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WOW! Women On Writing
Classes & Workshops
Spotlight: Food Writing for Blogs, Restaurant Reviews, Recipes, Fiction, Memoir, and More
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Writers,
Myths about food writing abound, but the truth is that exciting possibilities exist for food lovers--some that you may never have considered. It's time to break out your pen!
To learn more, join author and teacher Melanie Faith in her brand new class on food writing. Participants will explore the wide and exciting range of food-themed genres, from how to start a food blog, to composing a tasty and inviting recipe and/or cookbook, to incorporating good-enough-to-eat prose in memoir and fiction.
The Omnivore's Pen: Food Writing for Blogs, Restaurant Reviews, Recipes, Fiction, Memoir, and More starts Monday, October 29, 2012. Enrollment includes instructor critique and positive feedback on student writing, weekly handout packets, and access to a private group for student interactions. Enrollment is limited to ten students, and early registration is recommended.
In the article below, Melanie busts four common food writing myths. All the good news she has for you will inspire you to get writing!
In addition to the Food Writing class, we have the following courses rounding out 2012: Blogging 101 (starts tomorrow!), Advanced Class: Writing a Middle-Grade Novel Part 2 (Friday), Journey Through Life's Losses (Just added! Nov 12), and Writing for Children (Nov 14). Our current list of classes can be found below.
Happy writing!
Marcia & Angela
Marcia & Angela
Classroom Managers
WOW! Classes & Workshops
classroom@wow-womenonwriting.com |
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Tasty Morsels: 4 Food Writing Myths Busted
By Melanie Faith
Myth #1. You have to be a chef to write about food. Ever made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Eaten a pod of grapes? Visited an organic market or grown a garden? Do you enjoy a certain kind of candy or stew or snack, but abhor another? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you could be a food writer. Food writing doesn't require degrees or cooking school experience (although those extras can be helpful), but what it does necessitate is description and having an opinion you can share in your own voice. Successful pieces have centered on items as basic as bread, water, and crackers. At first glance unexceptional foodstuffs, and yet--vital and sustaining in the body and in prose.
Myth #2. Food writing must be solely recipe-based. While cookbooks are a well-known food writing genre, there are many diverse types of writing that fit under the heading of food writing. For instance, many writers have started blogs dedicated to their experiences with one food. Others have moved to a new country and, while documenting the triumphs and struggles of their new home-away-from-home, have blogged or written personal essays about their encounters with new foods as well as dining and kitchen customs. Starting a food writing blog is a great way to gain a readership to interest publishers in future projects. Restaurant reviewing, whether for a local weekly paper or a magazine, is another popular genre of food writing. If you have taste buds and a hearty interest in food--not to mention an adventurous appetite--you could write a restaurant or a bakery review without leaving your home community. Poetry, an art form highly concerned with imagery, also provides excellent opportunities for writing about food.
Myth #3. Curiosity is not a culinary skill and, therefore, won't get you far. Ever wonder how your (grand)child's favorite cereal is made? Or who designs food packaging? Or why barbecue in eastern North Carolina includes vinegar while Kansas City sauces often don't? Food writing is the perfect impetus for delving deeper into the mystery of taste sensations. It's common for research to lead to guest essays about your first encounters with a dish or your most memorable travel adventures.
Myth #4. Fiction can't be food writing. Famous writers have included scenes surrounding food. Hemingway, Isabelle Allende, Frances Mayes--all have integrated café scenes or an atmosphere of noshing into their books. That chapter in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby where Nick arrives at his neighbor's famed soiree--yep, food writing. Proust's madeleine in Remembrance of Things Past? Ditto. The cultural customs and attitudes we bring to the dinner table illuminate characters' personalities. Does he pick through his dish or practically lick the platter clean? Is she the kind of cook who works on the fly, measuring via dollops and taste-testing, or does she insist on following package instructions and then rage or berate herself after missing a step? Setting and plot can be boosted via food writing as well. Where are your characters eating--at a three-star Michelin Guide restaurant or the neighborhood Chinese joint or at Cousin Sal's table? Each locale will yield a unique cast of characters and dialogue options. Since food is both communal and highly personal, dining scenes or food descriptions may ratchet up the tension and underscore dramatic conflict between characters.
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The Omnivore's Pen: Food Writing for Blogs, Restaurant Reviews, Recipes, Fiction, Memoir, and More
Instructor: Melanie Faith
Workshop Length: 5 Weeks
Price: $175
Start Date: October 29, 2012
Limit 10 Students
Course Description: "There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine drunk. And that is my answer, when people ask me: Why do you write about hunger, and not wars or love?" noted M.F.K. Fisher in The Gastronomical Me. In this five-week course, we will explore the wide and exciting range of food-themed genres, from how to start a food blog, to composing a tasty and inviting recipe and/or cookbook, to incorporating good-enough-to-eat food prose in memoir and fiction. Via the instruction text, Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob and a food memoir, The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Finn, students will find inspiration for their own weekly writing assignments. In addition, the instructor will send food writing sampler packets featuring work from some of the top journalists and food bloggers in the industry. Each week, students will have their choice of submitting a prose assignment based on exercises from our class text, Will Write for Food, or crafting a prose piece of 200-400 words based on a theme of the author's own choosing for constructive and supportive instructor feedback. A variety of writing prompts and tips, both in the texts and at the class Google group, will be provided. Topics covered will include: What, Exactly, is Food Writing?; Get Published with a Food Blog; Secrets of Restaurant Reviewing; The Art of Recipe Writing; and Memoir and Nonfiction Food Writing.
Visit the Classroom Page for a complete listing of what you'll be learning week by week and instructor testimonials. 
About the Instructor: Melanie Faith holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte, NC. Her poetry chapbook, To Waken is to Begin, will be published by Aldrich Press in September 2012. Her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction most recently were published in Linden Avenue (June 2012), Vermillion Literary Project (U. of South Dakota, Spring 2012), The New Writer (April 2012), Foliate Oak (Spring 2012), Mason's Road (Winter 2012 issue) and Origami Poems Project. Her photos were published in Foliate Oak (May 2011), Epiphany Magazine (October 2011), Up The Staircase (Fall 2011), and Ray's Road Review (December 2011). She was a semi-finalist for the 2011 James Applewhite Poetry Prize, and an essay about editing poetry appeared in the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Writers' Journal. In 2011, her poetry and essays was featured in Referential Magazine (July and June 2011), Tapestry (Delta State U., Spring 2011), and Front Range Review (U. of Montana, Spring 2011). She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her work won the 2009 Anne E. Sucher Poetry Prize for the Iguana Review. She has been a small town journalist, an ESL classroom teacher for international students, and (currently) a literature and writing tutor at a private college prep high school, and a freelance editor. She has enjoyed teaching writing classes for WOW for three years. In addition to writing two novels seeking representation, her instructional articles about creative writing techniques have appeared in The Writer (Nov. '09) and Writers' Journal, among others. |
Upcoming Classes & Workshops
All the classes operate online--whether through email, website, chat room, or group listserv, depending on the instructor's preferences--so you do not need to be present at any particular time (unless a phone chat is scheduled and arranged with your instructor). You can work at your own pace in the comfort of your own home. If you have any questions, please reply to this email or email us at: classroom@wow-womenonwriting.com Enjoy!
Starts Every Friday (Self-Study Course) by Deana Riddle:
Independent Publishing: How to Start Your Own Self-Publishing Business | $99 or $150 with 1 Hour Phone Consultation
Starts the First Tuesday of Every Month: (Next class: November 6)
Introduction to the Craft of Screenwriting | 6 Weeks | $150 | Limit: 10 Students | Instructor: Christina Hamlett
Introduction to Playwriting | 6 Weeks | $175 | Limit: 10 Students | Instructor: Christina Hamlett
How to Write a TV Pilot | 4 Weeks | $150 | Limit: 10 Students | Instructor: Christina Hamlett
Starts the Third Friday of Every Month: (Next class: October 19)
Get Paid to Write! Become a Freelance Writer | 8 Weeks | $150 | Limit: 15 Students | Instructor: Nicky LaMarco
Published in 90 Days | 12 Weeks | $299 | Limit: 10 Students | Instructor: Deana Riddle
October 18
Blogging 101 | 5 Weeks | $125 | Limit: 20 Students | Instructor: Margo Dill
October 19
Advanced Class: Writing a Middle-Grade Novel 2 | 8 Weeks | $250 | Limit: 10 Students | Instructor: Margo Dill
October 29
Food Writing for Blogs, Restaurant Reviews, Recipes, Fiction, Memoir, and More NEW! | 5 Weeks | $175 | Limit: 10 Students | Instructor: Melanie Faith
November 12
Journey Through Life's Losses NEW! | 4 Weeks | $125 | Limit: 10 Students | Instructor: Alice J. Wisler
November 14
Writing for Children: How to Get Started, Get Ready for the New Year, and Take Hold of Your Career NEW! | 4 Weeks | $75 (Sale! Normally $100) | Limit: 20 Students | Instructor: Margo Dill
Click here to see all of our upcoming workshops
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