What Is Food Freelance Writing?

What Is Food Freelance Writing?

Food writing could be a career choice to consider if you have a strong appetite and a way with words. Not only is food study one of the more fun aspects of freelance writing, but you'll never be short on restaurant reviews or free meals — while you may be short on well-fitting pants.

You'll need to know how to explain food well to be a good freelance food blogger. Making oriented, specific comparisons are the key to definition, at least in conventional literature. To understand why consider the sentence appeals to you more: "It was the tastiest shrimp I've ever eaten" or "The lime-pressed garlic shrimp, grilled over applewood, had a texture that was somewhere between the crunch of caramelized sugar and the gentle resistance of a medium-rare salmon filet"?

The basic rule of food writing is to make your reader wish he or she could try whatever delectable dish you're writing about, to make the reader feel personally invested in the food. And the human mind has a curious quirk: when we think about an object or action, we activate the parts of our brain that turn on when we communicate with that object or perform that activity. To put it another way, when we think of throwing a baseball, our arm nerves twitch. Our stomachs grumble and our mouths sweat when we think of eating a thick steak. When writing about food, you want to make your reader feel as if he or she is engaging in the experience of consuming it. Words like "tasty," "delicious," or, worst of all, "pretty sweet" can do little to elicit positive feelings in your reader. Only words and photos with strong emotional connotations, such as those linked to food, can make your readers' mouths water.

Where do you sell your food writing after you've written your articles? You should write for a local newspaper or an alternative paper if you live in a big city (i.e. the LA Weekly, the Austin Chronicle, etc.). Millions of people read these newspapers on a regular or weekly basis, and many of them read the food section. When someone in a major city wants to make restaurant reservations for a date, business dinner, wedding, or another social event, they search for hot new restaurant reviews in the local paper's food section. Keep track of new and closing restaurants in your area. Opening new restaurants can be your bread and butter. Local newspapers and community guides are still looking for new restaurant reviews to publish.

Write an article about your favorite local hangout that few people are aware of. Send your report to a local newspaper with a correct question message. You may be the first to write about the place, bringing in the much-needed company. Finally, the newspaper pays you a fair wage, as well as a published clip, a byline, and potentially more jobs and referrals.

Writing for magazines devoted to food, dining, city nightlife, general lifestyles, or the tourist market is another choice. If you want to write for magazines, you'll have a much wider range of topics to choose from. How-to blogs, interview bits, cookware reviews, and so on are all possibilities. Restaurant reviews are your best bet if you want to write for local tour guides. Tourists may be unaware of the area's well-known restaurants and diners. Tourism guides will help you figure out what's hot and what's not in the region. This means that your restaurant reviews and other food writing will have a steady stream of potential readers.

It's much more difficult to become a food writer if you don't live in a big city. While the mom-and-pop cafe downtown serves some of the best omelets you've ever had, how are you going to sell an article if everyone in town eats there every Friday night? Consider submitting your submissions to local publications. In some US states, the Department of Transportation publishes a monthly magazine about regional news. Local restaurant reviews are sometimes used by the editors of these publications as a source of human interest or as a means of promoting out-of-state tourism to non-traditional destinations.

You might also try writing sample copy for cookbooks, food supplier press releases, or food company advertising. Healthy food authors are employed by corporations and book publishers to help promote everything from new kinds of pasta sauce to gourmet steak dishes. Also, a local supermarket can be willing to pay for advertising space in weekly ad flyers.

Unfortunately for country folk, full-time food writing is almost always a city game. Food is one of those things that will never go out of style, particularly when it comes as part of a great restaurant experience. As a result, food writing ensures job security and, most importantly, it's simply enjoy writing. So let's get started!

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