth-grade biology reports, junior-year art-history papers on the nude, college papers on the role of food in the work of Flannery O\u2019Connor, college papers on the role of food in Villette<\/em>, college papers on the role of food in Elizabeth Bowen, college papers on the role of coffee drinking in Raymond Carver\u2019s \u201cWhere I\u2019m Calling From\u201d (because they don\u2019t eat anything), book reviews and food articles and fashion items\u2014I\u2019ve started all of them with \u201cOnce upon a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a little embarrassing to admit\u2014although if it\u2019s useful to anyone, that\u2019s of little concern. Obviously, I end up erasing the introduction every time. (Well, with one exception<\/a>.) In fact, I\u2019ve woken in the night in fear that I\u2019ve forgotten to remove \u201cOnce upon a time\u201d from the top of an interview with a poet or something.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For anyone who has been a child or heard a story (most of us), these words stir a certain excitement. Something<\/em> is about to happen\u2014usually something with a reliable beginning, middle, and end, safely contained in a world apart from your own. And even as an adult, they conjure promise. And they\u2019re reassuring: they imply that someone<\/em> is in control\u2014a grown-up, an omniscient narrator of some kind, something timeless\u2014even if that is just you. Indeed, especially if it is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review, and the <\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Life is an onion\u2014you peel it year by year and sometimes cry.\u00a0\u2015Carl Sandburg Here\u2019s a practical writing tip: if you\u2019re stuck, write \u201cOnce upon a time.\u201d Go on, try it\u2014I think you\u2019ll find that even the action is soothing. It\u2019s not just that now you have something on the page, although you do. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[57,1671,19494,19493,18841,2393,75],"class_list":["post-89993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-advice","tag-cooking","tag-once-upon-a-time","tag-onions","tag-preparation","tag-words","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHaving Trouble Writing? 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