The following piece “A Lot Like Coffee Beans” was originally published on-line by Inkspot: The Writer’s Resource, in 1999.

First writing efforts are a lot like coffee beans. When I say this to people, they give me a strange look, usually laugh, and then ask: “How so?” And I do my best to explain.

As a child, I never knew the smell of coffee. My mother, grandmother and uncles all drank tea. Tea has no smell, really.

But, ah, the first time I smelled coffee!

I was 13 and I was in Marge’s kitchen. Marge lived six houses away, but I swear the smell followed me like a black cat down the street and into my front hall. Crazed, I searched my kitchen cupboards, happening on a lost tin that rattled musically when I peeled back its plastic lid. Knowing only tea, I sprinkled four or five whole beans into my mug, doused them with boiling water, and waited. And waited.

Through the steam, I watched the beans watching me. I poked them and they nodded back. I stirred them and they twirled. But nothing. Just hot, bland water.

My first efforts as a novice writer were so much like those coffee beans. I peeled open my brand new thesaurus, happening on a few nouns and verbs that sounded musical when I said them out loud. Striving for brilliance, I sprinkled four or five whole words onto a page, added an adjective here, an exclamation mark there, and waited. And waited.

From the screen, I watched the words watching me. I deleted one and added another. I shifted some and re-jigged some others. But nothing. Just stark bland prose. Little to excite my senses. Little that made me say, “Ah!”.

Over time, I learned to write good prose the same way I learned to make a good cup of coffee — by spending time learning from others, by observing their techniques and by experimenting with some of my own.

There are no secrets to good coffee, just as there are no secrets to good writing. We learn to be good writers through the mistakes we make in the beginning. We learn what works and what doesn’t. What to leave in and what to leave out. Thanks to our first efforts, though, we really do get much better. We really do improve. It just takes a whole lot of patience.