Devouring life, one bite at a time
“We are the music-makers And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea breakers, And sitting by desolate streams; World-loser and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world forever, it seems.” From Ode, …
Hi! You weren’t expecting me, were you? I should be creating some new blog for the new chapter of my life to make up for being absent all these years or something, huh? I thought about it. A lot has happened in the last few …
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| Image courtesy of The Rumpus shop |
What is it about the woods and creativity? A little fresh air, a night under the stars, and a pen in hand was just the thing I needed this weekend. I took my first trip up to Anderson Valley on my first ever writing retreat …
From “Diving Into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich And now: it is easy to forgetwhat I came foramong so many who have alwayslived hereswaying their crenellated fansbetween the reefsand besidesyou breathe differently down here.I came to explore the wreck.The words are purposes.The words are maps.I …
I needed the better part of the weekend to recover from a live chat on Friday discussing the future of food writing. (Okay, so there were some parties, too.) But seriously, for the precious pearls of wisdom gained from seasoned writers dishing out free advice, there was an awful lot to sift through.
My initial response is I needed to do some research on chat guidelines to make sure I wasn’t missing the mark. I found this great article at smallbiztrends.com for a little reassurance that my “virtual whiplash” as one tweeted was not unfounded.
The author Lisa Barone wrote, “If you’re not familiar with them, a Twitter chat is a guided conversation where users interested in a particular topic hop onto the service to chat. The chat is given a hashtag, which makes it easy for anyone looking in to identify the chat and participate. It’s similar to a chat room in that it’s a topic-driven conversation happening in real time; it just happens to be housed on Twitter.”
I couldn’t have found a better way to say that. She also suggests researching the chat topics beforehand, participating, asking questions, and taking advantage of the chat as a networking tool. All great advice!
Not sure if this chat was different, or just very busy from a lot of users. I found the re-tweeting got too heavy and created a lot of distance between answers to questions. In an active chat with an experienced panel, I would prefer to keep the little chit chat down so it is easier to follow.
Favorite things said:
Monica Bhide: parting words: write because you love it. Do it consistently and do it persistently.. The rewards are priceless. 🙂
Dianne Jacob: Writers are sensitive. Rejection can be difficult. The most important thing is to keep at it & believe in yourself.
Adam Roberts (Amateur Gourmet): My take on #futurefoodwriting: you can work your way up through established channels or create your own channel. I suggest the latter.
The Foodie Bugle: If food writers don’t focus on showcasing artisanal food producers they’ll have very little to write about in the future.
Dan Lepard: You are better than today’s writing, or tomorrows. Aim to be clearer, gritter every time.
Last week in my writing class, I was feeling the grind of the semester and the drudge of homework. And not just any homework: writing, where there is no clear fill-in-the-black to an assignment per se, but endless possibilities, with a bit of the subjective …
If you’re catching this early, tune into the live chat on Twitter for an international discussion of the future of food writing. The handle is #futurefoodwriting with Amanda Hesser of Food52 and countless food bloggers, writers and journalists. Here’s a great link with guidelines for …
I am not sure what has taken me so long to join the food52 community. (For you, Pop, it’s like Facebook for foodies.)
I’ve been following Amanda Hesser ever since she inspired me to write a book about staging. She was a fellow trainee in Burgundy only ten years earlier than I, then moved on to write a bestselling book and write for the New York Times (no big deal).
Then a couple days ago, she wrote this article that changed everything for me. It’s called “Advice for Future Food Writers,” but could apply to any writer, or really any person in any industry, because each business is challenging in its own way. Hesser gives a very honest but encouraging look at writing in a world where all I hear is wild praise, or doom and gloom criticism.
Maybe I lied, and the article didn’t change anything for me, if I’m being honest. I wake up every day and want to write, not because I imagine I can ever count on it paying the bills, but because I have to do it. It sure does help to have support from someone who’s been in the trenches and can look up and say, “it’s a long road, just keep on going.” I know this, but always need to hear it. It’s a good reminder that we are meant to keep having experiences for material, and mainly to keep writing.
Which would mean keeping fun distractions like social forums down to moderate use.
I read the greatest book just before leaving for New York. Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton was like a woman’s take on No Reservations by Anthony Bourdain, another food writer I adore but with a masculinity I can’t relate to. I found much …