Pumpkin pie + Revisions

Revision Pie

November is National Novel Writing Month, and every year I sign up with the goal to make it to 50,000 words in one month.

Sometimes, I make it, and sometimes I don’t even get past 10,000 words. But I almost always pick a project I want to finish, and nanowrimo is often the push I need.

This year, I decided to focus on revisions. I have learned the last few years revisions are not my strong suit. Some people love picking apart sentences, looking at continuity, plot points and organizing it onto some kind of spreadsheet or organized file that includes colored Post-Its and highlighters.

This is not me. I would much rather write and let me creativity and imagination take me to strange places, and then hand it off to someone who loves to organize and they can take it from there.

For the last two years, I have been revising a draft for a book I completed in 2021. It has been like walking through mud. I have wanted to abandon ship, start a new book or just give up altogether.

But instead of giving up, I’ve turned to procrasti-baking. When I hit a slump, I’ve turned to baking cookies, lemon bars, espresso dark chocolate brownies and pie. So. much. Pie.

This November, while I looked at the finish line of finishing a round of revisions, I decided it was time to bake a fresh pumpkin pie. The ultimate procrasti-bake.

Revision Pumpkin Pie:

1.5 hours spent on roasting a pumpkin.

30 minutes spent on making flakey buttery crust from the cookbook DAPPLED. An additional 30 minutes to drive to the market to pick up Apple Cider Vinegar, which I needed for the crust.

One hour to allow the crust to chill in the fridge.

25 minutes prepping the filling, which including scraping the seeds and strings from the fresh pumpkin.

25 minutes rolling out the dough for the pie crust, adding it to pie pan, crimping dough.

40 minutes baking

10 minutes to add a aluminum foil shield so the buttery crust won’t burn. And place back into oven for an additional 10-15 minutes, depending on consistency of pie. Shake pie for the right jiggle to ensure it is cooked to perfection.

Allow to cool about one hour.

If you need more time to avoid writing, you can make fresh whipped cream. That should take another 20 minutes of your time to avoid any and all writing.

Once you have a slice of this amazing and delicious pie, which by the way was worth every minute it took to make, you’re looking at several hours spent away from your desk and away from your writing project!