[Writer Post] Comparing Writing to Baking

So, it’s Wednesday… Blog day. And … yeah. What should I be writing? Anything. What am I writing… day job stuff. I have gotten lucky, some of the extra work that was creating the amazing amount of stress has been shifted off me. Now I’m just way frickin’ behind – instead of in the Pit of Despair of Seeing Daylight. So that’s a mental shift that will help in this last three weeks of astounding busy-ness and should get me back on track.

One of the things owed? RECIPES, yes recipes. But not just any recipes… MY recipes. Ones I’ve concocted after talking with people and thinking to myself…”Hmmm… that could work.” It’s how I’ve dealt with fiction. Fiction always starts with a “What if…” that’s the approach I took to my baking and apparently – if my Scarborough folk are any indication – successfully.

Seriously…let me have my moment of “Huh, this just turned into a writing topic” moment… So, I do like to bake. It’s more an art form than cooking – they’re so very different. Tweaking a cookie or brownie recipe may result in some random flavors, but you’re probably NOT going to make anything explode. That’s the way I think I try to approach writing. “Hey what if I tried adding THIS element to THAT theme? Would it be fun and novel or fall flat like a bad soufflé?” I’ve had both happen (not the soufflé – I’m not that adventurous. I’m Donna Noble not Clara Oswin).

But it’s the experimental process that counts. Taking bits of this and adding dashes of that to see where your story and characters take you…that’s the fun part. And you get to make mistakes along the way – that’s where some of the fun comes. At least with writing – or any kind of artistic endeavor – if you “mess up” your story recipe, it’s just some time and either paper or pixels. Those are easy to fix, but sometimes, the outcome might surprise you. You won’t necessarily get cookies out of it, but the results can be just as satisfying.

Okay, I think I’ve beaten this analogy into the ground, and I really do need to write up a couple of recipes before one of my friends hunts me down and hurts me. 😎