DeathbedFood® Food Stories by Diane Wagner

Diane Wagner's Blog | So good you could die happy at 1st bite!

  • HOME
  • VIDEO
  • CHEFS
  • HUMOR
  • RECIPES
  • ABOUT

My Writing Stinks

May 18, 2016 by Diane Wagner

Back To School.

I’m a terrible writer. Just terrible! Or so I worry about constantly, obsessively at dinner and on vacation, relentlessly while eating DeathbedFood and compulsively when doing laundry. Like that sentence – was that a fragment? A run-on? Too vague? Worst of all, full of ADVERBS? Ever since I started this blog, I’ve wondered. I’m triggered when I see an extraordinarily (Adverb Alert!) well written piece like restaurant critic Pete Wells’ review in The New York Times about David Chang’s newest restaurant, Momofuku Nishi.

pencils final

Two years into the blog, I decided to add spice to my writing and took a class at UCLA called “Writing Funny”. I was the least funny student in the class, seriously not kidding, but I learned a lot. I learned that good writing is good writing. It sounds simple but it’s actually very difficult to pull off which likely explains why people don’t read blogs like this one. Is anyone reading this? Anyone? I’d say let me know by tweeting me @DeathbedFood but don’t. I really do not want to know.

Story and sentence structure may be the two most important elements of good writing. Pete Wells learned these lessons wells (oops – I mean ‘well’).

Story is everything and story begins with the title. Pete’s title says it all:

The Check Is Only Part of the Price: Momofuku Nishi can be a delight for the palate but tough on the ears and the seat.

I was in. Finally, someone besides me was livid about jack hammer-loud restaurants and odd-shapen, unbelievably uncomfortable seating.

Pete tells his story with perfectly precise and enviably elegant sentences.

You can make reservations, but not for a table. Instead, you reserve a chair, which, strictly speaking, is a seat built like a hard, flat crate.

At Nishi, highly sensitive microphones seem to be placed directly above all the loudest people, picking up and amplifying their every screech.

Nishi is as loud as the opening face-off of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals.

Finally, Pete pleads with David Chang:

If dinner in Changland now includes intelligent drinking, why can’t it also encompass seating and acoustics that won’t leave your lower back in knots and your eardrums in shreds?

So am I a good writer? Can I compete with Pete? Can I even hold my own next to other bloggers? According to Alexa, DeathbedFood.com is ranked 16 Million. For perspective:

  • estar LA is 6 million;
  • Consuming LA is 3 million;
  • Darin Dines is 1.4 million;
  • TasteSpotting is 54,000; and
  • Eater is 3,000.

Back to UCLA I go.

 

 

 

Filed Under: New York, Restaurants Tagged With: @eater, consuming la, darin dines, David Chang, estarla, food critics, food writing, momofuku, momofuku nishi, new york times, nyc, pete wells, restaurant critics, restaurants, tastespotting

Follow Me on Twitter

🍴Di Wagner 🍷Follow

🍴Di Wagner 🍷

Couldn’t have said it better myself!!!

Reply on Twitter 1379952788545839105Retweet on Twitter 1379952788545839105Like on Twitter 1379952788545839105Twitter 1379952788545839105

Traitors!!! Why Shake Shack vs In-N-Out?! Why do I sense it has something to do with 💲💲💲⁉️

Reply on Twitter 1379952103926341634Retweet on Twitter 1379952103926341634Like on Twitter 1379952103926341634Twitter 1379952103926341634

I like Shake Shack but it’s Dodgers Stadium!! Can’t we have an iconic Cali burger place there?! They should’ve picked In-N-Out!!

Reply on Twitter 1379951103496777728Retweet on Twitter 1379951103496777728Like on Twitter 13799511034967777281Twitter 1379951103496777728

It’s funny — before this salad I would’ve said I hated them. But this has turned me around! Thanks to @KatieLeeKitchen 😍

Reply on Twitter 1379635240914706432Retweet on Twitter 1379635240914706432Like on Twitter 13796352409147064321Twitter 1379635240914706432

Made TWO coconut banana cream pies today. Whipped cream ready. Tomorrow is gonna be a #DeathbedFood day!

Reply on Twitter 1379634809907994627Retweet on Twitter 1379634809907994627Like on Twitter 13796348099079946272Twitter 1379634809907994627
Load More...

Search

Tag Cloud

andrew zimmern Anthony Bourdain Baking barefoot contessa Beverly Hills Bon Appetit Bouchon Bakery chef jose andres chocolate Comfort Food cookbooks cooking DeathbedFood Deathbedfood cooks barefoot dessert Desserts documentaries farina kingsley food bloggers food events food humor foodies humor Ina garten Jonathan Gold jose andres LA LA Weekly Los Angeles los angeles restaurants news new york times ramon resa RAMON RISING ramon rising documentary recipe recipes restaurants rip anthony bourdain rip bourdain Thomas Keller travel channel Twitter video wine

Copyright © 2021 DeathbedFood® | Storytelling Through Food by Diane Wagner | diane@DeathbedFood.com | Twitter~Insta~Pinterest: @DeathbedFood | FB: @DeathbedFoodByDi