Photo by Nathon Oski on Unsplash
Recently, I had an author reach out to me frustrated with a story they were writing. They had a story idea about cake making (with magic – it is a popular them right now), but they are not a subject matter expert. They tried watching videos and read research materials but got buried in the jargon for the tools and the ingredients. They tried reaching out to subject matter experts but said “they ghosted me after a few exchanges for some reason.” They don’t want to write something if someone who know more about it will call foul.
I wrote back the following:
That sounds frustrating. Here are a few ways to work around the issue, most of which you have attempted, but let me go over them in order they should usually be attempted:
One) Research the topic. In this case, like everything with specialists, the industry has created a vocabulary which will add a realistic flavor to the story. This vocabulary is short-hand for things the work must do repeatedly. For examples, doctors say blood draw or drop an IV line, which are two very different tasks – but all the patient sees is a nurse sticking in a needle. But the short hand, including CCs and liquid and pressure all let the doctors explain something in a sentence that someone outside the industry would take entire pages with diagrams to define. But facing vocabulary short-hand, jargon, can make doing research rough. You don’t want to earn a degree on cake-making, you just want to write a story with it as part of the background, setting the story in a real world situation.
Two) Once you have done the preliminary research, you talk to experts. You need to know the basic, otherwise you are wasting your time and theirs – so do the research first. You can contact them via email or other method, but they aren’t getting paid money for helping so after the initial *wow factor** wears off (where they are getting “paid” in enjoyment of sharing their love), they are done. Best to only contact experts once you know what questions you need to ask – limited to two or three questions. Think about if someone asked you about how to write, how long would you be willing to give free advice. Would you prefer specific question or a general “how-to”. Me, I would send a general how-to question to the web location. (This was a gentle way of pointing out why they got “ghosted” after “a few” exchanges – it isn’t their job to teach you anything. One small set of clear questions and one follow-up, that is all you get. And remember even that much is a kindness.)
Three) Better yet, after beginning research (if it isn’t enough), Gain Actual Life Experience – take a trip, make the thing, attend a class, witness a creator. This can get expensive, both time and money-wise. It makes senses for novels, but not for short stories. I did drive to a location about 30 minutes away for a short story I was creating.
Four) Remember the story isn’t about the background setting, in this case cake-making. It is about the emotions and action, the characters and the plot, the cake-making is only a vehicle to carry it forward. If you are writing non-fiction, then you will need to know all the ends and outs of cakemaking, but you are writing genre fiction. You can dodge a lot of the expertise knowledge. Mercy Thompson (see Moon Called by Patricia Briggs) is a mechanic; she tells us the type of car, basic problems the car is known for, the fact she has grease (or doesn’t) on her hands, etc. Do we know what part was replaced? No. Many Urban Fantasy writers have their characters be gun experts; but mostly we readers see them load guns and place them on their person – the writer doesn’t need to know everything about guns. What do you need to know to make the cake-making feel believable? During research on youtube or tiktok or whatever social media you are using, what are the common themes – fine cake flour everywhere, temperature control in an oven, how finicky the cake icing is in high humidity. What do THEY think is important to share with an audience? Where does their reality touch people outside their industry? Those are the point to use. You don’t need to know how to make a cake. Most books I read with bakers as characters talk about getting up early, gathering ingredients, mixing, rolling out the dough, letting it rise, then baking it. Do I know that they are doing with the yeast mixture, or how long they have to mix to get the strong protein bonds so that the yeast creates fluffy air pockets but not so much that the air cannot push its way in for the air holes? No. The STORY doesn’t need that detail. I just need ENOUGH of the reality. They are rolling the dough while complaining about the landlord they are falling in love with; they are covered in flour because the salamander jumped out of the oven and they had to battle it back into the heating element to finish their day’s baking.
Always remember to focus on the story.
Final advise, just write out the story with what you know and put in the places where you think you need more cake details a note to circle back to later and what you are trying to accomplish with it. (Put cake detail here – use as metaphor of moist air making the icing too wet to grief making the emotions too raw.) (Put cake detail here – angry to calm as focus on work.) Get your zero draft written. Then come back for the first drafting pass and add in the cake detail notes; you may find that the details you thought you needed can be approached a different way. Or you may find you just need answers to three very specific questions from an expert. Or that now that you have the questions written out, you can shape a Google search to answer that question easily.
WRITING EXERCISE: When you know know everything. Write a 500-word story where you are NOT a subject matter expert. Use any or all the techniques above. Bonus points if you leverage the final one (write out the story and add notations of where expertise will be added later).
My Attempt: Jacks and Sleds (1/18/2026) is a steampunk story with an engine repair. Do I know ANYTHING about steam engines? I do not. But I do know how to Google search on a steam engine diagram and I saw “rod” prominently featured and a “crankshaft”. I knew I wanted my MC to fix the engine and I knew those thing break, so I used the jargon. Steampunk feel achieved.
“But what if someone understands how steam engines work and says it isn’t real.” – It is SANTA’S sleigh…being pulled by jackalopes. I think we are a little beyond what is real at this point. All it has to do is feel real enough.
