Narrow Down Your Cookbook or Food Memoir Idea with This One Easy Trick

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If you’re like most food writers or creators, people are constantly telling you to make your ideas into hardback. Or maybe you have a handful of go-to stories you share at parties, leaving people to ask: When are you going to finally write your book?

It’s one thing to have ideas floating around in your head, but it’s another thing to get them down on paper and have people excited to read them. 

So, you’re left with a bunch of suggestions, but no clear path on what your book should be about. There are a million ways to dwindle down your ideas to a single book, but let’s get you working on a framework that’ll have you focused fast.

Here’s how to narrow down your cookbook or food memoir idea with this one easy trick

Write Short Stories for Every Idea

Memoirist Joyce Maynard tells her writing students to write a personal essay to see if there’s a story worth telling. It’s easy to talk about the book you want to write, but when you put the work in, you may find there wasn’t as much of a story as you originally thought.

Most writing classes or workshops lean towards a short story format, so this approach will be easier, especially if you’ve never written a full-length manuscript.

Keep your story to 3-5 pages, double spaced with a 12-point font. This will be enough space for you to explore and yet, not spend too much time working on a story. If you struggle to write more than a page or two, that clues you in that you may not have a full story there — yet.

How many stories should you write? As many stories as there are separate ideas.

Each story should have a beginning, turning point and an ending that brings the beginning back again. There must be some kind of change that happens, or you don’t have a story.

Bonus: This is similar to a framework I use with my cookbook and food memoir clients where I have them hone their book idea with a magazine pitch. Only difference is that you don’t write the story first, but you focus on benefits for the reader and publication. You can create a pitch first, and then move to writing the story, to see how long its legs are. 

Brainstorm Additional Scene or Essay Ideas

Now that you have some short stories down, brainstorm additional scene ideas, if you’re writing a food memoir, or essays and chapters, if you’re writing a cookbook. With each scene or essay, they should drive your story forward and reveal some kind of intimate truth about yourself. This doesn’t have to be your deepest and darkest secrets, but it should push you towards your ultimate goal for the story.

Scenes or cookbook essays aren’t just fun plot points or filler. They serve a purpose, so if there isn’t a reason to include a scene, cut it. Be ruthless with this part. It’ll give you more information about the story you should be writing, rather than the story you think you should be writing.

Reread & Assess Your Work

Ideally, you’ll have a few days or even a week away from your stories and scenes to approach them with new eyes. This isn’t about judgement, but sifting through everything so you can focus on the story with the greatest potential. 

Creative work takes up a lot of time and energy, so you should only invest yourself in a book idea you feel 100% motivated to complete.

Here are some questions to ask or take notes on:

• How do each of these short stories make you feel? 

• Is this a fun story to tell at a party, or is this something someone would pay money to sit down and read?

• What’s the point of this story? Is there a reason it should be told?

• What are the major themes of the story? How can you tell them differently than they’ve been told before?

• If this was someone else’s story, would you care enough about the characters and narrative to read more? 

• In 6 months when you’re stuck in a rut and unmotivated to write, will you still show up to put pages down for this story, anyway?

• What’s the ONE story you would want to talk about for 2-3 years over and over again?

As you work through these questions, be honest with yourself. Don’t manipulate the answers into what people have told you to write or what you think you should write. Allow yourself the freedom to let go of what isn’t right now, so you can start working on what you’re meant to work on.

Focus on the one you feel will energize not only you, but your ideal readers. Give yourself fully to one idea. It’s easy to get distracted by all of the stories you could write, but you’ll never know what could be until you create room for a single story. So, get moving.

If you’re ready to take the next step and work on your cookbook or food memoir idea, grab your spot on my coaching waitlist here.