Why writing a book is like baking a cake

THANK YOU for all the cheers and congrats and just understanding what a huge accomplishment it is to finish a first draft. Part of me really wants to share the one-sentence blurb so you know what the book is about. But I'm afraid if I share, my excitement will dwindle, and I can't let that happen. So I'm keeping it under wraps for now.

I have a list of all the things I need to work on, fix, improve, what have you, and the list grows every day.

It reminds me of baking a cake.

It's like I've just pulled the cake pans out of the oven and set them on the racks to cool.




The cake is done, but it's not ready to serve to anyone yet. I still need to get the cakes out of the pans without them falling apart, make the filling and frosting, put the filling on the top of one cake, put the other cake on top, frost the entire thing, decorate it, etc. etc.

The big thing is done, and that's a relief. But there's so much more to do.

I'm also a little nervous, because I'm trying something different. We all know, different can be good, or it can be very, very bad.

LIke with my cake, sitting over there on the counter? This time, on a whim, I decided to throw some chocolate chips and m&ms into the batter. It sounded good to me at the time. But how will it taste? What will others think when they bite into the cake and find a blue m&m in there? They could be thrilled, or they could want to throw the thing at the wall. I just have to wait and see.

I don't know what's going to happen with this story. It may be too strange. The ending came out of nowhere and was different than anything I'd been imagining for the last six months. And it kind of made my insides tingle as I wrote it.

Writers have to be okay with the unknown. We have to bake up that cake, make it as pretty as possible, and then serve it up and hope for the best.



No matter what happens, I did it.

With each book I write, I hope I get better. That's what it's all about for me.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do. And now I want cake.