“Stella Parks on Her Writing Process” 
Town Branch p. 118
https://vimeo.com/103940582

STELLA PARKS: Uh, I am really organized, I think, when I write, especially now that, um, I’m telling these stories about certain desserts, and it involves a lot of research, and so I have to keep my notes in order, um, so for me there is a lot of organization and making sure that I have - I usually start out with an empty document, and then I’ll have, um, a list of my - my references and my sources, so, you know, 1909 banana split, 1911 first soda fountain, or you know, whatever, and I have all these things in a specific order, and then I kind of like structure the story, the narrative, around those dates, um, so, yea. 

And I think also mental organization is hugely important. Uh part of why chefs have to be so organized, and especially pastry chefs, um, in school they would tell us that, you know, your mise en place is your mental situation, so if you’re not prepared to tackle this dessert, you know, everything is still in the cabinet, or you know, scattered across the table, and you know you haven’t wiped down the counter from when you completed this other project, and that’s like the state of your mind as well. So it’s really important to, um, get everything in order because the process of getting your ingredients in order and your equipment in order in the kitchen cleaned and ready also prepares your mind because you’re like “Oh yea, here are the ingredients, and this is what I’m gonna be doing, and this is gonna be the first ingredient that I need, so it needs to be closest to the stove” or that sort of thing, um, brings your mind into line with the project you’re about to tackle. 

And I’ve definitely seen a lot of people, friends and family, like you know baking something at home, and they’re not organized, like everything’s still in the cabinet, and they just start making it before they’ve, you know, measured out all their ingredients and, um, gotten prepared, and then, you know, you get halfway through the recipe and then it says, you know, add the diced apples, quickly before the caramel cools, and you’re like looking over at your pile of unpeeled apples, and you kind of realize like, “Oh yikes!” So that has definitely translated into my habits for writing as well.