Read Lovely Books
As the holidays approach, there has been a lot of baking in my house
You may aspire to be published, but if you’re putting in the work, you’re a
Then, you add in flour and egg, maybe some spices, do a quick knead just to roll
That’s super sketchy (and a really long sentence), but this isn’t a baking lesson
You may decide to focus more on backstory as you go because you’re so compelled by
Don’t allow structure to get in your way or stop and go back to the beginning
But in this case, it’s forcing you to give yourself permission
And I really think during a first draft, you need to give yourself a break
That’s a waste of your time now and later when you have more to untangle
And write if you think you may delete this character but you aren’t sure
Even if you’ve mucked it up or it’s going to be dense or look like
In other words, look at it without love goggles and knock it down a peg
But unless you’re a prodigy — in which case, why are you listening to me? — you’ve
Are you just doing dinner rolls are you looking for a woven bread basket? Will you be
Your story is like this — on a scale of simple to complicated, linear to timey-wimey, with or
In draft two, you’ll be digging into those big picture edits
You’ve got this! Don’t worry if you forget to change someone’s name or your
This is when you take your raw story and you make it golden brown
This step is mostly when you catch your mistakes, when you see the moments where you left
You look for moments when your character does the same action a hundred times and you make
If a character no longer has a pet but you don’t want to write it back
When bread comes out of the oven, brushing a little butter over it adds so much
Oh, and if you want to drizzle icing on it, this is a great time
Now, some of this happens the moment it comes out of the oven, while others must take
You’re here to final commas, theirs instead of theres, a missing word or incorrect work (< —
You forking did it! You made the thing, you prettified the thing, and now, you’re ready
It’s not an under-baked dough baby, so whatever people want to say about it can’t
I don’t know if during the processes above you had an editor help you or shared
No matter what happened before this moment, it’s ready to share now! Are you ready to
There’s nothing that says you have to have readers or try for fame