*This was written and edited before my eating troubles, but it works even if you’re making blended meals. :)
Good morning wordicorns and scribblers,
Do you cook?
If yes, get ready to bob your head a lot.
If no, maybe you’ll want to when I’m done.
My dad and I cook almost every Sunday together. We pop on a video call and cook the same recipes. We chat, he teaches me things about food (he’s basically a chef), and we compare how our food comes out in the end.
At the beginning of last year, we started eating the world. By that I mean, each week we make a full meal from another country—main and side dish and one or two desserts.
The thing is, I have a ton of allergies. Needless to say, I choose the recipes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have to alter things anyhow. And we’re talking fundamental things. Powdered sugar has to be made because I can’t have corn, so the texture is different. I can’t have certain peppers, so I have to use paprika powder instead. We use different flours a lot. I only use olive oil or salted butter, and I can’t have anything with soy or vinegar or wine. He can use the chopped garlic from a jar you get at the Restaurant Depot, and I cannot.
Lots of changes.
And yet, a goodly portion of the time, our results are the same: juicy meats, glistening veggies, wiggly flan, moan-worthy food. And when they don’t turn out the same, it’s all good.
In writer’s terms: we both have a completed thing. Maybe it's a book, short story, flash fiction, poetry, or multimedia experience, but it's done. And hey, maybe it didn't turn out or it's got a mushy middle and we need to do some more editing, but we did the thing and have a thing from it.
How is that? Are we lucky? Are my expectations lower because I am used to not eating some foods?
I think you know the answers, but I’ll answer the one that’s related to writing (which I’m sure you’ve been waiting for me to get to; like, wow, honestly, get to it).
It comes down to the fact that there is no one right way to cook.
In writer’s terms: there’s no one way to put words on a page.
If you cook, you already know this. You know that you can use a pot if your skillet is dirty and you’re too tired to wash it. The bottom will still cook what you need to. You know that tastebuds are different, so you can spice is the way the recipe says, the way your friend does, the way that one restaurant you love does, or according to what’s in your cabinet.
In writer’s terms: you can sit down every day to write or once a week; you can write genre fiction or literary; you can write long-form or short, fiction or non; you can do what you want
Even if you don’t cook, the idea of working with what you have and tweaking it to what you like probably sounds familiar. You’ve at least seen someone cook. Maybe you saw your parents or grandparents or neighbors shaking a little of this or that into a pot mindlessly while talking to another person in the kitchen. It’s instinct at some point, they just do it their way.
You can even use ramen as an example, because a lot of us have made ramen (even if we didn’t want to or couldn’t really eat it). You can use the spice packet or don’t. Use water or broth. Add eggs or pork or peppers or whatever… or not.
In writer’s terms: you eventually find your own way of writing (as a physical act and in voice) and will be able to shut out other opinions; you’ll try other things along the way, maybe adapt them, maybe wake up earlier to get more words in or go to a new writing location, but you still have your own way
This is like writing.
You can’t compare yourself to others.
My dad loves to add garlic to most savory things. Seriously. Somehow he always makes it work too, which is just too cool. He also likes to make the recipes exactly the way they are written the first time. Only after a first attempt will he tinker.
When I first moved out, I used garlic in everything (wonder where I got it from). As I developed my own routine in the kitchen, I found that I don’t like garlic with some things I make; it doesn’t work with my style. And I totally don’t mind skipping bits in a recipe (sometimes for medical reasons, other times just because).
This doesn’t count for baking. My view on writing being like baking is more step-related (for transparency’s sake, this is a Medium member-only story).
I don’t believe you can skip steps (like writing or editing; using warm water with yeast or letting the dough rest). Though, to be sure, some recipes don't call for as many ingredients, maybe water, not milk, or need double the rise time. So even with baking, the steps may be a little different.
In writer's terms: even though write, edit, edit again, check for your voice, polish, and publish are technically steps that fit the average work, there are times they don't fit. Some stories need more or less editing. Some stories need to sit in a drawer for a year in between the steps. Maybe you want to get an agent or submit to a journal or self-publish or share online. But write, edit, and do something with the thing is a simple and clear order that writers can follow to get the thing done.
Words can be manipulated like spices, tinkered with in different orders. Depending on the mixture, if you toast one or add more of another, you could come up with suspense or romance or violence—with the very same words.
That kind of shows that writing isn’t straightforward, right? If there was one way, the words wouldn’t be so interchangeable, so easy to tweak and shift. The more you learn your voice, the easier that bit becomes, as well.
If you prefer to stick to the typical story structure, that’s great.
If you play with the order of things, we know it can work, so blow our minds!
Your characters are multi-faceted, different from mine and anyone else’s. They make each book you write different—not just from the one you wrote before, but from others. They are the secrets in your recipes.
You can make someone feel emotions in so many ways—through setting, conversations, word choice, physical descriptions, and more. I can’t do the same thing you can, and that’s wonderful. It’s why you and I can create the same recipe (a book, or broken down even further to genre or subgenre or even the vague synopsis) but they will never be the same.
I hope you see the magic in that.
Now, go write what you want, and add your own special spice mix.