Spice

Sometimes cake is a pleasure to consume, light on your tongue and pleasing to the senses. But sometimes it’s dense, tough, and unappetising. 

And when you have a mouthful of bland, leaden food, there is nothing else to do except keep chewing until it’s gone – or spit it out.

Cake: the ultimate metaphor

There's a certain amount of healthy egotism involved in being a successful author/artist/pastry chef. Not only do you need to believe in what you produce, your belief needs to shine through your craft in such a way that it is visible to other people.  It's an essential element in attracting an audience.      


strawberry cake by Kanko* @ Flickr



Look around. There are thousands of writers out there. Some of them write well, some of them badly, but they all believe they're providing something that is worth someone else's time to consume. We can't all be the next bestselling author, can we? Even if you baked the tastiest cake ever, if every other person at the morning tea has also baked a wonderful cake there's a chance yours might never get eaten. So how does a cake get chosen?  It might be a very ordinary cake that happens to have magnificent icing, or it might be baked by someone whose cake was memorable last time, or maybe everyone saw a similar cake on TV so they think this one will taste good too. The choice of cake is as individual as the people who are choosing it.  So too with writing.

So how does that choice happen?  How do I, as a writer, elevate my craft to the extent that it rolls deliciously off the page and straight onto my intended audience's tongue?

And does it really matter whether I sit here typing away and never make the moves to earn the readership?  Does it matter if I ensconce myself in a long and happy but solitary writing life? If all the work I've ever done slides quietly with me into the grave? 



Yes, it does. It matters to me. And the reason it does - besides a pathetic desire to rise above the ordinary - is because writing, for me, is about connection.  It's not about the cake in and of itself, but about the mysterious transaction that occurs when I invest my time and energy to create something of beauty, something that will nourish another person. And equally, it's about receiving that same gift from others. When I sit quietly, listening to a fellow writer read her work, I'm receiving something precious and true, that has spilled from the very essence of who they are.



This is true of all the great works that we have read - whether they were books, poems, essays, blog posts, letters, published or private. The connection allows us to perceive and honour the great truths and gifts of our lives, whether that is self-knowledge, healing, or simply the power of telling our stories and having them heard. It is so valuable that it is worth reaching through my inadequacies to embrace the necessary self-belief.  And to keep writing.  And sharing my cake.

What is it that motivates you to keep writing and sharing?



Disclaimer

So, that read a little like a disclaimer, didn’t it? 

I’m not usually a fan of the disclaimer.  They tend to come across as pre-emptive apologies, as if the person knows full well they are serving up an undercooked cake.

Well, I’d like to make it abundantly clear:  there is nothing wrong with my cake.  It just takes a long time to bake and tends to be served up in small pieces, for now, anyway.  But the cake itself is absolutely as good as it should be for someone with my flair for cooking and level of baking experience.  Sometimes I even manage a tolerable layer of icing.

So, why even mention it?

Because if I don’t, there is a cake-eating elephant in the room that I’ll have to ignore each time I squeeze past it to my desk.



O Elefante by Murilo Morais @ flickr

Every time I sit down to write, this altered speed of thinking sits down with me.  It’s a large part of my subjective experience of writing right now.  Acknowledging and accepting this unhappy truth allows me to move ahead with and despite it.  And since Destination: denouement is all about Getting Over It. And Getting On With It it’s entirely appropriate to allow myself this freedom in this space.  

Especially because I would hate for any Destination: denouement readers to be injured by a pachyderm.