Write2Ignite

Happy New Year’s Eve Eve!

In two days, it will be 2025. A new year with no mistakes in it.

Tomorrow has no mistakes in it.

The next 5 minutes have no mistakes in them.

The next 3 seconds have no mistakes in them.

Your new manuscript, which you have not started yet, has no mistakes in it. Don’t you wish it could stay that way?

A New Idea for a New Year

We all know we need fresh eyes to look at our manuscripts. We know that, but how many of us are okay with it? Know what I mean?

What if we look at our writing in a fresh new way? What if we see our manuscripts, whether we’ve just written them or if we’ve been working on them for years, as, say, pizza dough?

Let It Rise

I have dough rising on the stove right now so I can make our traditional Christmas Eve pepperoni bread. I use the same recipe as my pizza crust.

Here’s the thing about pizza dough; you need the right type of flour, just enough salt and sugar, the right temperature of water, and yeast that is alive.

I use a heritage flour blend that’s made for pizza dough. It requires more water than regular grocery store flour. Guess how I know that? Yep, the first time I used that flour, my dough was dry and crusty (but not in a good crusty way.)

I put salt and sugar in the flour; salt for flavor and sugar to feed the yeast. Not enough sugar and the yeast won’t rise enough, if at all. Too much salt, too little salt? That’s self-explanatory, right?

I put yeast in warm water to dissolve it. If the water is too warm or too cool, the dough won’t rise enough. Sometimes, not at all.

Don’t Skimp on the Process

In America, we are microwave people. Most of us want it NOW and FAST. But as Miracle Max said in The Princess Bride, “When you rush a miracle, you get crappy miracles.”

I’ve seen recipes for “quick” pizza dough. 2 ingredient pizza dough. Easy pizza dough. I’m telling ya, none of these are as delicious and satisfying as taking your time and doing it right.

It’s the same for our writing.

How Do We Know It’s Ready?

I know when my dough is ready because I’ve been making it for years, so I can recognize the signs: the size of the dough ball and the feel and stretch of the dough.

My best friend taught me how to make it, so I had her guidance and instruction as I went along on my pizza journey.

When I first started making my own pizza crust, I had some flops. It’s rare now that my dough doesn’t do what I want it to do.

Our writing needs similar things as making pizza dough.

It needs time to rise. Our first drafts are usually not what we want to get published.

It needs guidance. Mentors, critique groups, workshops, conferences.

It needs experience. Writing & submitting. Writing & submitting. Rejections (hopefully with feedback.) Writing & submitting.

It needs patience. Let it rise!

Let’s Make Some Pizza!

If you’re a newer writer, or if you’ve been writing for years but have never gone through the process, start 2025 with a new mindset and way of doing it.

(And I haven’t even touched on the sauce, cheese and toppings!  Haha!)

Great pizza takes time and patience. So does your writing! It’s SO worth it.

Wishing you all a blessed and happy 2025!

Pam Halter is a former home-schooling mom, has been a children’s book author since 1995, a freelance children’s book editor since 2006, and was the children’s book editor for Fruitbearer Publishing until January 2023. She’s the author of Fairyeater, a YA fantasy, and the Willoughby and Friends picture book series (available on her website.) Pam has also published short stories in Ye Olde Dragon Books , the Whitstead Anthologies and Renewed Christmas Blessings. Her first short story won Readers Choice in Realmscapes.  

Pam lives in Southern New Jersey with her husband, Daryl, special needs adult daughter, Anna, and four cats. When she’s not writing, Pam enjoys spending time with her grands, reading, quilting, gardening, cooking, playing the piano, Bible study, and walking long country roads where she discovers fairy homes, emerging dragons, and trees eating wood gnomes.