I took a walk with my friend Josefina last week. She and I have both embarked on some new creative (and career) explorations over the past few months. So we’re walking once a week and sharing some of the challenges we’re facing, plus some of the exciting new things we’re trying.

I shared with her that I’ve been a little frustrated and confused. I have two novels I’m working on. Let’s call them projects A and B.

I’ve worked on Project A for years. It’s a haunted house novel with lots of Tejano history. I love the story, and I finished a couple of years ago after a residency. I submitted it to a few agents, got some helpful feedback, and submitted it again. I got some more helpful notes. I know something is off with the beginning and with the protagonist’s voice, but I haven’t been sure what.

That is the most frustrating situation to be in: when you know something is wrong, but you don’t know how to fix it yet.

Then I told her about my newer novel, project B. I have about 100 pages of that written. It’s new, so it’s exciting and I know my tone reflected that.

Josefina said, “In my house, we eat a lot of tortillas. We eat a lot of tacos. And sometimes, we have just a couple of tortillas left in a package. And they get old and kind of stale. I buy a new package of tortillas, but I tell myself, ‘I should finish that old package. It’ll be wasteful if I just throw them away.'”

“But here’s the thing. If you eat the old tortillas first, then your new package starts getting old too. And then you end up in this situation where you’re always eating old tortillas. So just go with the new ones!”

And, as an added benefit, as I told her about my problems with novel A, I figured something out. I think I know how to fix it now!

So there you have it. Tortillas as a creative (and delicious) metaphor.

Image: Central Market, who makes my favorite fresh tortillas.