A couple months ago I was Dianne Jacob has written Will Write for Food in such a way that you can pick and choose the chapters that interest you (“Becoming a Successful Freelance Writer” and “Memoir and Nonfiction Food Writing,” for example) without missing any important content from the others. Although I found myself easily breezing through each chapter, gleaning something useful even if it may never be something I use to its fullest. It’s truly “The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Restaurant Reviews, Articles, Memoir, Fiction, and More…,” as Dianne promises on the front cover. And, believe it or not, she’s right about something else too. If you want to get into food writing, there really aren’t very many options in the book world to help – so kudos to her for writing the handbook, so to speak.
As you read through my blog, you may notice the style changing here and there as I work my way through Dianne’s writing exercises at the end of each chapter. I feel like I’m back in a university English course, but in a good way – it’s nice to have some structure and growth to my writing, and it’s also nice to be challenged to write better, more descriptive, especially when it’s about food!
Thank you Dianne (and Alice, and IFBC) for the guidance I didn’t realize I was looking for until I stumbled upon it!
Hey Liza, I had not seen your post until Alice tweeted about it. Thank you so much! I’m honored to be the subject of your post.
The new edition, which has a 17,000+ word chapter on food blogging, came out in July.
Dianne: I saw a version with a different cover than the one I have, so I assume that’s the new edition? I’ll have to check it out! Really love your book – it’s been a big help, and I have a few pages dog-eared that I refer back to often as I’m writing. Cheers!
*LOVE* when something like this happens. Good luck (but don’t change your style TOO much, it’s what we love about you!)
Jackie: No worries – I’ve already pretty much finished the book, so if you haven’t already noticed then I suppose my voice was never altered.
Which is what I was going for, improvement & bettering my writing, but not losing my voice.