Finding Mustard Seed Inspiration

by Amy Cipolla Barnes

I had a mustard seed necklace as a child. A tiny seed encased in a tiny glass globe, suspended on a chain. There was much accompanying explanation of faith and perseverance and the importance of tiny things guiding my larger life. I wore the necklace proudly, until I lost it. I didn’t lose the faith or the perseverance, only the thing that represented them.

My husband and I recently went to lunch at a favorite barbecue restaurant and reached for our favorite sauce in the sauce-serving caddy. It was nowhere to be found. The waitress explained they couldn’t make it because of supply chain issues of — mustard seeds. To make the sauce, it required a bucket full of mustard seeds. She suggested a different sauce that we also loved. It was interesting to learn one tiny thing kept their signature sauce from happening.

One of my favorite, most-rejected and most-edited stories finally got accepted when I added one word: second. You wouldn’t think a singular word would make the change but “The Good Mother” found its home at Bandit Fiction only after I edited the opening line. I workshopped the story. Had it beta read. Edited it. It took eighteen months from me putting down a few guide words to publication.

The opening line went from:

“I dropped my baby.”

To

“I dropped my second baby.”

It was a mustard seed level word addition but apparently implied something important. The narrator dropped/lost the first child in a concrete way. This second baby is not real and the matter-of-fact tone feels incongruous and yet, ends up fitting the narrator’s state of mind.

The small word changes aren’t the only mustard seed moments/writer moments. Having faith in creativity is as a tiny/huge thing. Finding initial inspiration. Beating writer’s block. Editing tiny words that only take up space. It can all feel monumental, and small.

How can you find your mustard seed writing moments?

1) Choose your talisman or symbol. Whether that’s a plaque or encouraging sticky note or rejection note or first payment to hang over your desk, find a touchpoint and — touch it.

2) Eliminate words that aren’t mustard-seed-y. Take out the just, very, that, all the words that make the “sauce” taste bad.

3) Have faith in your own writing. This may be easier said than done. Sometimes simply repeating that you do have faith in your words and self is the starting point.

4) Go seed level tiny. I have a tendency to focus on the big picture. Looming huge goals. By distilling what you need to do down to smaller things, it can be less overwhelming. Plants don’t grow without seeds. Writing doesn’t grow without seeds either.

5) Scatter mustard seeds. Have faith in other people’s writing. Start a new mustard seed necklace trend with a quote-tweeted-re-tweet of a story you love or a Goodreads review. It costs only time to toss some faith seeds to another writer (who most likely needs them as much as you do).

6) Borrow a seed. There will always be at least one writer that is on fire, succeeding, getting published. While the first instinct may be a little jealousy, I try first to celebrate that writer and then grab on to whatever and however they’re putting it out there and glide with them. They’ve been where you are, staring at an empty mustard seed bucket.

7) Sometimes you need only a mustard seed of inspiration or editing, sometimes you need a bucketful. And sometimes you don’t know which one you need. Try adding a word. Get down that seedy draft that is a bucketful of *something* by throwing away the ideas of perfection or fanciness.

8) Plant some mustard seeds. In yourself and others. Tiny mustard seeds do grow into mustard plants, grow into yummy BBQ sauce. Plant those creativity seeds. Take a course. Read a craft book.

9) Go to the mustard seed store. And back again. While mustard seed necklaces (and creativity) can be easily lost, you can always find them again. My mother bought me another mustard seed necklace at a mall giftshop. I’ve almost filled Google Docs with my attempts at re-finding creativity.

10) Figure out what drives you. Is it faith in knowing you’re a “writer?” Do you want to share your words? Write a book? Get an agent? Be published in blank literary journal? Find revenge against a doubting professor or editor? Channel that mustard seed motivation into new words.

11) Start and maintain a “mustard seed” journal. This can be as simple as writing in your phone notes journal. Add positive acceptances, rejections, things that other writers say about you. Write down the seeds of ideas that strike you — an overheard conversation, potential character description, interesting word. When you’re feeling discouraged, go in to find inspiration.

12) My sister didn’t get a mustard seed necklace gift. I have no idea why. Did my parents think her faith was stronger? Was the older sister marked as wearer of the faith? Did I need it more at that moment? I took it as a way to bolster MY faith at that point. Your writing path is yours. If you’re the only one who frames rejections, so be it. If you have sixteen versions of the same story floating around Google, that is also your path. Wear it all proudly.

13) Find your flavor. Try a new flavor. Who knew mustard seeds were important to sweet southern barbecue sauce? Not me. In creativity, the ingredients that make your own secret sauce are important. Your writing group neighbor might be a white sauce or Carolina sauce connoisseur. Sci-fi. Alien romance. Erotic poetry. Hermit crab. While you might not like the taste of different writing, it can be helpful to sample stories in other genres. When the waitress told us there was no sweet sauce available, we tried another flavor and loved it. Read. Consume words. Savor those words. Savor your words.

14) Protect your mustard seed. There’s a reason why my childhood mustard seed necklace had a tiny glass cage around the seed. The seed was tiny and fragile. Your creativity and mental health can be equally delicate and in need of protection. Nurture them. If this means ignoring writing discourse or carefully curating your social media audience or leaving social media entirely, do it! If that means avoiding workshops or critique groups for a while because they feel difficult, do that too. And remember, other people are out there protecting themselves as well. Be kind. Don’t stomp on anyone else’s mustard seed.\

15) If you lose your writing mustard seed, ALL is not lost. There will be days when you don’t write or feel inspired or want to do the day’s basic tasks, let alone be creative. When the page is blank and ideas feel far away, return to whatever drove you to write in the first place. Look down at the mustard seed around your neck and have faith again.