Write Your Own Cake

Series:
Genre:
  • All ages,
  • Nonfiction,
  • Writing tips

    •  Release date: February 8, 2022
    Suggested reading age: 14+

    When it comes to writing, worldbuilding is like making a cake. Why a cake? Because every author starts with the same general ingredients of characters, plot, and setting, but it’s how each author combines and adds to those ingredients that makes a book an author’s own unique creation.

    This essay offers a few tips and poses some questions for figuring out the things you enjoy and do best as an author, so that you can write your own cake, whether it’s a big, bold epic fantasy adventure, a subtle, nuanced mystery, an emotion-packed romance, or something else.

    Notes about the book

    Write Your Own Cake is a 2,000-word essay about writing and worldbuilding. It first appeared as part of the Scribbler subscription box in November 2018.

    Read an excerpt from Write Your Own Cake

    EXCERPT FROM WRITE YOUR OWN CAKE:

    Worldbuilding is like making a cake.

    Why a cake? Well, for one thing, I enjoy writing about food (more on that later). For another, it can sometimes take a few tries (or more) before you perfect making a cake. But the beauty of making a cake—or writing a book—is that you can learn from previous attempts and keep trying until your cake (or book) is exactly how you want it to be, icing and all.

    Most cakes start with the same standard ingredients—flour, butter, and sugar—but it’s how you combine those ingredients and the things you add to them, like vanilla extract, chocolate chips, or lime zest, that determine what kind of cake you end up with. Most authors start out with the same standard ingredients—characters, plot, and setting—but it’s the combinations of those things and especially the additions authors make that transform those ingredients into a big, bold epic fantasy adventure or a subtle, nuanced mystery or an emotion-packed romance.

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