What I Learned About Writing From the Travel Channel, or We Are all Molecular Gastronomists

I've just watched Anthony Bourdain's love letter to Ferran Adria's restaurant, El Bulli.  If you don't know who he is, please read Bourdain's blog on the episode.

Adria, along with his brother, Albert, have, and continue to, revolutionize modern cuisine through their use of molecular gastronomy to reinvent how we look at food.  For the most part, foodies hate Adria and all he stands for.  They claim that by using non-traditional techniques, he replaced cooking with tricks and gimmicks.

I respectfully disagree, but you could be forgiven for wondering why I'm discussing food on a writing blog.  One of the chefs, Jose Andres, said something very important.  He explained that the reason that Adria is so good at what he does, why his restaurant was considered the best in the world, is because his bases everything he does in a deep respect for basic ingredients and understands his culinary past. As Andres says "without the past, you cannot make the future."

In addition, Adria is driven by excellence.  Just because his innovations may have changed the world last year, Bourdain reminds us, Ferran Adria knows he must push the envelope further today.

Writers must do the same.
 
We must have a solid background in literature.  This usually isn't a problem, but we also have to keep reading, even after we give over what time we have to writing, so we can see what other writers are doing.  We have to know what has come before, so we can come up with something new.

We must have in intimate knowledge of writing technique.  This goes far beyond the mechanics of writing (but we ignore these basics at our peril). We also have to know the principles of plotting, characters, and all the other elements of our craft. 

Then we have to smash them to pieces.

Please try to catch No Reservations, especially when they show the episode on El Bulli.  And be glad you're not the dishwasher.

Anna Falcone's short story, "Who-Ville," appears in the Boone's Dock Review.  You can read her blog here.

Write What You Know, and Other Urban Legends

Hotei pointing with the finger to the moon
Photo Credit: www.awakeblogger.com

Writing what you know is, perhaps, the most popular bit of advice that new writers receive.  At first blush, it seems to make sense: Start in a place you are comfortable and can talk about with confidence.

Ah, but there's the problem.  The beginning writer see this as permission to go on about the joys and sorrows of oatmeal breakfasts and trips to the mall.  Now mind you, it is possible to write something special about these subjects.  Some great fiction has been written about drinking beer in a Spanish train station, or buying a tea set.  The key, as Bruce Lee admonishes us, is emotional content.  It is not just about what we think, but what we feel.  Why is it important that we eavesdrop on the couple in the train station?  Why should we care about a man telling us about a Saturday night he spent as a boy?

Because we may have never done these things ourselves, but we have felt as these characters feel.  The reader wants to connect with the characters.  Perhaps we should replace "Write what you know," with "write what you feel." 

Perhaps Bruce should have the last word here.  This bit is from his movie, Enter the Dragon.  If you haven't seen it, wait no longer.  The writing you save may be your own:

Don't think, feel!
It is like a finger pointing away to the moon.
Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.--Bruce Lee

Write What You Read

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. ~Toni Morrison

Despite what Charles Dickens may have told you, the best of times and the worst of times are right now. We have access to an unprecedented amount of information. At the touch of a button, we have almost instantaneous access to news and entertainment from any where in the world, past or present.

That's the good news.

The bad news, of course, is that we have almost instantaneous access to news and entertainment from any where in the world, past or present. The problem with this embarrassment of riches is that if we as writers want to be heard, we have much stiffer competition than Charles did.

Consider this: You have a bit of down time, say at the airport or on the train. What are your options? You could listen to music, check your e-mail, or play games on your phone. You can read newspapers via live feed from around the world. If you did decide to read something literary, you would probably give it a page, maybe, to grab your attention. Too much of a wind-up, and you are back to Angry Birds.

This is something we as writers have to keep in mind. The readers in our 21st Century literary world are characterized by media-induced attention deficits, which means we must drop very tasty bait into the goldfish bowl. If you want to grab the reader, do it quickly, or you won't do it at all.

Welcome!

Boone’s Dock Press originated in a moment of pure inspiration, and we seek to bring that authenticity to everything we produce and promote.  We are fully committed to assisting those who produce great work, which, to quote a friend of the press, is: “exactly what the people never knew they wanted and needed.”  Our mission goes far beyond publishing books and promoting great writers and artists.  We are driven by a comprehensive philosophy that requires strict attention to detail, visionary demonstrations of artistic capability and elevated consciousness, environmental responsibility, financial responsibility and service to humanity.  These are a grand set of principles, we know, and we undertake to grow into them joyfully.  If you are interested to know more, please see our "principles and rationales" page for more on how these components of our mission manifest in action.