Believing in yourself

It is amazing what you can do when you tell yourself you can. Sunday someone asked me to make a cake for a friend graduating.

I thought, Easy! I'll just look at the school logo online and run with that.

Then he said, "She's kind of goth. Well, conservative goth. She likes to dye her hair different colors each week. I kind of want the cake to be more about her."

Uh, ok? I got stuck on the "conservative goth". What does that mean? Just blacks, purples and blues, no spiders and skulls?

That's the whole conversation. He was supposed to facebook me and tell me some of her hobbies, likes, dislikes, her name, and what flavor cake. He never did. The cake needed to be delivered this morning. I teach an early morning class (as in--it starts at 5:55am and ends at 6:50am so the teens can get to school) and the cake would be handed over after class. So, Tuesday at 11am, I decide I'm not getting anymore information. I need to be baking, decorating and cleaning my kitchen for my Wed. cooking class at 10am.

What to do??? This is what I decided.

It turned out better than I thought it would. I used a toothpick to freehand the drawing, then colored with my icing. Two hours later, I felt satisfied with my efforts. :)

As I finished, I thought, if only becoming an author was this easy. Then I realized, I've been doing cakes for a long time. There will always be more to learn and more time needed to practice so I can improve (the kid on top is a little scary with it's purple hair). Writing and becoming a published author is the same thing. And sometimes writing is easier than cake decorating. Although they both make your hands hurt and can give you carpal tunnel. 

You can eat cake, but a well phrased story can stay with you the rest of your life. I guess my point is this--I didn't question whether or not I could do this cake. I need to stop questioning whether or not I can become a successful writer/author.