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Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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Kitchen Confidential

Write What Readers Want, or Whatever You Like?

April 23, 2013 by diannejacob 71 Comments

Anthony Bourdain says he never tried to write for readers.

While paging through my copy of Kitchen Confidential recently, a quote from Anthony Bourdain struck me. Here it is, in an interview at the back of the book:

“I don’t get it. When I wrote Kitchen Confidential, my busines model was, ‘I Don’t Give a Shit,’ and I’m trying very hard to keep that as my operating business model. I never, ever think, what will they like, what do they expect, what should I do next.”

Now, I adore Bourdain’s writing. I could argue that he did give readers what they wanted: passionate, colorful stories written with fierceness and humor. Who wouldn’t like that?

But he was writing memoir, not “service writing.” That’s mostly what I do. It’s probably mostly what you do too. This type of writing tells readers how to do something, like [Read more…] about Write What Readers Want, or Whatever You Like?

Filed Under: Food Blogging, Writing Tagged With: Anthony Bourdain, Food blogging, food writing, how-to writing, Kitchen Confidential, service writing

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