And what following a recipe can do for your book…
In the Summer when my Aunty Eve, cousin Andrea, and her three kids came over to my new house for tea. I wanted to make the afternoon feel special, so I decided to follow the steps in baking banana bread.
Now, I’m not great at baking. All the sugar puts me off if the end result doesn’t look and taste delicious. I feel unmotivated and disinclined to do it again.
I also find baking quite scientific: there’s a formula to follow, whereas I prefer to cook with a handful-of- of this and a sprinkling-of-that. I get impatient following the steps and want to do it my own way instead.
So, with a deep breath and a note to myself to be patient. I followed the steps…which worked for a while. But then I realized I didn’t have any chocolate, so I swapped it out for cocoa nibs. And then I had a few pecans left over, so I threw them in.
And when I stuck in the knife and it came out clean, I turned out the bread onto a rack to cool…
Which was about an hour before my relatives arrived.
And then I panicked.
I hadn’t used all the right ingredients.
What if it was disgusting?
What if they hated it?
What if the kids got sick?
Tea would be a disaster!
So I did what any sane person would do.
I rushed out to Supervalu and bought a lemon drizzle cake, just in case…
As things turned out, it was delicious and Eve said it was the nicest banana bread she’d ever tasted. That was a compliment because she knows good food and I knew she wasn’t trying to make me feel better.
But here’s the thing. I just felt unsure because of my own lack of experience. The recipe was tried and proven and I’d followed the steps, so the results were never really in doubt.
Logical, right?
The same principle applied to building my house.
The architects drew up plans which were based on my requirements and the boundaries of the land, and then they made a model. And the builder built it by following the design precisely.
When it was finished, we were somehow surprised that the house looked the same as the model and the design. And then we laughed about it…because of COURSE, it did! That was the logical thing!
Once the structure of the building and the rooms were in place. I could decide on the finishes: which carpets and paint colors I liked, what kind of kitchen and bathrooms I wanted.
I could create the look I love which makes the house unique to me. But I needed the structure first before I could creatively get to work on the contents and the finished look and feel.
And it’s exactly the same when it comes to writing your book.
If you use a tried and tested recipe for writing it, it can’t really go wrong. Like recipes, books need certain types of ingredients, and when you add them in a particular order you logically build a book.
And like building a house, it’s going to work if you create the design and the model first and then follow that design.
Creating and building a structure for your book is the beginning of the process. It’s the model, the tried and tested recipe, and once you get that in place. You can pour in the rest – the ingredients and mix to your heart’s desire.
And because you’re following a recipe, you know exactly which ingredients you need to put in to get the result you want.
This is key.
The structure will show you what to put in, but even more importantly, what to leave out.
So if you find yourself writing your book and going nowhere fast, falling down research rabbit holes. Or trying to include everything as you go along, stop now and create your structure. This will be a huge relief to you and an important factor in your success as well.
Because when you follow a proven recipe or model, logic dictates that it simply has to work.
Anna
PS. Want a proven recipe for starting your book? Download your FREE copy of my lil e-book. How to Start a Nonfiction Book and discover the first 3 steps of my proven Nonfiction Framework. Get started today!
