Are You a Mattress in the Wild?

Nothing makes me angrier than a mattress in the wild. And by that, I mean one someone has dumped down the side of a pristine mountain road because they're too cheap to take it to the dump. It's a perfect metaphor for drafts or early iterations of your work. They are FILLED with mattresses aka bad ideas, not quite right thoughts, and ugly executions of your ideas. Worse still, you can throw one of your bad "mattress" ideas into the work of others and really stink up the joint. In today's episode, I talk in my usual riddles but this time about mattresses and how to recognize when you have one in your work. This is an audio reading of the post "Are you a mattress in the wild?" originally published on June 6, 2022. Additional creative inspirations can be found at that link. https://www.jumpinthestream.com/mattress/Support the showAbout Field of StreamsThis podcast provides audio readings of The Stream newsletter's main feature. The Stream is written by Janeen McCrae, and aims to provide a weekly dose of personal essays and creative inspirations that'll get you revved up to 'make the thing.' Dip a toe into the stream and sign up for my free ramblings here