Will Write for Food (5)

Title: Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Restaurant Reviews, Articles, Memoir, Fiction and More
Author: Dianne Jacob
Genre: Non-Fiction

I got this book as a gift a few years ago but never actually read it because I suck. However, I've been writing about food more and more often on Consuming Louisville and this book was still on my shelf so I thought it was more than past time to give it a read.

There are huge sections in this book that were completely irrelevant to me. For example I've no interest in writing a cookbook or blindly pitching recipes to magazines. However the parts that are relevant are very relevant and insightful. The chapters on writing restaurant reviews and food memoir pieces are very good. The sections on editing your work is invaluable. After reading this book and looking back over my recent food writing I've been cringing a lot. I don't want to complete change my style, for example I'm not opposed to "telling" instead of always trying to "show" I think sometimes telling is more direct and honest and makes it more accessible to the reader. However I'm lazy when it comes to reusing the same adjectives over and over and don't give enough detail. There's a list of adjectives that are excellent for food writing that I'd like to blow up onto a 24x36 sheet of paper and hang in my office. That's how handy I think it's going to be.