This is my new creative mantra.

This quote came from the book Big Magic. The author’s mother said it to her all the time and she had decided it was a good rule to live by.  As a writer, she believes in pushing through, even when things didn’t seem to be going well.  She said to be a good writer, you have be a disciplined half-ass.  Do it every day and be happy with what you produce.

Sometimes I don’t blog, or finish a blog because I feel it’s not good enough.  That was almost the case with yesterday’s then and now.  I’d begun writing it over a week ago.  The first day I wrote five pages in an afternoon, and hadn’t even gotten to the day I made the video.  It felt too large a meal for a blog entry, but at the time it just poured out of me.  And then, I didn’t know how to proceed.

But I kept thinking about it.  So yesterday, I scrapped the whole thing and started over.  Just like the video, I figured quick and dirty was the way to go.  I repeated to myself: done is better than good.  I started using this quote extensively the day before my son’s birthday party.

My goal was to make a Charmander cake to go with the Pokemon theme.  I’d made a dragon cake a few years back that came out well and I figured the same technique could apply.

 

Once construction began, I quickly realized I could not use this technique to good effect, so I had to revise my plans on the fly.  The internet gave me the idea of crumbling the cake and shaping it.  Which seemed to work, but then I couldn’t apply the frosting.  Each time I tried, the cake would stick to the knife and leave holes in my poor Pokemon.

I took a few deep breaths and thought: It doesn’t have to be perfect. Done is better than good.

I came up with the idea of pouring a coat of frosting over the cake.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until afterwards it was too watery and it never really hardened.

Again I repeated to myself: It doesn’t have to be perfect. Done is better than good.

So I froze the cake.  This seemed to make applying the frosting easier.  Though I noticed the first coat melted and started to ooze out from beneath the top layer.  When I tasted it later, the duel frosting gave the cake an interesting quality.  Some of the kids would try to describe the texture of it to their parents, but they couldn’t really find the words.

When I put on the eyes, my daughter and I could not help laughing, he seemed to be staring in two different directions.  But when the blue from the eyes started ‘weeping’ I laughed every time I opened the fridge.  It was a bit of a clutter fuck, but I just kept repeating over and over to myself: done is better than good.

As you can see from this picture, Charmanders all have a tail tipped in fire, so when I saw a picture online of a cake with wicks protruding from the tail, I thought it was genius.  What better way to light the candle, than to light his tail?

 

 

However I should tell you I am not well versed in Pokemon lore, but I did learn a new fact from my son upon showing him my creation.  Apparently, when a Charmander’s tail is blown out – he dies.

Well, at least now I knew why the cake was weeping.

But hey, done is better than good.