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WOW! Women On Writing
Classes & Workshops
Spotlight: Food Writing for Fun and Profit: Blogs, Restaurant Reviews, Recipes, Fiction, Memoir and More
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How's your writing going this New Year? If you need a little push, or maybe a fun project to engage in, a writing class can really help.
Lots of writing possibilities exist for food lovers, and we have an online class coming up to get you started. Food writing includes food blogs, cookbooks, essays, restaurant reviews, and so much more. It's time to break out your pen!
Food Writing for Fun and Profit: Blogs, Restaurant Reviews, Recipes, Fiction, Memoir, and More with Melanie Faith starts Friday, February 6, 2015. In this five-week course, you'll explore the wide and exciting range of food-themed genres. Each week, students will submit a prose assignment for constructive and supportive feedback. Topics covered include: What, Exactly, is Food Writing?; Get Published with a Food Blog; Becoming a Successful Freelance Food Writer; How to Come Up with Story Ideas; Secrets of Restaurant Reviewing; The Art of Recipe Writing; The Cookbook You've Always Wanted to Write; Three Ways to Make Decent Money from Food Writing; and Memoir and Nonfiction Food Writing. Join us for this cuisine-filled course!
In the article below, class instructor Melanie Faith shows you how to use all five senses to strengthen your writing. She shares some great tips in every category!
Happy writing!
Marcia & Angela
Marcia & Angela
Classroom Managers
[email protected] |
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Food for the Senses: Using All Five Senses to Deepen Your Prose
By Melanie Faith
Good writing, like delicious food, calls all of the senses into play. The tastes! The textures! The scents! It's intoxicating to read and to relish prose that appeals to our perceptions. Consider, however, expanding your gustatory experience on the page to include all five senses. Here's how:
Touch: In essays or memoir, detail how the entr�e feels against your lips and in your mouth. Does it take a long time to chew? Is the roll of dough silky or sticky to the fingertips while making cookies? Does the fruit or vegetable have prickly or slick skin to peel before enjoying? Are any of the ingredients pleasant, new, or distasteful experiences? If so, explore that on the page. Tactile impressions are opportunities to create resonance for your reader.
Smell: This sense is a favorite of writers. The soothing scent of baking bread or the pungent odor of certain cheeses is an easy go-to and can underscore emotions or backstory within your characters. Compare and contrast a scent or scents--perhaps one character finds that cheese's odor beguiling and mouthwatering, while her sister finds it repellant. Develop a conversation between the characters where ostensibly they react to the cheese but underneath their talk is a subtext of a deeper conflict.
Sound: This sense is less-frequently explored, but provides an excellent opportunity to flesh out a scene. Does the soup gurgle and bubble as it simmers? Does the ice crackle as it splinters within the glass? Various aspects of preparation also have distinctive sounds. What music do the mixer, the food processor, and the vent on the oven range make in the restaurant or home kitchen? How does a character feel about those sounds--energized, anticipatory, overwhelmed, or frazzled?
Appearance: Perhaps the first stop as we write about food, visuals play an important role in any scene. Go further than the surface: Are there layers to the dish? Does one character notice one attribute while someone else savors another attribute? Incorporate colors, hues, textures, and sizes.
Similes and metaphors provide shorthand for the reader to imagine what is in the bowl or pan. Pay particular attention to the tone of the figurative language you use.
Taste: Another popular sense to explore, consider adding in how the speaker or characters react to the taste. As with appearance and smell, comparison and contrast via similes and metaphors can be excellent. Body language is another great aspect to explore. Leaning in close to the plate after tasting might show favor or that the entr�e warms a cold character, while leaning away or chewing the same bite over and over demonstrates distaste. In the latter example, you might use the character's reaction to increase the tension already underlying a setting or a character's motivations.
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Food Writing for Fun and Profit: Blogs, Restaurant Reviews, Recipes, Fiction, Memoir, and More
Instructor: Melanie Faith
Workshop Length: 5 Weeks
Start Date: February 6, 2015
Limit: 10 Students
Course Description: Famed epicure James Beard once wrote, "Food is our common ground, a universal experience." In this five-week course, we will explore the wide and exciting range of food-themed genres. Via the instructional text, Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob, 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 submit a prose assignment based on an exercise from our class text for constructive and supportive instructor feedback. A variety of writing prompts and tips, both in the texts and at the private class group, will be provided. Topics covered will include: What, Exactly, is Food Writing?; Get Published with a Food Blog; Becoming a Successful Freelance Food Writer; How to Come Up with Story Ideas; Secrets of Restaurant Reviewing; The Art of Recipe Writing; The Cookbook You've Always Wanted to Write; Three Ways to Make Decent Money from Food Writing; and Memoir and Nonfiction Food Writing.
View the full listing for a full course description, testimonials, and an overview of what you'll be learning week by week.
About the instructor: Melanie Faith holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte, NC. Her writing has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. Her flash fiction, "The Slades," placed honorable mention in the 2014 Bevel Summers Prize for the Short Short Story and was published in Shenandoah (Washington and Lee University). Her WWII era poetry collection, Catching the Send-off Train, was published as the summer 2013 selection at Wordrunner eChapbooks. Her poetry chapbook, To Waken is to Begin, was published by Aldrich Press in September 2012. In addition to numerous photography publications, her instructional articles about creative writing techniques have appeared in The Writer and Writers' Journal, among others.
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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: [email protected] 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: Feb 3) 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 First Friday of Every Month: (Next class: Feb 6)
Writing a Novel with a Writing Coach: One-on-One Instruction | 4 weeks | $120 | Instructor: Margo L. Dill
January 19, 2015
February 1, 2015
February 2, 2015
February 6, 2015
February 11, 2015
February 16, 2015
March 2, 2015
Whole Novel Course | 4 Weeks | $749 | Limit: 5 Students | Instructor: Literary Agent Sally Apokedak
March 18, 2015
April 13, 2015
Click here to view all upcoming classes |
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