I’m a pretty good cook, which is to say I’ve done kitchen-y things all my life, beginning at a very young age with my mom. Of course the best part was sneaking bits of batter from the bowl and scraping out the leftovers with a wooden spoon. (My sister would draw a line down the middle of the batter bowl, making sure most of the leftover batter was on her side.)
I went on to become a ridiculously creative cook (the same way I make art: intuitively) inventing recipes and throwing stuff together to make baked goods, appetizers, dishes of all kinds. My parents indulged my creative kitchen messes, and for my 13th birthday I received a coveted copy of The Joy of Cooking, which I have to this day. I cook recipe-less more often than not. (However, I’ll admit that the NYT Cooking app has become a huge part of my life in recent years, especially Sam Sifton’s No-Recipe Recipes. Right up my alley!)
Now that I’ve recommitted to writing the memoir that started bubbling up a few years ago, I suddenly realized that it’s a bit like making a cake.
(Ok, a complicated cake— I am not a true baker, but I have baked some cakes in my day.) Here goes— my recipe for getting my memoir written:
Choose what to bake = your intention/project
Tidy up your kitchen= get your writing desk/space in order
Study the recipe= plan the story, get familiar with it, imagine how it will go together
Gather your ingredients= ideas, themes, scenes, notes, jottings
Get all your baking tools together= container, plot, structure, turning points, story arc, etc.
Put on your apron= Embrace the preparation, be present and get ready to work hard
Preheat the oven= get that computer working tap tap tap = BICHOK
Follow the recipe, measure the ingredients, put them all together, mix up the batter in the bowl, add any extra ingredients that need to be added, pour the batter into the pan, put it in the oven, set the timer, and hope for the best = book.
Pretty simplistic analogy, I know, but I’m trying to get my cookies in a row here (or words on the page.) Maybe the hardest parts are putting on the apron and turning on the oven. I’m in the midst of it all at this point, and hoping to smell the sweet scent of a cake baking soon.
p.s. I haven’t figured out yet about what happens after taking it out of the oven (rewrite, rewrite) frosting it (editing) and actually serving and eating it (publishing). First- I have to make the batter…
What’s your analogy for getting the thing written? Leave me a comment!
Great advice!
Love this analogy, Karen. Very useful and lighthearted way for viewing working structure. I’m a riff-off-the-recipe type too, so this feels just right!