MidLifeWriter

Writing Your Book as You Talk

Linda Locke
MidlifeWriter.com

If you have been procrastinating about writing your book because you can't type well, have carpal tunnel syndrome or a disability, or just plain think better while you talk, you can now put the power of your voice to work for you.          

I recently purchased a copy of ScanSoft's Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 Standard software and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to set up and use.

The software comes with its own microphone headset and once you install it, all you need to do is train the software to recognize your voice patterns by speaking some short test paragraphs.

The accuracy is excellent and once you have it all set up, you can use the software to dictate all your emails, articles, and books with ease.

Food Writing: Finding Your Niche

By Pamela White

An overused bit of advice aimed at new writers is to write what you know. It's also pushed on experienced writers.

But like other aphorisms, this one rings true. I was a writer for years before I found my calling in food writing, yet if I had only looked deeper into myself I would have seen the potential from the beginning.

My background is not unique. I grew up in a middle-class family during the 60's and 70's. Instant meals and TV dinners were in vogue. Convenience cooking using canned soups, instant rice, and boxed cake mixes was a status symbol. Feeding children bologna and processed cheese sandwiches on enriched white bread was the American way. My family fit right in, except for when my parents' farm roots would push their way to the forefront and we'd be treated to baked bread, home-made pickles, and deep chocolate brownies from scratch.

I rebelled and avoided learning to cook. I did have a roommate in college who would chop and sauté, bake and broil, to relieve her stress. She eschewed recipes, yet her rice salads and chicken curries never failed to amaze her dinner guests. I watched with envy.

It was only after the birth of my daughter, when money was tight, that I starting experimenting. Easily bored with beginner-level cookbooks jammed with recipes calling for canned soups, instant rice and boxed cake mixes, I decided to do my taste buds a favor. I began experimenting by canning marinara sauce, baking bread, studying nutrition and food preparation techniques. It wasn't long before I was creating my own recipes and hosting amazed guests at my own dinner parties.

What could I do but transfer my food passion and writing skills into a combined career?

Food writing is a wide-open field. There are food historians who study the diets of different time periods or trace the origin of a food or a dish's name. Such a researcher could track down recipes from the mid-1800's and write a magazine article or an entire book on the era, food, recipes and today's version of those recipes.

Cookbook writing is another option. Don't be overwhelmed by the sheer number of cookbooks on bookstore shelves. Some, like Julia Child's THE WAY TO COOK, Irma Rombauer's JOY OF COOKING and Rose Levy Beranbaum's THE CAKE BIBLE, are classics. Your job, as a food writer, is to find a market for your recipes. Chances are you've already focused your creative efforts. Perhaps vegetarian or bean cuisine is your specialty. Consider holiday cookies, birthday cakes, or bread baking as a theme. If you've been a chef, you might write the insider's guide to restaurant food preparation. You can focus on canning, or even narrow it down to just pickling vegetables. Choose an ingredient - beans, beef or pasta - and build your recipes and your cookbook around your choice.

If you write cookbooks, it pays to be detail-oriented. The first step is to stop slapping your culinary triumphs together from memory. Keep a pile of index cards and write down the ingredients. Relearn to measure everything. Yes, it's painful at first, but necessary. On the card's back, write comments about how the dish turned out and ideas to remedy problems. Include suggestions for variations and substitutions. Many cookery readers don't actually cook the recipes. Shocking, yes, but true. Some just enjoy reading the entertaining essays, dreaming of the dishes and maybe trying one or two for a special occasion. Be thrilled that some readers just want to read about food -- that is what gives food writers such a tasty career.

Food writers are used by magazines, regional publications, newspapers, web sites, radio and television. Feel free to set your goal to be a writer for Food Network Television or in faraway places for Saveur. While you do your dreaming, you might begin by calling the editor of the local weekly paper and offering to write an article about a local winery, brew-pub, new restaurant, local chef, cooking classes, farmers market, anything that is related to food. Collect some writing samples from the local weekly, then call the daily or the special entertainment/dining out tabloid. Keep adding to your clips and build on your food writing experience.

All those recipes you've collected for your cookbook on soy cooking will come in handy while you're pitching stories to magazines. What editor could resist an article on the ten best recipes using miso paste? Think of an angle, then approach food magazines, vegetarian magazines, health magazines and mature women magazines (think soy to combat menopausal symptoms.)

What have I done with my experience in the kitchen? I review restaurants for a living. Reviewing restaurants takes you, as a writer, beyond an opinionated passion for food and moves you into the realm of critical writing. I experience each meal on different levels. I consider the chef's creations and whether they are a success, just average or a dismal failure. I cannot insist that my personal preferences rule; I must back up my statements on each culinary arts review with my expertise, background, knowledge of cooking trends and evaluation of the quality of the ingredients. I also have a stomach of steel which helps when the meat is rancid or the cheesecake is moldy.

When searching for food writing opportunities or positions, keep in mind that editors prefer writers with a passion for food over food lovers who want to be writers. Prepare your resume accordingly and don't stay away from food writing because your articles have all been on parenting, gardening, or your village's annual Fourth of July parade. Use your samples or clips to show your writing talents; list the cooking classes you've taken or your food interests to illustrate the direction you're ready to take your writing.

If food is your passion, try food writing as a sideline or as your career. There are new web sites and magazines devoted to the culinary arts starting up regularly, creating new opportunities for food writers each day.

About the Author: Pamela White is the author of "FabJob's Become a Food Writer." She developed the first food writing online class and continues to update it annually. She is also the publisher of two free ezines: Food Writing at http://www.food-writing.com and The Writing Parent at http://www.thewritingparent.net Her writing classes and writing books are available at the above websites.

Copyright 2006 Pamela White

Self-Kindness, Truth, and Writing

by Jennifer Louden

Once when I went to a new (to me) yoga class I had a teacher say, "When we go into a pose, we can listen to our ego, which says, 'Push, push, go lower, go deeper,' or we can practice non-violence (in Sanskrit ahimsa) and truth (sattva)."

Non-violence toward ourselves = self-kindness. I won't bully myself to do better. I will love myself into doing what is best for me.

Truth = I won't indulge lies in my private conversations. I won't stick my head in the sand and pretend I am eating more veggies or standing up to my belligerent boss. I will look at what is...

and

I won't beat myself as I do it.

A few years ago, I was back from more than a month spent mostly on vacation; I was attempting to launch back into writing my novel, with a self-imposed deadline of my 40th birthday, which at the time was 3 months away. The writing was not going well -- I had pieces of the novel all over the place, I was having trouble with many of the plot points, I kept starting and stopping. I spent a lot of time "avoiding what I love."

I could beat myself up for my lack of steadfastness or I could choose to sit quietly, as I did one day, and gently face the truth -- without judgment. I have written 5 of the 7 days I declared I would. I have written 4 of the 20 hours I promised myself I would this week. That is the fact. I watch myself face this fact and immediately go to my "story" of how tomorrow will be different, then ricochet over to what a worthless bum I am, how can I coach other writers and creative people when I'm skipping out? Then the drama sets in, "You've never had a problem writing before. Maybe you've lost the ability. Maybe you aren't supposed to be a novelist. Maybe you'll starve to death and never accomplish anything."

Now I have a choice. I can gently bring my mind back to the fact, "I wrote 4 hours in the last 6 days." Then I can compassionately ask myself: "What can I choose to do next that might produce a different result? What requests could I make of others to help me? How can I be kind to myself while writing this novel?"

Can you feel the difference? Notice that I had to stop (always we have to stop running). Notice I listened to all the rabble babble inside and I kept bringing myself back to what is -- 5 hours of writing this week. My mind wants to run away from that. Often we hold our minds still by rubbing its nose in what is painful -- like the old way to train a puppy to not pee in the house. Instead, I held my mind's hand -- gently helping it stay focused on what is. Notice how I finally brought my attention to future actions that could produce different results given that I am observing what is from a different perspective.

Here are some ideas on how to apply the twin concepts of non-violence and truth to your life:

1) When you notice yourself beating yourself up or avoiding the truth about a situation, take a moment to check in with your body. What sensations are you experiencing? Be with your body for several moments and notice what it is doing without judging or deciding why. Just notice.

2) Stop making promises to yourself that you have no intention or ability to keep (Forget "I will always be kind to my sister/mother/co-worker" or "I will never eat chocolate again" -- you can only fail.) Decide to only make promises that include clear conditions of satisfaction -- you will know when you have kept the promise. For example, "I will exercise for 45 minutes 3 times a week." "I will write one hour six days a week."

3) When you suspect you're avoiding being honest with yourself, stop, breathe and ask yourself, "What are the facts?" Hint: facts do not contain any adverbs or adjectives, they can be proven or supported (to a certain degree), and there are usually very few. A fact or assertion is "I wrote 4 hours in the 6 days." Not "I wrote three bad pages of a bad novel in 6 days."

4) Also ask yourself, "What could I do in this moment to love myself into creating a different outcome?"

You will notice that these practices of being loving to yourself also have an effect on your relationships. If you have ever used that logic of, "Well, I'm not being any harder on her than I am on myself," please listen up. When you are very hard on yourself, even a small taste of that can be very damaging to your relationships and even if it's true that you go comparatively easy on others, doesn't make it a good logic to live by.

Many years ago, a friend of mine was arrested for a DUI in junior college. His father bailed him out and brought him home. The first thing his mother did when he walked in the door was open her arms wide and give him a great, big hug.

Our ability to face who we are and what our potential is greatly enhanced when we can first open our arms and give ourselves one of those great, big hugs.

Jennifer Louden is a best-selling author of five books, including her classic, The Woman's Comfort Book, and her newest, Comfort Secrets for Busy Women. She's also a creativity and life coach, creator of the Inner Organizer, and a columnist for Body + Soul Magazine. She leads retreats on self-care and creativity around the country. Hear her live on Martha Stewart Living Radio, Sirius Channel 112 every Sunday at 8 am Pacific, 11 am Eastern. Visit her world at: http://www.comfortqueen.com and http://www.jenniferlouden.com