I am a baker and a writer.
I have been baking since when I was a kid, and I have been writing since when I was a teenager, with some breaks in between the years.
But these two crafts have been with me for more than half of my life, and they both feel like necessary food for my soul.
Despite the fact that I love them both abundantly, they are objectively pretty different, with writing a book being very theoretical and brainy, while baking is more of a manual activity.
Nonetheless, I noticed some odd similarities between the two.
In both, I usually start with a bunch of different elements to put together, like characters, settings, challenges, and feelings when it comes to the writing process, and flour, butter and sugar when it comes to baking.
Here’s how baking has thought me a lot about book writing: usually, when baking, everything turns into a sticky mess, and you need to work it through to get the end result.
It requires patience, practice, the right tools, and time to get it right.
You may not get it right the first time, nor the second.
But if you keep trying, you eventually will.
When writing a novel, or planning your novel outline, it’s very easy to start obsessing over all the elements you have to put together, to look at the mess they have become and think to throw them away.
Well, you wouldn’t do that with a loaf of bread. You’ll keep kneading it for a few minutes, because you need to work it through.
You story is not that different from a loaf of bread: keep working the mess until it gets smooth, and it will turn into something good, that many will enjoy.
Just like a loaf of bread.
