A Lesson I Learnt From Baking Cakes That's Helping My Writing.
Art For Art's Sake: Vol 2 Part 21
I am a writer. But I am also a baker.
And there is a lesson I am learning from my baking cakes that's helping me in my writing.
I have been baking cakes for eternity. During Christmas, I would help and accompany my mother, gathering the ingredients and heading to the bakery to bake that year's quota of Christmas cakes. Then, at home, I would watch my mother bake a couple of chocolate cake logs - my personal stock for Christmas. As I grew up, I took over the business of mixing the ingredients, mind you, in those days by hand.
Slowly, over the next couple of decades, the task of baking cakes shifted to me. And not just during Christmas but all year long.
With almost three decades of observing and baking cakes, I have reached a point where I can bake a pound cake with my eyes closed. The ingredients, the measurement, the effect of the weather, the temperature of the oven, the time required to bake - all these information has imprinted themselves in my mind.
I don't need to measure every bit of everything minutely anymore; I now bake a cake out of habit. There is no second guessing; there is no fear. There is just making sure all that's needed for this best cake to be baked has happened, and then I just flow with it.
Nine out of ten times, the cakes turn out perfect.
The same I am realising is the case with my writing.
If I have all the right tools I need to get my writing done... If I have taken into account how the day is unfolding... If I have considered how I am - physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually... If I have placed a healthy boundary with my work day... If I have let myself right freely... If I am writing what wants to be written, not what I think will be read... If I pat myself on the back for showing up, not for the outcome...
Then, nine out of ten times, I have a fun and satisfying writing session.
Repeating this process over and over again has built my confidence and trust in myself that I can do this. It has now become my second nature.
Now I don't need to think what to write. I show up, and the writing happens on its own.
