Describing Food in Writing
I love food. And drinks.
When I think of the HP series, I recall the feasts. Treacle tarts and
puddings. Butterbeer. Food trolley on the train and chocolate frogs in
the Gryffindor common room.
Foods helps readers engage with the story, so it's good to know how
to describe them.
Just one Adjective
There's really no need to go overboard with how a particular
food tastes. If it's something that your readers are already familiar with, just add in a small detail.
Are the breakfast eggs yellow or white, clumpy or fluffy? Salty or
bland? Grainy or silky?
Just one adjective/detail is enough.
Think of the Character
Take note of each character's palate while you describe. Especially if you're writing in 1st person POV.
Someone in your cast may be a culinary artist and another content
with spray cheese.
Food descriptions can reveal a lot about character's personality and lifestyle.
Watch Food Shows
Master Chef. The Great British Baking Show. Aesthetic character
baking channel on YouTube.
Food shows usually have a section where they assess/review the food made, which might be helpful.
Recently, I've noticed that 1-minute food reviewers on YT Shorts are pretty good at graphic yet succinct taste descriptions!
Ratatouille
I'm not kidding!
If you ever want to get into the mind of someone who is passionate about food, or need inspiration yourself - check this movie out.
Just watching Remy's passion and the magic of the culinary arts will boost your writer soul with inspiration (or something like it,
anyway).
Experience Restaurants
The best research of all is probably experience, so the next time you eat a meal, challenge your palate.
Think about how it looks, tastes, and feels in you mouth.
If possible, try dishes your characters would eat and discern what they would detect. What elements of the disk would your character like?
Some Food Adjectives
Tangy
Creamy
Crispy
Tender
Juicy
Exquisite
Luscious
Gourmet
Wholesome
Delectable
Risk
Zesty
Succulent
Crunchy
Greasy
Gooey
Tart
Smoky
Savory
Marinated
Meaty
Moist
Battered
Dainty
Homestyle
Fudgy
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Me : alright, time to sit down and write...
My brain : *silence*
Me : I said, 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙞𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚!!!
My brain : oh look a new video by your favourite yt channel!
Me : WHERE?!?!
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I keep seeing people making fun of using growled, hissed, roared, snarled etc in writing and it’s like.
have you never heard someone speak with the gravel in their voice when they get angry? Because that’s what a growl is.
Have you never heard someone sharply whisper something through the thin space of their teeth? Or when your mother sharply told you to stop it in public as a kid when you were acting up/being too loud? Because that’s what a hiss is.
Have you never heard a man get so blackout angry that their voice BOOMS through the house? Because that’s what a roar is.
Have you never seen someone bare their teeth while talking to accentuate their frustration or anger while speaking with a vicious tone? Because that’s what snarling is.
It’s not meant to be a literal animal noise. For the love of god, not every description is literal. I get some people are genuinely confused, but also some of these people are genuinely unimaginative as fuck.
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AO3 Comments are SO SO SOOOOOOO important because you can only leave Kudos ONCE. You add to the hit count ONCE (every 24 hours).
So whenever someone updates their fic, the ONLY way an author knows who their regular readers are is if they comment on each chapter. And we WANT to know who's still reading.
Believe it or not, some of us think about the name that pops up constantly in the comments and go "omg I can't wait to see what they think of THIS SPECIFIC SCENE cuz I KNOW they'll say something about it!!!"
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Hey! Are there blacksmiths in your story? I'm a hobbyist blacksmith and I'm here to help!
Blacksmithing is one of those things that a lot of people get wrong because they don't realize it stuck around past the advent of the assembly line. Here's a list of some common misconceptions I see and what to do instead!
Not all blacksmiths are gigantic terrifying muscly guys with beards and deep voices. I am 5'8, skinny as a twig, have the muscle mass of wet bread, and exist on Tumblr. Anybody who is strong enough to pick up a hammer and understands fire safety can be a blacksmith.
You can make more than just swords with blacksmithing. Though swords are undeniably practical, they're not the only things that can be made. I've made candle holders, wall hooks, kebab skewers, fire pokers, and more. Look up things other people have made, it's really amazing what can be done.
"Red-hot" is actually not that hot by blacksmith terms. when heated up, the metal goes from black, to red, to orange, to yellow, to white. (for temperature reference, I got a second degree burn from picking up a piece of metal on black heat) The ideal color to work with the metal is yellow. White is not ideal at all, because the metal starts sparking and gets all weird and lumpy when it cools. (At no point in this process does the metal get even close to melting. It gets soft enough to work with, but I have never once seen metal become a liquid.)
Blacksmithing takes fucking forever. Not even taking into account starting the forge, selecting and preparing metal, etc. etc. it takes me around an hour to make one (1) fancy skewer. The metals blacksmiths work with heat up and cool down incredibly fast. When the forge is going good, it only takes like 20 seconds to get your metal hot enough to work with, but it takes about the same time for it to cool down, sometimes even less.
As long as you are careful, it is actually stupidly easy to not get hurt while blacksmithing. When I picked up this hobby I was like "okay, cool! I'm gonna make stuff, and I'm gonna end up in the hospital at some point!" Thus far, the latter has yet to occur. I've been doing this for nearly a year. I have earned myself a new scar from the aforementioned second degree burn, and one singe mark on my jeans. I don't even wear gloves half the time. Literally just eye protection, common sense, and fast reflexes and you'll probably be fine. (Accidents still happen of course, but I have found adequate safety weirdly easy to achieve with this hobby)
A forge is not a fire. The forge is the thing blacksmiths put their metal in to heat it up. It starts as a small fire, usually with newspaper or something else that's relatively small and burns easily, which we then put in the forge itself, which is sort of a fireplace-esque thing (there's a lot of different types of forge, look into it and try to figure out what sort of forge would make the most sense for the context you're writing about) and we cover it with coal, which then catches fire and heats up. The forge gets really hot, and sometimes really bright. Sometimes when I stare at the forge for too long it's like staring into the sun. The forge is also not a waterfall of lava, Steven Universe. It doesn't work like that, Steven Universe.
Welding and blacksmithing are not the same thing. They often go hand-in-hand, but you cannot connected two pieces of metal with traditional blacksmithing alone. There is something called forge welding, where you heat your metal, sprinkle borax (or the in-universe equivalent) on it to prevent the metal from oxidizing/being non-weldable, and hammer the pieces together very quickly. Forge welding also sends sparks flying everywhere, and if you're working in a small space with other blacksmiths, you usually want to announce that you're welding before you do, so that everyone in a five-foot radius can get out of that five-foot radius. You also cannot just stuck some random pebbles into the forge and get a decent piece of metal that you can actually make something with, Steven Universe. It doesn't work like that, Steven Universe.
Anvils are really fucking heavy. Nothing else to add here.
Making jewelry is not a blacksmithing thing unless you want jewelry made of steel. And it will be very ugly if you try. Blacksmithing wasn't invented to make small things.
If there's anything here I didn't mention, just ask and I'll do my best to answer.
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