food writing classes

Food Blogging 101: 10 Steps for Starting a Blog

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, May 25, 2015 Permalink 0

: Foxtongue / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

How to Start a Food Blog: 10 Tips from a Veteran Blogger

by Jonell Galloway

Here are 10 easy steps to follow to start a food (or other) blog. Food blogging can be easy if you start out right.

Keep it simple at every step, because it won’t end up being simple no matter how hard you try to make it so.
Decide on your niche and your subject. Your subject should be specific and something you know about and feel comfortable writing about. If you’ve worked at a French bakery, perhaps you know a lot about baking French pastries. For example, I studied French cuisine, so I mainly write about French cuisine. It comes easy to me; it’s within my range of knowledge. If you want your readers to be passionate, you have to be passionate yourself. If you want them to build confidence in you, you have to write with authority.
Who is your audience? Are there enough people interested in your subject to justify all the hard work? Do you have an idea of who these people might be? Go on Amazon and see how many books are published on your subject. Do a few Internet searches to see if anyone else is covering the same topic.
Define a budget. Can you afford a developer? a webmaster? I recommend both, but if you’re computer literate, it’s possible to build a website on your own.
Choose a platform. The platform you choose has a lot to do with how computer literate you are. This is not a judgment. It’s just a factor that can determine how much unnecessary frustration you risk experiencing while running your blog. If you have limited experience using computers and you want a simple, carefree site, Tumblr, Typepad and Blogger are good choices. Another advantage is that they are free, but they have their limitations. If you know Microsoft Word, know how to use a stylesheet, and feel comfortable with computers, WordPress offers more flexibility in terms of layout and functionality. It is also free. None of these platforms requires knowledge of computer coding. Wix and Medium are also free, but have limitations. None of these platforms requires knowledge of code, with the exception of a few of the cutting-edge WordPress themes. (If you don’t know code, this is a question you should ask when choosing a theme.)
If you have a hefty budget, you can make life easier by hiring a website developer and a webmaster, so you wouldn’t need the free platforms. A developer can custom build a site in code to your specifications, giving you the possibility of a beautiful, unique look, but making it necessary to have a webmaster or the developer make changes and additions, which can be costly. Think this over before starting. It will not be a one-time expense; it will be an on-going one.
If you’re building a website on a free platform, choose a theme. A theme is what you will use as the basic layout or presentation of your site (a paid web developer would do all this in code). It is what you use when you don’t have a budget for a coded website and you plan to use the free platforms. Free or low-budget themes are available for all the free platforms listed above, and allow you to browse examples before choosing. Wordpress offers free themes here.
Choose a host. The “host” is the place where your website resides. They will offer various packages at various prices. The host provides a server on which to store your blog files, as well as other necessary technical services including technical support (ask for details about this before choosing: how much time, availability, etc.), email, domain name registration, FTP access, and various other services and tools. They will offer different bandwidths (250 GB is usually the least) and disk space (5 GB is usually a minimum). How much you need depends on how many images and articles you post, of course, but a basic package usually suffices at the outset. You can always upgrade later. Ask what their average uptime and downtime are; this is what determines part of the reliability of your website. Ask how often your blog will be backed up on their servers.
Choose a name and register it as a domain name (your host may offer this service). Otherwise, you can do this directly with the free online platforms or with an online domain registration company. This reserves the name for you and you only and prevents anyone else from using it.
Take a few hours to familiarize yourself with the technical aspects of creating blog posts. If you’re using WordPress, do some research on the plugins you can use to enhance site capability. The Beginner’s Guide for WordPress is an excellent resource.

Free Phone Call

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, September 8, 2014 Permalink 1

Thinking about your food writing? As in, how to make it more real and vivid? Or how to improve the quality of your commitment to it?Contact us to set up a free consultation. We want to talk with you, and 20 of our minutes are yours for the asking.

We also offer free one-hour conference calls for students once a month. That’ll be a whole bunch of us on the phone together, and we will announce the topic far ahead of time. Contact us with topics that will be especially useful to you.

Food Writing Prompts: Your Own Desk is a Prompt

Published by Elatia Harris + Wednesday, August 13, 2014 Permalink 2

by Elatia Harris

So many great writers need their writing rooms to meet precise specs. E.B. White preferred a rough-hewn, minimalist space, with nothing but a typewriter. Virginia Woolf needed lots of green around her, and took some serious kidding about it from her sister. I have noticed that a writing room is almost never gender-neutral, even when the writer is going for a low-key, orderly space that gives little away. There’s something I need, that I’ll give up things I like to get: a window. Looking at photos like the National Trust photo above, of Vita Sackville-West’s writing table at Sissinghurst, I always notice — does the writing table face a window, or a wall?

Which leads me to wonder — how much of a writing prompt is your desk itself? It has four corners, like the ancient Chinese idea of the Universe. Within that space, you can put anything you have that helps. When you look up from your work, are you still seeing with the mind’s eye? What could you arrange to see, physically, that would give you the most of what you needed to keep writing?

Elatia Harris is a writer and consulting editor in Cambridge, Mass. She is most often at work on books and articles about food, wine and travel. Contact her at elatiaharrisATgmailDOTcom or via text at 617-599-7159.

Writing Classes

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, August 1, 2014 Permalink 0

Classes Offered

The 16 classes below cover a lot of territory. Taught in one-hour units, they speed your path to mastering the most important and challenging aspects of food writing today. Matters of style, content, and being current. More intro coming…

Basics 101

Even though people say you’re a great storyteller, do you feel you let them down when you write rather than talk? It’s no secret — writing confidently and often is key to writing well. Using the grammar and punctuation that editors require for their publications is a supreme confidence builder. This is a “best foot forward” class for writers-in-training who want to arrive on the scene with all the specs.

Beginning Food Writer

Already writing about food, and searching for your truest direction? The scope of food writing is far bigger than it was a decade ago, and you may find what you’re looking for by considering how that expansion applies to you. This course shows you a systematic method for transitioning from general writing to food writing, and teaches you how to find both your voice and the best form for manifesting your gifts. Take this course and follow it up with “Essentials of Food Writing.”

Essentials of Food Writing

Have you decided that food writing is definitely for you? Worthy not only of all your skills, but of your learning some new ones too? This class is for you if you are a committed writer who wants to adapt your voice and style to food writing. There is a strong emphasis her on mapping out a body of work. Not quite ready? Take “Beginning Food Writer” first.

Editing and Revising Your Own Manuscript

As writers, we are often so close to our text that we can no longer see how to perfect it. This class focuses on achieving the crucial editorial distance that allows you to create your best work. You will learn to use technical tools to help you work faster, and to ensure that you send a perfect manuscript to potential editors and publishers. Recommended for writers who also take “Beginning Food Writer” and/or “Essentials of Food Writing.”

Word Processing 101

Word processing skills are essential for almost any profession, and in particular for writers. This class teaches all the basic skills you’ll require in the food writing profession. Recommended to writers who opt for “Editing and Revising Your Own Manuscript.”

How to Start a Food Blog

For food writing students and professional food writers alike, a food blog and online presence are difficult to make headway without. Both will help you build a readership and a platform, which is something publishers and editors take very seriously. It ensures them that you already have a following. This class will guide you through the entire process, from choosing a platform, setting up your blog, maintaining it, and getting the word out to the public through social media and effective search engine optimization.

Social Media without Blogging

Some writers don’t want the mammoth technical difficulties that food blogging entails. This class teaches you how to build a social media presence and a brand, without keeping up a blog. You will be surprised to see yourself commanding an increasingly large following. If you know for a certainty that you don’t want to blog, take this course to find out how not to miss out on that account.

For Experienced Writers — Crafting an Online Presence

Research Methods for Non-academics

How to Conduct an Excellent Interview

How to Write About Food for Kids

When Food Writing Overlaps with Ag Writing

Problems in Wine Writing and How to Avoid Them

Bioscience for Food Writers

Culinary Literacy for Food Writers

Sustainability for Food Writers

Ebook Overview

Now that indie publishing is an unlimited new world, you may not be looking for an agent or a publisher. You may be looking for a profitable niche, or a route to paper publishing that involves building an online platform first. You hold more of the fate of your work in your hands than ever before, and you may want to find out whether the driver’s seat, in e-publishing, is where you want to be. Join this class for an overview of up-to-the-minute realities that will be decisive for you.

To contact us or request a subscription to our weekly newsletter, click here:

The Rambling Epicure is a food writing community full of resources. Many are free. Join us, and explore them. Through our classes, programs, and one-on-one work with clients, we are a full-service network of support for food writers. Would you like to talk with us about what we could do for you? Say hi, with a brief intro, using the form above, and email us LINK an sample of your work so that we can give you our best estimate.

And, for a good time in good company, join our food writing forum on Facebook at The Rambling Epicure, Mastering the Art of Food Writing. You will make some excellent connections there.

Book

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, July 28, 2014 Permalink 0

Our first book, Mastering the Art of Food Writing, under our own imprint, The Rambling Epicure LLC, will be out as an ebook this coming spring.

Mastering The Art of Food Writing is an up-to-the-minute guide not only to writing well about food, but to finding out where you fit into the broad spectrum of food writers. If building a readership for your writing — whether or not you already have a platform — is as important to you as writing well, then you will benefit from the innovative teaching we do in these pages.

Mastering the Art of Food Writing is a book for the seriously ambitious. Watch this page for updates. And, using the form below, please write to us, meanwhile, about your own experiences in getting a food writing career off the ground.

Food Writing Prompts

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, July 28, 2014 Permalink 0

How to Use a Food Writing Prompt

Schedule a minute or two with a prompt, whenever you feel stuck. Whether you sense the deep need of a new idea, or you want to feel more centered by clearing space around you before you write, using a prompt is the very opposite of procrastinating.

We have gathered a selection of prompts for your pleasure and productivity – some with stories of their own, some with an implicit demand that you write the story, some for clearing your mind, others for the experience of sheer marveling. We’ll keep adding to it, too.

To build your own collection of prompts, look around you differently — right now! Are there photos, sea shells, paperweights, bottles of perfume, spiritual symbols, or even baseball cards that are special to you? Maybe you walk by them every day, and they’ve been in the same place long enough to be invisible to you unless you look for them. Gather a few of these things onto a little tray. Handle them. Sniff them. If you feel a little less bogged down now, and sense a re-set, then you have been prompted.

That’s how it works. It’s tiny, but powerful.

Competitions

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, July 28, 2014 Permalink 0

Food Writing Competitions

We have a keen interest in identifying the food writers of the future. Are you one of them?

Many are in graduate programs in Food Studies now. Or they are students in other, less obviously related fields. With the rapidly changing foodscape, they will take on undreamt of challenges. In fact, they have already begun to do so.

Because concision is not only our favorite word, but a guiding principle we hew to and teach, we sponsor a competition four times yearly, for student food writers who have up to 500 words to show us.

Publish – Food Bloggers

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, July 10, 2014 Permalink 1

Publish – Food Bloggers

Food blogging is one of the best ways to start food writing, and you can hone your skills as you go. You don’t have to be an experienced writer to start a blog. Your blog can serve as your playground as your writing improves. Blogs get your name out in public. Food bloggers are motivated and they invest a lot of time in their blogs, but many have a goal of eventually publishing their work.

How to Get Published

The Rambling Epicure platform is a meeting point for all types of food writing. We will regularly publish outstanding writing from food bloggers. If you have a spectacular piece of writing, feel free to send it our way to info@theramblingepicure.com.