There’s nothing like a cup of coffee to get the writing juices flowing.
Ever the optimist, Albert Camus once posed the burning (or should I say, brewing) question: “Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?”
What the oft-quoted prolific writer, who denied he was a philosopher, seemed to say has been the subject of countless essays and dissertations. And he’d been charmed to know that his thought-provoking question is printed—in seven languages—on designer coffee mugs.
I like to think he was saying something like this: Since humans are obsessively aware they are destined to die and are, in their private moments, convinced that life has no meaning, what is the difference if one ends it all or takes a cup of coffee?
Or maybe he, like most creative folks, merely enjoyed a cup of coffee more than life itself.
By the way, this blog is not actually about coffee. It’s about coffee filters.
Starting with whole beans, I grind my own coffee each morning. Using a sleek device which resembles a retro-1970s narrow-bodied stereo speaker, I fill the grinder with beans and press down while the thing whines like a miniature chain saw. When my beans are thoroughly destroyed, I pour the freshly pulverized grounds into a filter which I center in the basket of my ancient coffee maker.
Here’s the thing about filters: just when you think you have separated a single filter from its fellows, you realize that, though the paper seems impossibly thin, there’s more than one layer. You pull those layers apart and, again, you find that you must parse the filters once more to reach the final gossamer layer. A single ply is essential, for only that thin barrier will allow boiling water to trickle through the grounds and fill the waiting decanter with what your taste buds crave as the nectar of the gods.
A story in progress can function like the multi-layers of a coffee filter. Just when a writer believes he or she has reached the nub of a narrative, a close inspection can reveal yet another layer. Parsing those layers can either simplify or complicate a plot line or story arc, either of which will enrich the writing and, hopefully, enchant the reader.
Complacency in writing amounts to trying to brew a perfect pot of coffee by forcing boiling water through a too-thick, un-examined layer of filter paper. Try that tactic when making coffee and you’ll end up with a clogged filter and an unpalatable mess on your kitchen counter. Try it while writing and the unmanageable muddle you produce might have to join the soppy filter in the trash.