How Writing a Novel is Like Baking a Cake

Everything is cake nowadays right? Well writing a novel is a lot like making a layer cake.

I’ve used a lot of metaphors to talk about writing. The one that crops up most often is that writing and publishing is a lot like a mountain. If you look at the whole thing from the start, it can feel daunting, an impossibly high and steep slope. And it can be difficult to know where to begin.

Breaking the process down into its most basic pieces makes a lot easier to handle and consider. And stepping stone by stepping stone, you ascend the slope to the summit.

It’s one of my favorite ways of thinking and talking about the writing process in general because it seems most apt. If you look too many steps ahead, you might fear you haven’t progressed. But you can always glance back the way you’ve come in order to note all your progress.

I’m not sure the mountain metaphor works as well for individual writing projects though. Because even as a singular step in the process, novels and series are complex creatures that involve keeping track of a lot of moving pieces.

So to take an in-depth look at how we build novels, the cake metaphor is perfect.

Writing a Novel Recipe

Every time someone asks me about my writing process, I say the same thing. There are too many pieces to keep track of all at one time. That’s why we take several passes in order to get things right. Sometimes you build scenes in layers. That’s how I’ve written my action scenes for years. I start with basic choreography then fill out the scene with more details every time I take an editing pass.

When I stop to think about it, I realize that’s how I build my novels too.

I always start with the same basic checklist. In this case, the ingredients I’m going to use to bake my cake. For me, characters are always first. Most of my plot will spring out of them. But I usually also start with a setting, a core concept, and at least one event around which part of the story centers.

During the story development phase, I spend time with my ingredients, deciding which flavors I’m going to use and at what ratios they’re going to be sprinkled into my story.

Though every novel I write will ultimately have a different set and mix of ingredients, the basics are all the same: characters, setting, mechanics (the rules the world follows), plot and theme.

We can even break this down one step further, because each scene will also have its own ingredient list including: perspective, atmosphere, tone, framing and purpose within the plot structure.

And if we perform one final zoom, each character has a set of ingredients. (Like mixing dry ingredients before mixing them with wet ingredients!) For each scene a character will have a motive, a set of challenges they need to overcome, and perhaps even a lesson or consequences that will come later as a result of their choices.

We Build Stories in Layers

Once you’ve gathered all your ingredients, it’s time to bake your cake. The writing process through which we arrive at a finished product is highly personal. Mine works for me, and I’ve discussed it a number of times. But it might not feel right for you.

Thankfully, unlike real baking, it doesn’t really matter what process you use to arrive at a finished product. Sooner or later, your ingredients will turn into a cake. But we’re not finished yet – the fun part is just beginning.

Once the first draft is complete, there are still a lot of things that need to happen. For example, we take each scene and trim it into the perfect shape, discarding any portion that doesn’t serve our grand purpose. Then we apply a nice coat of polish so that everything sparkles, shines and sounds exactly the way we want it to.

This is the trimming and crumb coat portion of creating our layer cake. Theoretically, we do this which each and every scene, stacking them on top of each other until we create our finished novel cake.

But we also use this same process when writing a series. Each book becomes its own layer in the cake. (Though somewhat ironically my final books tend to be much longer than my opening books, so I suppose my cake is inverted!)

I tend to think of my outline, the initial building process went through before starting my novel, as the foundation that will ultimately hold my layer cake together. This is the invisible structure on which the rest sits so it doesn’t become top-heavy and fall over.

The Icing on the Top – Theme

I’m sure you’re asking, Megan, haven’t you tired of this metaphor yet? Not quite. Because there’s one more aspect we haven’t discussed yet: the pretty decorations. That’s right, it’s time for icing! And what represents the icing of our cake? Why, theme, of course!

Theme sits at the core of every story. We don’t always consciously think about or discuss it. But you’ll notice it’s one of the things I mentioned when I compiled my list of novel cake ingredients.

Theme is the big thing that permeates your story. It’s what your story is ultimately about. The message you’re trying to convey.

Sometimes the theme of a story is obvious right away. Sometimes it isn’t. Often when I ask myself why I’m writing a story or what I’m trying to say, my only conclusion is entertainment. And that’s okay. Sometimes I don’t discover my theme until I’ve finished my first draft. Then I’m able to go back and infuse it more during edits.

The last outline I wrote prior to this post was for Ghost Path, a new series I’m hoping to introduce to the blog in a few weeks. As usual, I didn’t have a theme when I sat down to compile my ideas. But it quickly became apparent that a major theme of the story is grief. One of my main characters even experiences notable aspects of the process (which I have taken note of for later).

Once you know your theme, you can lean into it, using it to create the final, cohesive picture of your novel. Whether it’s a magical tail of glamour and excitement or a harrowing journey through the darkness of humanity, theme will ultimately determine our cake’s final look.

And then we’re done! Time to rinse and repeat with the next project!