Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

Useful Tips, Interviews, and Stories to Inspire Food Writers and Bloggers

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When Your Partner Reads Your Work

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Last week at a panel on writing at BlogHer Food in Atlanta, David Leite said he never asks his partner to read his drafts.

“My husband cowers in the corner when I ask him to read something,” he confessed. He suggested people find someone else to review their writing, or just read it themselves.

“Do not give it to your partner to read,” he cautioned. “They’ll either fawn over caca or critique everything.”

I took the mic and respectfully disagreed. My husband reads almost every blog post I write. And I’m thrilled that, after 23 years of marriage, he is still willing to critique my work in a constructive manner.

It takes discipline to be just as respectful as he delivers the news, however. I’m still working on that. If I get out my annoyed voice and say, “What are you talking about? Of course readers will understand,” it doesn’t help.

Here’s what Owen reads for in a blog post:

1. Am I talking to myself? Sometimes I assume readers know, and he has no idea what I mean. In the rewrite, I back up and explain a situation or fill in a gap.

2. Is he bored? My post is exciting to me, but I notice if he’s not getting into it. While he is not my target reader, if he finds it difficult to concentrate, I figure out how to pump up the language, make the beginning snappier, or tighten the delivery. (Miraculously, he found this post riveting.)

3. Do long sentences need untangling? Sometimes he trips over them. That lets me know that I need more variety in my sentence lengths, to establish rhythm and interest.

4. Do I have typos, spelling or punctuation errors, or  extra spaces? He’s great at finding them.

I don’t ask Owen to read everything. For a cover story on food writing for the May/June Writer’s Digest (sorry, it’s only available on a newsstand), I enlisted two colleagues, both bloggers and freelance writers, to review a draft for me. I promised to read something for them in return.

Ironically, I realized recently that Owen doesn’t ask me to read his stuff (he writes product reviews for a Mac website as a hobby). When I asked him why, he said I’m too busy editing other people’s work. Sweet!

If you don’t have someone to read your work, try reading it out loud to yourself. And if you do use a partner or spouse for feedback, I’m curious to hear how, or whether, it’s worked for you.

Photo from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

5 Notes to Self for Coping with Conference Anxiety

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Remember the cool kids at school? I was not one, and that sometimes comes back to me at conferences.

As soon as we sat down, tears streamed down her face. At the last event of Blogher Food 2011 Saturday night, the 40-year old, successful food blogger had asked if we could talk privately. We found a room upstairs, away from the throbbing dance party music.

“Some of the women at the conference are so mean,” she said, wiping away tears. She had met them before, yet they walked right by her without acknowledging her. Feeling overwhelmed, she said she’d rather be home gardening, or spending time with her children.

“It happened to me too,” I said. I was talking to a Famous Person when another Famous Person came up and discussed who they were inviting to dinner. Right in front of me.

And just like that, we were two high schoolers again. We desperately wanted to be adored, part of the in crowd and part of the cliques that gather. We wanted the cool people to notice us. We wanted to be cool too.

Feeling bad about her state of distress, I said most of the people at the conference felt the way she did (resisting adding “aside from a few clueless rude people.”) We’re all in a stressful situation, even though we’re thrilled to be there. That’s why we gather. According to the BlogHer Food folks, the number one reason attendees come is for the “community.”

But we don’t know all these people, and we’re not used to gathering like this. Who’s used to spending 15 hours a day or more with 500 people you hardly know? Who’s used to other people evaluating whether you’re worth sitting next to, talking to, rooming with, or inviting to a private event? It’s easy to get annoyed.

Even though I’ve attended writing and culinary conferences for more than 10 years (see liveblog of my session on recipe etiquette at BlogHer Food), I can’t always escape the anxiety that [Read more…] about 5 Notes to Self for Coping with Conference Anxiety

Five Reasons to Go to a Food Blogging Conference

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I’m packing for BlogHer Food in Atlanta this weekend. Going to conferences always energizes me. I get new ideas for posts, learn from the best, reconnect with old friends and make new ones. And I always have a blast.

Jackie Garvin of Syrup and Biscuits asked how to pick the best food blogging conference to attend. Each is a little different, but basically, all give you the opportunity to hang with other bloggers and get crushes on a select few. You’ll also learn about SEO, branding, writing, photography, marketing…all the stuff you’re trying to master.

Best of all, blogging conferences are fun. This is critical if you’ve been writing alone in your bedroom. You need to get out! I say pick a conference and get involved with a smart, energetic group of (mostly) women who are going through the same things. You’ll get inspired, refreshed, and energized. Even if you don’t have a blog because you’ve been focusing on other kinds of writing, it’s worth a look to understand the blogging phenomenon.

BlogHer Food 2009, in front of the bookstore.

This year I’ll be taking about recipe etiquette on a panel with David Leite, moderated by attorney Lisa Barry-Kessler. At BlogHer, the moderator and audience have as much to say as the speakers, so I look forward to discussing adapting, copyright, and other issues I write about on this blog.

Please come say hello if you’re attending, and tell me about your blog. I like to know who’s reading Will Write for Food so I can say thank you. (I’ll be one of the senior people there among the 30-somethings. That’s my photo in the right-hand corner. )

No matter which food blogging conference you choose (including Food Blogger Camp; Eat, Write, Retreat; International Food Blogger Conference [two locations this year]; Camp Blogaway; Food Buzz [if you’re a member]; and Food Blog South), there are valuable reasons to go:

  1. Become part of a community of hardworking, intelligent writers. This includes meeting bloggers you admire, bloggers you can relate to, and bloggers who become friends
  2. Learn how to make your blog more successful and meaningful through the workshops and classes. You’ll get tons of new ideas and feel energized about your blog
  3. Increase your skill level as a photographer, sometimes with hands-on classes
  4. Party at evening events where you have to wear something other than sweats and pajamas, and
  5. Collect swag. Some people leave room in their suitcases for freebies they want to lug home.

If you’ve already been to a few blogging conferences, maybe you have your own list of benefits. Tell me whether you think it’s valuable, and what you enjoyed most.

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For more on attending food blogging conferences, see:

5 Ways to Write Recipes that Sell Without Selling

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It’s a quandry. You want to entice readers to make your recipes, but you don’t want to just hit them over the head with sales pitches.

Fortunately, there are more subtle ways to attract people to a recipe. Here are five methods cookbook authors use to draw in readers:

1. Make them salivate. Describe the food and how it’s cooked so readers can not only imaging tasting it, but they see it, smell it, hear it, even imagine touching it. Here’s a headnote for South Indian-Style Eggplant Pickle, from Cradle of Flavor by Saveur Editor-in-Chief James Oseland that gets the senses going:

“This south Indian-style pickle is popular in Malaysian kitchens, although the sugar in it is a decidedly Malaysian addition. Similar to caponata, the Sicilian eggplant relish, it’s made of chunks of Japanese eggplants in a lavishly spiced sweet-sour pickling base. Coriander, fennel, cumin, chiles, ginger, and cinnamon all vie for dominance, creating a lush layering of flavors. The eggplants are fried and then put in the pickling base, rather than cooked in it. Japanese eggplants, which are commonly used in Malaysian cuisine, cook quickly, so frying them first give you more control, ensuring that they won’t come out mushy.”

Notice his evocative description, so specific that you can almost taste the eggplant. He assumes you may not know caponata, so he describes it too. Then he tells you how to cook the dish, so you can [Read more…] about 5 Ways to Write Recipes that Sell Without Selling

Barefoot Contessa's Dogged Recipe Testing

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Think your readers will make your recipes flawlessly simply because you’ve made them more than once?

Mega-star and cookbook author Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa fame doesn’t, even though she has worked in the food business for more than 30 years. She still relies on an assistant and her friends when developing new recipes.

In How Easy is That?, Garten says once she’s tested a recipe repeatedly, she hands it over to longtime assistant Barbara Libath. Then she watches Libath make it.

“Every time I do that, I learn something about how someone at home, with only the printed recipe in front of them, might make the dish,” Garten writes. She’s careful not to [Read more…] about Barefoot Contessa's Dogged Recipe Testing

20 Terms For Selling (I Mean Writing) Recipes

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Are his wares "Perfect for any occasion?"

Yes, recipe writers have to make readers want to rush into the kitchen. And readers need convincing. But must we sell, sell, sell?

I found these 20 terms below in a cookbook I edited recently.

What’s wrong with them? They’re generic. They’re overused. And I feel like I’m getting a sales pitch.

I put my least favorite term (no, not delicious) first. But “Perfect for any occasion” is delicious’s equivalent in value and vagueness. What exactly does it mean? Perfect for a funeral and your kid’s lunchbox? For a wedding or an after-school snack?

I bet the guy in the photo would use this term, if he thought it would work. It’s his job to snow you. But is it your job to snow readers?

Here’s my list of 20 tired sales pitches:

  1. Perfect for any occasion
  2. Minimum of time and effort
  3. You’ll rely on these recipes day in [Read more…] about 20 Terms For Selling (I Mean Writing) Recipes

Post About Dog’s Birthday Cake Wins Humor Writing Contest

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I smiled, I giggled, I chuckled and I marveled at all the clever writing. Many thanks to all 41 people brave enough to enter my humor writing contest.

One post made me laugh out loud. It’s from Sharon Graves of Cheesy Pennies, who wins a copy of The Sweet Life in Paris:

“Most of my favorite funny posts are about my dog…here’s an original recipe posted on the occasion of his 3rd birthday.

Peanut Butter Bonanza Bowser Birthday Extravaganza
An original recipe by my daughter

4 Trader Joe’s Natural Dog Treats, Peanut Butter Flavor
1/4 jar of peanut butter of your choice
1 birthday candle

Slather 1/2 of peanut butter between 2 treats to form sloppy, sticky sandwich. Set on counter without a plate, then turn around and touch a lot of other things [Read more…] about Post About Dog’s Birthday Cake Wins Humor Writing Contest