My Writing Life... and Cake Decorating

It occurred to me last night when I was trying to get to sleep that writing isn't actually my life. Should it be? Probably not.

My life is like a cake. We'll call it a nice, rich, moist chocolate mud cake. It includes my family - my husband who is also my best friend and with whom I get along with quite well on a daily basis and my three kids who, as kids have their days but really don't give me as much grief as they probably could, my friends, my other immediate family - mum, dad and brother, extended family, my house and how I'm trying to make it into a wonderful home.

Writing for me as much as I love it - I love using my imagination, creating stories and scenarios, developing irrational attachments to people I made up - is just the icing, and the decorating is what I could do with it. Now if there was no icing and decorations, if for any reason I stopped writing, it wouldn't affect the richness and goodness of the cake, but I'm sure it will be missed and eventually it will be added again.

If for any reason the icing doesn't quite work out as planned, for example, it doesn't quite come together, the end result still needs work, someone doesn't like it and gives it a bad review (wait, what?), or it simply just isn't right, other than the surface (loosely translates to me swearing and crying for a couple of days) the cake isn't really affected. It's still a pretty awesome cake.

Now my goal is to make that icing and decorating so beautiful and wonderful that it can only enhance the enjoyment of the cake. Because lets face it, who doesn't like a cake that has been presented as the best it can be.

Now I want cake.

*The above analogy really has nothing to do with cake decorating. In fact, I'm really shit at it. The cakes I make are usually quite yummy but the top is almost always either domed or sunken and the icing is just spread on and that's the end of it. I have tried but soon realised I'm much better off paying someone who is good at it to do it instead. I may one day try to gain some cake decorating skills but at this point in time don't have any solid plans to do so.

Case in Point

Mindcraft cake I made for Mr Paleo 2011

Plants Vs Zombies cake I ordered for Mr Maker 2012  (Diddlyscrumptious)

Brain cake pops to go with the Plants vs Zombies cake, also made by Diddlyscrumptious.  I'm sure they're a metaphor for something too but who cares?  They were amazing!