Chatting with a friend over coffee one morning, I was sharing my progress on a piece I was working on. “It’s finished,” I said. “But I’m going to put it aside for a day or two before I submit it. I need to let it…” I paused, unable to come up with the right word to finish my thought.
“Percolate?” Penny said, before taking a bite of her scone. “I know what you mean. It’s nice to have time to let it sit for awhile.”
Ever since that conversation, I’ve tried to come up with synonyms to describe that time between declaring a piece finished and mustering the courage to submit it to the intended competition or callout.
I find that the word I choose depends on the tone of the piece. Percolate describes a cheerful piece. I picture my parents’ vintage stainless steel coffee pot chirping from the kitchen counter at dawn.
Simmer fits with a recollection about childhood. A pot simmers on the stove, the warm aroma of apples and cinnamon bubbling up with the steam, on a cold blustery afternoon.
A darker piece might smolder for a time before it’s ready for its close up.
Penny offered fester, too, but I couldn’t imagine what tone a piece would evoke to require a period of festering.
Other descriptors that came to mind in our little word game were germinate, incubate, and stew.
I’m sure I’ll come up with a few more if I ruminate on it awhile.
“I have a vocabulary all my own. I ‘pass the time’ when it is wet and disagreeable. When it is fine I do not wish to pass it; I ruminate it and hold on to it. We should hasten over the bad, and settle upon the good.” —Michel de Montaigne, (1533–1592), French essayist