Author Anne Lamott is known for saying, “Listen to your broccoli, and it will tell you what to do.” She inspired this quote from one of Mel Brook’s routines in which a psychiatrist tells a patient, “Listen to your broccoli, and your broccoli will tell you how to eat it.” In her book, “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life,” she explains that you listen to the object of your interest to gain intuition.
Lamott’s explanation of the quote suggests that intuition can be created by listening and reminds me of another quote I heard in a sales training meeting: “Listen to the Marketplace, and it will tell you what to do.” These quotes don’t mention what you specifically listen to but imply that you find the parts of the whole to learn about and listen to.
The quotes make me think of other writing advice explaining that character development is more important than plot development, explaining that the characters in a story interact and create the plot. According to this approach, the first step is to develop the characters, the individual parts of the property. They need to be believable with their personality, appearance, history, and mannerisms and will have their emotional baggage. Some characters may not like some of the other characters, and how they interact with each other and with events will be the result of who they are individually.
Listening to the character’s interactions with each other and knowing how they feel about the things that happen to them gives the writer intuition about the plot and outcome. Impulse is created by listening to the object of your interest and profoundly understanding the facts relating to that object.
