Tips for writing nonfiction, from eating steak to visiting an Ampatuan mansion

Your every meal is documented on Instagram, and your blog is filled with restaurant reviews. Eating for a living sounds like a dream job, but before you set out to become a food writer, consider some advice from a pro.

Like other forms of creative nonfiction, there's more to writing about food than simply going to a restaurant and writing about it after.

For freelance writer Yvette Tan, a simple wish and a bit of luck led to her getting paid to eat.

"I just thought, 'Hey I write for a living, I want to write about food and get paid to eat.' I was lucky enough to find someone who could introduce me to people to make that happen," she shared at the Freelance Writers Guild of the Philippines OpenBook Forum, "Truth Hurts, and Other Lies of Nonfiction."

Although it sounds easy, the reason Tan was able to grab the opportunity when it came was that she was prepared in the first place. "Before that, I was reading a lot of food and travel articles," she said.

Read a lot — and rein it in

One of Tan's rules when writing about food is avoiding cliches. "If I see another article or blog that says something is 'to die for,' I'm going to kill someone, honestly," said Tan, who also discouraged the use of "in words," such as mouthfeel.

Although there are exceptions, Tan said the best way to write is to use simple words, so that the audience can focus on enjoying without having to reach for a dictionary. Although food writing is creative writing, Tan said one should not go overboard when waxing poetic.

"The feel of the pulp in my mouth... it's so velvety — none of that. You want to entertain your audience but you don't want to entertain them in that way," Tan said, adding that the point is to make the reader feel what it's like to eat.

"You want them to read your piece and be hungry, and hate you because you made them hungry," she said. Instead of simply saying a dish is good or bad, Tan said the writer must tell the audience why. "Why is this piece of steak good? Was it marbled, do you like grain fed over grass fed... there are many things to draw from," she said.

Tan said the most important thing is to have fun. "If you don't like what you're writing about, it comes across even to the most inexperienced reader," she said. On the other hand, a bad experience can also make a great story. "Sometimes it can be even more interesting," she said.

The rules are similar for travel writing. One should begin by reading widely, as this is how one can learn how to structure an article. Tan noted that reading helps one discover what kind of travel writing one wants to do, whether it's guidebook style writing, or the more literary personal essays.

In both cases, cliches are unacceptable. "There's a dictionary. Use different words to say something. Don't fall back on hack words," said Tan, who shared that seeing words like "verdant" and "azure" makes her want to stab herself.

Travel writers should also avoid exoticizing and sentimentalizing. "Don't put too much of yourself inside. Leave room for your experience of the place, for the place itself... you want the reader to read it and go with you through the experience," she said.

Still, one should be creative with language, and write as if they were constructing a short story. "That's what works all the time. When there's a nonfiction piece constructed like a fiction piece, it draws the readers in," Tan said.

Enjoy the adventure

The same technique applies in literary journalism, where one can tell the stories that aren't found in the usual news articles. “It's usually three to five thousand words, because this is the kind of space that you need to work in. You don't see this in a 300-word news story,” author and journalist Karl De Mesa said.

He shared that by the year 2000, he was bored with writing straight features. After a frustrating interview with a pop balladeer, who kept him waiting for five hours only to give him stock answers, De Mesa realized he would be better off writing literary journalism.

"It was really a learning moment for me. I was going on what I initially wanted from my profession which is going on an adventure," said De Mesa, who in 2009 tried to knock on the door of an Ampatuan mansion.

De Mesa shared that in literary journalism, immersion is key. "You try to do what they're doing, and you try to experience it as safely as you can," he said.

No topics are off-limits, De Mesa shared. "There's no such thing as a boring life if you cover it with enough compassion and kindness," he said.

Write what you know

When it comes to creative nonfiction, even your own life can be fodder for writing. In his books, Carljoe Javier explores his experiences as well as his various identities — from the geek persona in "In the Geek Shall Inherit the Earth," to the post-breakup man in "The Kobayashi Maru of Love," and the multiple roles in "Writing 30."

"With each essay and each book I attempt to capture myself in a specific moment. Each project attempts to be different. But each is an attempt to encapsulate me in the moment of writing," said Javier, admitting that such projects make the genre seem self-absorbed.

However, Javier notes that there is a bigger goal — to tell a larger story, connect with deeper themes, and tap into a deeper truth about our lives in general. In order to do this, the writer must keep a certain distance from the subject, even when it is the writer himself. Javier stressed the importance of going beyond one's self, and aiming to connect with strangers. To do this, he said it helps to think that one will be a stranger to one's self in the future.

"If I treat even myself as a stranger, scrutinizing, wondering, asking, engaging, then I develop a habit of thinking that is concerned with connecting to people beyond me. In writing for the multitudes of me, I hope that I am able to connect with many other multitudes," Javier said.

After writing, the next step is getting published. According to Javier, writers often take so long to come out with their work because they "keep waiting for the right time." There is no such thing as a perfect work, said Javier, who believes he must let things go.

"One of my philosophies in creating literary work has been that I must publish. Whether that means finding a major publisher, submitting to formal venues, or going indie, as I have also often done, I demand that I get my work out there," said Javier.

According to Tan, getting published is actually easy. "There are so many people looking for good writers, but it's very very hard to find good writers," said Tan, encouraging writers to treat blogs as an online portfolio.

"A potential employer can go to a blog and see your writing," she said, adding that aspiring writers should not hesitate to pitch ideas. "Send them a sample. Tell them that you want to write for them. If they like your writing, they'll hire you," she said. — BM, GMA News

Yvette Tan, Karl De Mesa and Carljoe Javier are regular contributors to GMA News Online.