Good morning!
As you may have seen in my 11 in 2011 resolution list, one of my goals for 2011 is to write a vegan cookbook proposal and sell the idea to a publisher. During Project Food Blog, I was contacted by a few literary agents and I am currently in the process of figuring out my next steps.
I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with the idea of ‘where to start’ with my cookbook proposal and these feelings have taken me back to my thesis days. My undergraduate thesis and my Master’s thesis were both huge undertakings and I remember how I used to feel so overwhelmed whenever I had to take the first step and get started.
For me, starting a big project has always been the most difficult part.
Once I have started and I have a plan, then it seems to get a bit easier. That is just how I work.
My fear of beginning large projects has something to do with the high expectations I place on myself. I tend to put off big projects for fear of not doing a good job; if I can put it off, maybe the right idea will just ‘hit me’ and then I can move forward. But, that is rarely the case. It takes work, and lots of it, to get big projects off to a good start. Sometimes, I wait and wait for the ‘perfect’ idea, when I already have very good ideas to work with. Every project needs a solid foundation and while they shouldn’t be rushed, procrastination doesn’t do any good. I am really guilty of procrastination with large endeavors.
I mentioned ‘once I have a plan’ things seems to flow more smoothly. Having specific and attainable goals are always present in my life, but every good goal must have a plan to go along with it too! The reason why I have felt overwhelmed with my cookbook proposal is that I did not have a plan to guide me.
Every specific goal must have a specific plan to go along with it.
I would like to share my experiences with this process as much as I can. I also want my book to be largely based on your feedback. What types of recipes do you want to see in a vegan cookbook? What ingredients do you like to cook and bake with? What questions do you have about vegan cooking and baking? All of these things are things that I think about and I hope to address many of these things as I go through the process. (Don’t worry about answering the questions now as I will be creating a survey at some point). I want the book to be not only a reflection of my fun approach to a vegan diet, but also a reflection of what types of things you would want to see in a vegan cookbook.
I thought I would show you how I was finally able to get this project off the ground and running.
I have been brainstorming cookbook ideas for over a year now, but my brainstorming never translated into much more than that. I finally realized that I needed to take the next step and create an outline, so I started a Word document and I created a chapter outline of how my cookbook may look. What sections do I want? What would I call them? What types of recipes do I want to focus on? How many recipes per section? How would the order of the sections flow?
While I always do my brainstorming on paper, I prefer not to use pen and paper when doing a large outline. I find an electronic Word document is much cleaner because I can easily delete things and have a clean looking document at all times.
I have half a notebook filled with brainstorming ideas from Project Food Blog!
and weird diagrams apparently! haha
Don’t ask. I really don’t know what’s going on in these diagrams. I think I wanted to make a raw layered pumpkin pie at one point. Then I realized the challenge was to make a BAKED good. Doh!
I worked on my outline this weekend and I am already feeling so much better about things. Once I planned out the chapters in my book, I started to place recipes or recipe ideas underneath each chapter that I may want to include. Over time, this is how my cookbook proposal will grow. Of course, what I plan now will likely change many times over, but at least there is a plan there to guide me and that is all that matters in the initial stages!
Do you have any big projects looming in 2011? Do you suffer from procrastination or fear of failure when big projects loom? Have you ever been intimidated by a large project? How did you begin?
All the best with the book! I already know it will be amazing :-) xxx
First of all, thank you so much for the congrats on my site. :)
Second, I always have the hardest time starting things out too. Once I have a path I can just go in, get it done, and adjust along the way as necessary. I need an idea on what I’m doing first though. I have no doubt you will reach this goal and I can’t wait for it to happen for you. Very exciting!
While you’re brainstorming your chapters and recipes, have a separate document going about features you’d like to include. I have some cookbooks I gravitate towards because of layout, pictures, side commentary on how to vary a recipe for seasons or to add more costly ingredients (or cheaper ingredients), and because of the actual language used.
The brainstorming phrase can be so much fun, just allow yourself to keep track of all ideas along the way and edit out later on. And study the cookbooks to you do love–why do you adore them? I, for one, much prefer one recipe to page. I don’t like broken up recipes where I have to flip pages. It doesnt’ stop me from cooking from books with that layout, but I’m less likely to buy a new book formatted that way.
Also, if you can connect a few recipes together and suggest meal plans, that’s a fun feature to include. Lastly, I so wish my vegan books had calories listed. There’s lots of new moms who are watching calories or gals looking to tone up, and having that info available is extremely helpful.
As I’ve said before, I’m waiting for the tester invitations :) Your recipes are already a hit in my home. Namaste.
What an amazing opportunity, good for you! I will be first in line to buy your book when it comes out :D… and it will. You have a plan and that is great!!
I have a super big project looming in 2011… starting my personal chef business! I may have to email you with a couple food biz ?’s ;) It’s daunting, but also very, very exciting!!
xo
so excited for you!
I loved all of your Project Food Blog entries, but I never really considered how much planning went into them!
While your vegan dessert recipes are definitely my favorite, I think it would be great to see a cookbook with a lot of great vegan entrees :)
Angela,
I have been reading your blog for over a year now and I just wanted to say how excited I am you are pursuing this cookbook goal. I’m not vegan, but eat many vegan meals and am always turning to you for inspiration. Your food not only looks beautiful, but tastes amazing and is healthy. I know this is a huge undertaking, but if your book is anything like your blog it will be wonderful.
Take it step by step and it will all come together!
Eileen
btw…I recently made your almond butter brown rice balls for my snacks for my daughter and all her friends loved them so now I’m making double batches.
As a senior in college, I am in the process of writing my thesis for my philosophy major. It was difficult to do so especially since I had to work on it during inpatient treatment for an eating disorder, but I took things day by day and set small goals for myself. Because I am now taking a semester off to continue my recovery, I have more time to work on my thesis, and myself! My plan is to continue reading for it and set goals for myself.
My other big project is trying to really improve my blog. I recently changed it from a beauty blog to a healing blog, and it was a difficult decision to share that personal information with my readers.
Oh and I made your snickerdoodle cookies last night…Angela, they were UNBELIEVABLE…and made my family and a friend rethink their preconceptions towards vegan cooking! Thank you!!
I love that you have those notebooks–when you’re 80, you’ll love looking back at them. Seems smart to make a plan as you work to move forward. Good luck!
I love that you have those notebooks–when you’re 80, you’ll love looking back at them. Seems smart to make a plan as you work to move forward. Good luck!
Hi Angela,
What a great post and a great question. I am very much the same way as you. I need a strong outline of where I am heading when I tackle a big project. Writing the outline is always the hardest part! Then you can feel relax in a way once you have it, because you can go down the checklist of what you need to do. At least that’s how I feel. My current project right now is figuring out how to keep up my blog and expand it, because I only just started. Your blog is clearly a wonderful example (especailly all the vegan info), and I would love any advice!
Congrats on starting your cookbook proposal! I look forward to seeing all of your delicious recipes and great pictures in a cookbook soon…as well as here on OSG too :). I always love the simplicity of your recipes and the beautiful presentation in all your photos. It will be the kind of cookbook I want to leave out on my coffee table for everyone to see when I am not using it for a recipe. And I am just curious, are you going to include your Road to Health and other experiences throughout your cookbook too?
I’m in the process of organizing my business plan and getting everything down on paper. It’s amazing what how much falls into place when you can get it out and organized.
I am not an organized person by nature.. I am very much an artist type who likes to go on intuition and creativity.. so this is challenging for me.. but very very needed.
I have trouble getting started too. I think that the creative side of me thinks that outlines are too left-brained. I have to trick myself to get organized so that I have the freedom to create. My best trick is to write thoughts on post-its and then arrange them into groups on a wall. This is a great visual aid and tool to help me see all the parts, and it’s easy to add new things and re-arrange as you think of things.
What I have liked best about your blog is that you give directions and different options for your substitutions. I would like to see a reference section in your cook book that explains what makes great substitutions, i.e., chia seeds for eggs, avocado for tofu…etc.
I can totally identify with procrastination in fear of failure. I desperately want to start my own jewelry business like you started your bakery and do that full time, but I just can’t seem to get myself rolling on it. The hardest part is getting started. I cannot wait for you to put out a cookbook! I use your recipes all the time. Your Holiday Soup for the Soul was a huge hit at my house! I’m really excited for you and excited to see it all come together!
I am so excited for you Ange! I know that you will create an incredible book; your blog oozes with creativity and life! I think my approach to big projects is always to take it in small doses. Sit down and brainstorm one bit or work on one part and then take a break and come back to it when you feel inspired. You will be amazed at how easy it feels to get it all done when you allow yourself breaks and do it in little pieces. I cannot wait to follow you on this journey!
I love this post, and I’m so excited for you! It sounds like you’re off to an awesome start. I totally agree – outlines and list have gotten me through pretty much every big project I’ve ever done. I’ll be interested to hear about the process as you go through it. My big thing for this year is turning my academic dissertation into a published book-length narrative history. I’ve been staring at the computer for weeks trying to put together a formal proposal for a particular press (I’ve got a draft of the project already, which I know helps), and just yesterday morning I finally began to see it clearly. All of a sudden, after months of thought and weeks of puttering, I was able to bang out a complete draft of the proposal in about six hours! I love when that happens…
Hello. My name is Nour and I am the queen of procrastinating out of fear of failure! Nice to meet you.
It sucks sometimes to get started on a project. I find it worse when these projects don’t have a lot of direction to them. I like open ended assignments at school that let you do what you feel is best, but those are also the worst to get rolling because you have to create your own plans and outlines and that is the hardest.
I am not vegan but I would totally buy your cookbook, and even pass along a few copies to friends as a gift. Your recipes are fabulous; you truly are talented in the kitchen :)
Good luck!!
I’m really thinking about writing a cookbook as well but I have no clues as to how to pitch my idea. Did you pitch your idea prior to creating an outline? Any tips you can forward would be absolutely amazing!
Angela,
I think we are very similar people–type A, big dreamers, (it’s hard when those things go together, right?!!), optimists, similar Master’s degrees, similar research interests, similar interest in getting a book published. At the end of November, I went to a lecture by a published author called “Unleashing Your Creativity.” During the lecture, I realized that one of the biggest things holding me down is my perfectionism and fear of failure. He shared some very helpful suggestions and a great motivational video for helping us to realize that failure is okay. One of the best suggestions he gave was to start REALLY small, like you’ve done here, and not to pressure yourself beyond a small task each week. With his suggestions, I’ve been able to get a LOT accomplished since then, including devoting over 50 hours in December to researching how to get a book published. I thought I “don’t have time to research this,” but he said to start with a 5 minute task and build up to an hour long task. Within a week, I had found 30 minutes to 3 hours of every day that I didn’t think I had. I can’t recap everything he said here in this comment, but I wrote out some of his thoughts and my reflections in this post: http://muchfruit.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/a-commitment-to-trying/ (I hate it when people link to their own blog posts in comments, but really, I promise that it is relevant.)
I would also really recommend the book “The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published” by Arielle Eckstrut and David Henry Sterry. It makes the process easier to understand and helps you break it down into achievable steps. I think you would be really excited about how many of the steps you actually have completed just by having this blog. You definitely have a built in audience and clearly defined voice and personality! You are awesome and I know we will be seeing your cookbook in stores soon! :)
When I was doing my PhD, the automatic Table of Contents feature of Word was my salvation. I had fun setting it up, and then it served as the document outline and plan, which I just (“just”!) had to write to. So I agree wholeheartedly with your approach :)
I would buy your book no matter what goes in it – I am very excited at the prospect! – but dishes that aren’t too complicated; that you’ve had good feedback on from non-vegans; and / or that can be tweaked if someone doesn’t like certain ingredients, or doesn’t have particular kitchen appliances (I don’t have a good processor, sadly), would be great. Best of luck with the project Ange – and congratulations on making it possible!