tips for better food writing

Sometimes my mind races after I finish reading a book. I'm usually in bed. I turn out the light. I toss. I turn. I cannot sleep. This happened a few nights ago when I closed Will Write For Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Blogs, Reviews, Memoir, and More, second edition. It was published this year. Jacob filled my head with her advice. She inspired my thinking about potential articles, blog posts, and books, I might write. Even though she talks about how very few food writers make a living at only writing about food, she spurred my confidence a bit. It's possible that her best bit of advice would be: Don't quit your day job.

Three quick and easy tips Dianne Jacob shares for better food writing in the second edition of Will Write For Food: The Complte Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Blogs, Reveiws, Memoir, and More are:

First, she doesn't say it in exactly this manner, but I shall:

Take it to the body. It's something I learned in creative writing class. Describe the food using all your senses and that makes your writing much better and essentially has the reader sitting in your lap sharing your experience. Describe textures, aromas, and the range of flavors. The velvet texture of the soup as it caresses the back of your throat, etc.

Second, write book reviews. Of course, this one works for foodies who enjoy reading. But, sharpening your writing in the analysis of a cookbook, culinary history, or foodie memoir improves your ability to write because examining another writer's work helps in the construction of your own. You find out what you like and don't like and then can strive to write to your strengths.

And third, complete the exercises she includes at the conclusion of each chapter. I don't complete exercises included in most books. But you can bet that I will do these. They're useful endeavors for focusing your writing. For example, at the end of chapter two she advises burgeoning food writers to write a paragraph about "your passion for a favorite food." Then she gives instructions for reviewing your work and changing generic nouns to specific ones.

And, I'll throw this one in as well. Jacob says, don't write about food nostalgia. A little is okay, but if you want to write a cookbook, or food memoir, then don't write about learning to cook at your grandmother's knee. Every food writer owns this impulse; it's where we start. Agents and editors are bored with reading about cooking from grandmother's knee.

Those were a few nuggets I panned from this second edition. In fact, I own the first edition and never read it. Silly me. Stupid me. I bought it. Didn't read it. I should have because Jacob's advice is relevant for general writers, too. Whether you're writing about kookaburras or monster truck racing, this book helps writers hone their craft and target audiences as well as, or better than, any other general book geared toward wannabe-writers.

The biggest difference between this book and the first edition published in 2005 is the section called "Getting Started with a Food Blog." If I'd known this information earlier, I'm sure that I could have parlayed my online presence into something grander by this time rather than the humble following it is. She interviews food professionals in both books. One of the most helpful devices she employs is her comparative sidebars.

Most of all, I appreciated "How some food writers got their start." Jacob presents from one to three paragraphs liming the career trajectory of people such as Colman Andrews, Molly O'Neill, Russ Parsons, Greg Patent, Ruth Reichl and Alan Richman, to name a few. I'm a sucker for biography short or long. Seeing how others enter a field and evolve helps me more than anything else. Not that I want to replicate anyones path, but seeing the progression from one aspect of a career to the next helps me understand how one could enter a field and eventually expand. It helps with coming up with a short-term (or even long-term) plan.

As to the technical aspects of the book like the bibliography and index, both are tops. Jacob liberally shares resources appropriate to each section. She suggests several books to read if writing a food memoir is your bag, baby. Naturally, my favorite suggestion of Jacob's (other than writing book reviews and blogging) was to read food writing. 

These are the writers she recommends:

• James Beard. 1964. Delights and Prejudices
• Jean-Anthelem Brillat-Savarin. 1825 The Physiology of Taste: Or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy
• Samuel Chamberlin. 1943. Clementine in the Kitchen
• Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking & More Home Cooking
• Elizabeth David. South Wind Through the Kitchen
• Roy Andreis De Groot. 1937. Auberge of the Flowering Hearth
• M.F.K. Fisher. The Art of Eating
• Edna Lewis. 1976. The Taste of Country Cooking
• A.J. Liebling. 1959. Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris
• Harold McGee. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
• Angelo Pellegrini. 1948. The Unprejudiced Palate: Classic Thoughts on Food and the Good Life
• Waverly Root. 1994. Eating in America: A History
• Joseph Wechsberg. 1953. Blue Trout and Black Truffles: The Peregrinations of an Epicure

The chapter on writing and testing recipes was most instructive for me, since my experience in that area is limited. Most of the information she shared in "Secrets of Restaurant Reviewing" I'd learned from reading Ruth Reichl's book a few years ago.

After my sleepless night I visited a bookstore the next day. I bought M.F.K. Fisher's Art of Eating and Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life. I devoured the latter and will possibly share my thoughts about it in a later post. I'm so late to the Homemade Life party, I wonder if I have anything to say that is new. Art of Eating is such a tome. Hope to start it soon.

About blogging: Something Jacob wrote affirmed what I've discovered recently. Most food blogs are recipe blogs. They have recipes as their main content. Jacob says you have to develop storytelling skills to compel readers to return. She talks about blogs being a visual medium. I love to peek at someones kitchen and see the latest dish they concocted. 

Yet, I've noticed how hundreds (at least) of food bloggers follow Ree Drummond's lead in posting a dozen plus photos of their process. Somehow, it worked for her. There's something called the rule of 5 plus or minus 2. Or maybe it's 7. Regardless, people process only so many images. And remember what I said Jacob said about storytelling? If the post if fifty photos plus a recipe, where's the narrative? Where's the writing? I want the storytelling and a great transition. That's my two cents worth.

Comments

[NikSnacks]

I bought Will Write For Food a few days before Thanksgiving, and it's given me lots of food for thought. I'm glad I didn't buy/read the first edition. The technology/blogging aspect of the book really added a lot of value, to me.

I have started to blog again, just to get the hang of it. I've changed my layout and I need to get back to the great blogging that I was doing before I stopped. I'm glad you're reading this book, too. :)

And this book is exactly what I needed to decide what kind of book I want to write. I no longer want it to be full of recipes. I think it will be a memoir of sorts.

[Rebecca]

I'm so glad you're enjoying it Nikki! I think the first edition would have helped me determine what kind of goals to set for my food writing "career," but I agree that the blogging aspect is what every food writer needs to know. I can't wait to see your new layout. And read your food memoir, too!!!