Writers’ Rough Drafts – Episode #61 With Cathy Erway

Or listen on: iTunes| Stitcher| Spotify| Google Play| Download

Cathy Erway is an award-winning writer and blogger, author, and radio host. Starting in 2006, she faced the same dilemma many other New Yorkers have faced—how do I afford to eat in this city while living in this city? For two years, she blogged her recipes, experiments, and experiences on her blog “Not Eating Out in New York.” Eventually, she wrote her first book about the experience, The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove. 

Continuing to write about food and culture, she’s picked up bylines in publications like Eater, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Grub Street, and TASTE magazine—the latter of which published her James Beard award-winning piece “The Subtle Thrills of Cold Chicken Salad.” Wanting to merge her love for culture and her love for food more, she explored her family’s cooking heritage and published the book The Food of Taiwan: Recipes from the Beautiful Island, cheekily marketing it with the phrase “It’s not just about bubble tea.” 

When she’s not experimenting in the kitchen or pouring thoughts and ideas into words on her laptop, Cathy hosts the radio show “Eat Your Words” on Heritage Radio Network and the podcast “Self Evident” in partnership with the New York Media Center. She also co-founded the regular supper club at the Hapa Kitchen, so we know she eats out at least a little more regularly these days!

Continue reading

“Milk Drinkers Are Turning to Powder”: How To Avoid Ambiguity in Your Writing

Miners refuse to work after death.

Squad helps dog bite victim.

Iraqi head seeks arms.

As the article headline and the sentences above indicate, ambiguity in writing—a sentence that can have multiple meanings—can have a thoroughly humorous effect.

If you write comedy, or if you try to come up with a cheeky headline for your article, then ambiguity in writing is your friend. But ambiguity isn’t just about headlines and comedy.

To name a few examples, if you’re a blogger tackling a social issue, if you’re a journalist covering important events, or if you’re a nonfiction author preparing a book on climate change, you would want to avoid ambiguity in your writing. Inadvertent ambiguity can harm your text, by having a humorous effect that can be thoroughly destabilizing in an otherwise factual narrative.

Continue reading

Writers’ Rough Drafts – Episode #60 With Jeff Trammell

Or listen on: iTunes| Stitcher| Spotify| Google Play| Download

Jeff Trammell is an animation staff writer, story editor, and voiceover actor. As a writer for the Nickelodeon Writing Program, he was one of four participants selected from over 2,000 applicants. During his time there, he worked in writers’ rooms and on the content staff for shows like the “Breaking Drafts” YouTube series, Glitch Techs, and Harvey Beaks. He moved on to the Cartoon Network after his time with the program ended, first as a staff writer for the animated program Craig of the Creek, and eventually as a head writer and story editor of the show. 

A former student with the Upright Citizens Brigade improv comedy troupe and Sketch Comedy Writing class, he has been nominated for an Annie Award from the International Animated Film Association for Outstanding Writing in a Television, Broadcast, or Video Game.

Continue reading

One Way To Abandon Your 9-to-5 Job and Become a Full-Time Writer

Some writers discover their calling early in life; others might be late bloomers. There is no universal right or wrong, but understanding (and adapting to) your individual circumstances can be pivotal in evolving as a writer.

I knew what I wanted to do for some time; right from the beginning of my early 20s (I’m 31 now), and that was to write!

Balancing my full-time, 9-to-5 office job with writing drafts, practicing, and pitching to local editors in the evenings (until the early hours of the morning) was admittedly a tough grind—and it took some getting used to. 

But, hey, that was OK with me. I was prepared to walk that extra mile on glass barefooted to get there. 

I wanted to become a writer, full time; desperately. And in the process, I wanted to leave that dreadful 9-to-5 admin job in a puff of dust behind me. Five long years. It just wasn’t me, that job. I was better than that. 

“Make your own pissing cup of coffee; answer your own friggin’ telephones, and post your own God darned letters,” I’d think to myself, often. 

Continue reading