I’m a pizza baker. I love baking pizza, and my family loves that I love baking pizza.  I started learning to cook pizza back around 1995 when I was living in Vietnam. I was just starting to get interested in cooking and I, luckily, stumbled upon one shop in the port city of Haiphong which carried cheese – those beautiful, big, round orange colored cylinders of Gouda from Holland. So I started learning how to make a good crust, learned my favorite kind of sauce, and I started baking gouda topped pizza. (Gouda is actually very good on pizza. Try a mozzeralla and Gouda mix – sprinkle on Parmesan for a three cheese pizza which is to die for. But I digress)

I’ve been making pizza like clockwork for 18 years.  I have all kinds of varieties that I make as I like to experiment with different ingredients – my stuffed crust w/homemade sausage is perhaps my favorite and it might just be the best pizza I ever ate (if I was up for bragging.)

This afternoon, I put the pizza in the oven and came to my computer to pound out a few words of something. I never set a timer, and I’ve learned that I don’t have to. I have this internal pizza clock which just tells me when it’s ready.

Sure enough, I was deep into some thought on the computer when my eyes suddenly perked up, my nose caught a whiff of something tangible, and I straightened up and knew I couldn’t delay any longer. I went to the kitchen, opened the oven door, and, once again, the most beautiful piece of edible art starred back at me. Perfectly timed. How does that happen?

I guess that it is just experience. I’ve done it so many times that I have it timed, internally inside me. The pizza alarm just goes off – it beckons me to act, and when I do I will be duly rewarded for it.

What’s this have to do with writing? Not much, actually. Except that I believe I’m started to develop that internal writing clock. I’m learning to let ideas simmer, let the flavors blend together, and then at the right moment, move on them quickly to create something delicious to consume. I will admit, though, that baking pizza is far easier than writing. I make less mistakes and am always rewarded for it. My goal is that 18 years from now, I can write another post telling everyone how my internal writing clock has gotten more efficient  more precise, and more effective through experience.

Note to self: Remember that I want my writing to be as delicious as my pizza. Got it. I’ll keep working at it.