In Praise of the Palate Cleanser

Whether it's a refreshing sorbet, a sliver of gari (that pickled ginger business that comes with your sushi), or a nibble of parsley, a palate cleanser refreshes the mouth to allow the diner to get back to the business of savoring the flavor of the meal's next course.

Although I've long been an advocate of the "laser-like focus" approach to a publishing career, I've discovered that the palate cleanser can serve the writer just as well. Reading and studying craft outside one's usual niche is broadening and healthy, and taking a shot at writing something completely different stretches creative muscles and frees us from whatever editorial edicts, genre or reader expectations we're usually forced to live by.

I've taken a break this past week and done just that, and I'm having great fun. It's strange and scary, being creative for creativity's sake, writing in a market where I've seen no successes on a project that could well be as viable as an albino alligator in the wild. It reminds me of the heady pleasures of bygone days, when I wrote only to please myself. That's not to say I wouldn't love it if it turned out to be something that could be commercially successful, but I'm enjoying the writing process so much that I'm sure it will bring a fresh new attitude to the romantic suspense novels for which I'm best known and help to make my storytelling more creative.

So the next time your favorite author goes off the tracks to try something new when you wish he/she would just get back to what it is that you love reading, you might trying cutting him or her a little slack. Better to allow a little palate cleansing (you might even learn to love the sorbet!) than to let a talent stagnate, and an imagination die a tepid death.

Today's question for discussion: What do you do to keep your creativity fresh? Do you work in another art form (paints or music, gardening), write plays, poetry, or nonfiction, or try your hand in different genres? How do you prevent this diversification from turning into a splintering of focus?