racoma.netI love to write. I write to live. I live to love.

My family is fond of watching cooking shows on the Food Network. Oftentimes, our favorite ones are those featuring Giada di Laurentiis. For some reason, whenever she cooks, prepares or even eats food on her shows, it’s not only the visual and auditory senses that get stimulated. But you feel as if you’re actually smelling and tasting the food as it is prepared.

And oftentimes, we end up very hungry after watching those shows, even right after dinner.

What is it with watching a good cooking show that makes your mouth water? It’s not with all cooking shows that I feel like this. In fact, with some hosts, I end up either bored or overwhelmed and end up not appreciating the food. Is it the cuisine? Is it the ingredients used? Is it the preparation?

In most cases, it’s in the presentation and the charisma of the hosts that make me want to just stick my hand into the TV screen and grab food right off of the TV show. Watch a boring cooking show, and it’s all mechanical. It’s just a mix and match of ingredients, and nothing exciting. But if you see that the presenter is really into it, and you see how he or she expresses love for the art and craft of preparing food, then you get hooked.

For instance, I love it how Wolfgang Puck talks like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Dr. Doofenschmirtz, and his loopy sense of humor. And I love it how Giada di Laurentiis seems to really enjoy her food, and how she reminisces about food from her childhood in Italy.

It’s the same with blogging and writing. You probably have one or two favorite writers. It’s not only with the material they write, but how they write it. Or sometimes, it’s with how they present it, or their reputation in the public eye, or the things they choose to write about.

It’s like reading a really good book. You not only digest the story and the plot, but you get so much immersed in the setting that you feel like you’re actually one of the characters. In some cases, this involves not only the exposition on the book itself, but it can be influenced by the universe that the author has created around his works. It involves previous knowledge about a particular universe, and if you’re not really into it, you might not necessarily enjoy a piece of work. You can’t read The Two Towers without first being familiarized with Middle Earth. You probably won’t enjoy any of the Harry Potter movies without at least knowing some background about the life and times of its characters.

Sometimes when we write, we’re afraid to put out our personality, for fear of public critique. This results in bland writing. When you publish a blog behind a mask of anonymity–whether you blog as yourself or under a pseudonym–readers take it like eating bland, flavorless food. It’s this personality that enriches exposition. It’s the atmosphere you create around your content that adds to the exposition.

When you have a show about food, make sure that you really enjoy the food, and that this enjoyment is felt by your viewers. When you write, put yourself inside the universe you are writing about. That way, how you feel is translated into written word. And it helps readers feel that way, too.

Are you hungry?

Image source: flickr/spisharam