My Writing Process Blog Tour

First off let me just say how much I have missed you guys and this little space of mine. I can be myself here and let my hair down (literally and figuratively).  Life has been a little (a lot) complicated and with some rather major personal challenges, which I am still working on. One day at the time right?

This meant that I couldn’t take joy in this blog and I didn’t want to write on here just for the sake of writing. I love this blog and I want to feel exactly that when I am writing a post to share with you.

This actually, incidentally, leads me quite nicely to the title of this post. I was invited by my lovely friend Ahila from A TASTE OF SRI LANKAN CUISINE to participate in the ‘My writing process blog tour‘. She invited me like, months and months ago. I wasn’t even sure there was any point in finishing this post at this point, which I also started months and months ago. But I thought, what the hell Diana, just do it, stop thinking too much. So here we are.

Ahila is one of those people that I find very easy to open up to. She is honest and, although it has only been glimpses, I feel she is a sensitive person with a lot of insight and strength. Not to mention her many and various blogs are amazing, and I do have a soft spot for her food blog. For one, I love the food she shares, most of which I have never heard of before and it fascinates me to no end, and secondly, well, I love food full stop. So yeah, she is quite a lady. Plus I had the chance to meet with her in real life a few weeks ago. Really glad I did too, and I really wasn’t wrong about her.

Ok, question time:

What am I working on? For the sake of honesty here I have to admit that it isn’t so much a ‘working’ but more of a ‘want to start working’ project. I want to start experimenting more with different means of baking, different flours, different types of bakes, different desserts, snacks, or simply try out different things that I have never tried to make before but that I have always though ‘oh I’d like to try making that’. And then it never happens. So I am going to have a go. See what happens.

How does my work differ from others of its genre? I don’t think it does, not really anyway. I try to be creative, but I think most of us out there with blogs, try to do that. I try to give a little of myself whenever I write a post. It’s my way of showing a little bit of me to my readers and I think it’s important. It’s the stories that bring people together. We do it in real life, we gather around food, with friends and family, and we share moments of our lives, stories, anecdotes and laughter. We show our love through food, at least that’s the case in my household, whether while I was growing up or now as an adult with my husband. That is what food is about for me. And I feel the need for it to translate to the page. Am I successful at that? Sometimes. Others not so much but it doesn’t deter me to keep trying.

How does your writing process work? This brings me back to what I was saying above about my need to feel positive and happy in order to write. I can’t do it if I am going through a rough patch. I can’t do it if I am sad. I can’t do it just for the sake of doing it. It feels wrong and awkward. Soulless. For me my writing process starts the moment I start thinking about a recipe. It’s not the moment I click on ‘Create new post’. It’s when I am sat on my sofa, lying in the garden, daydreaming in the train or sometimes even when I am right in the middle of something, that I will stop whatever it is I am doing and I will head for the kitchen. To be honest with you, I very rarely ‘plan’ one of my bakes/recipes. I don’t decide what I am going to do then go and buy the ingredients and then come home to bake it. It doesn’t work like that for me. On rare occasions it may, but mostly it is a fairly spontaneous affair. Which probably explains why my blog posts can be so erratic at times. With bursts of recipes one week and then I go back to a slower pace. And that pattern happens over and over again. It’s just how I am.

Once I am in the kitchen I open everything. I stand there, thoughts and ideas flying about my head. When I settle upon an idea I do some research. This phase can take 2 min or 2 hrs. I’ll search, I’ll write bits down, I’ll scratch it, and then sometimes, sometimes, I will completely and utterly change my mind and make something completely different. See, I told you. It’s erratic.

Then we get to the baking part. The feeling of complete contentment mixed with excitement and hope it turn out good and some fingers get crossed. ‘Please please oven work properly’ is often a little mantra I have going in my mind when something is in the oven. It can be hit and miss.

The pictures. The pictures are actually the part that takes less time. It’s important, at least I think it is as it’s what will draw a reader in. I don’t use use any fancy cameras, simply because I can’t afford one, so all pictures taken here are either from my phone or iPad.

The actual writing. I read somewhere recently that the first line of a post is the hardest. I couldn’t agree more. Sometimes I will sit here with my fingers posed for ages. Nothing. So I leave it for a while. Eat some cake. Sometimes that helps. And then when I am ready again I will give it another go. When it feels right, it’s great. Takes next to no time to write it (unless it’s a HUMONGOUS post like this one), because I am in the right place. It’s strange but it also makes sense right?

So that is it, more or less anyway. My writing blog process.

I won’t follow this tour and pass it on as it has been such a long time since this all started. The main points of actually posting this was a) to get me posting again (and don’t underestimate how important being able to do this is for me right now) and b) to share something of me with you, which I think it’s particularly important after such a long absence.

I’ve also decided that I need to give myself a more achievable number of post target. At least for the time being when things aren’t straight forward in life. So I will start with 1 post a month. for now. I want this number to grow overtime but hey, nothing wrong with baby steps right?

Much love to you all

xx
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