“Don’t Hide Behind the Cake: Bake Your Memoir With Real Ingredients”
by Elizabeth Jannuzzi
Published in the Brevity Blog on April 16
As she spoke, I nodded along. She was smart. She had long-term sobriety. Her talk felt inspirational. But I left the meeting still hungry for recovery. The cake metaphor was missing an ingredient. Or rather, the cake metaphor was a substitute for her experience. She didn’t explain what baking a cake with only sugar or flour actually looked like in her day-to-day recovery life. … That’s the trap we memoir writers should avoid. A well-constructed metaphor is like decorative insight. But without the raw ingredients underneath, the insight falls flat. The reader nods, recognizes the shape of the thing, and walks away empty.