Creative Writing - Phase Ten

Herein, will be an overview of a few areas that are good to know, if you ever make the choice to challenge your career as a writer, or if this in fact the direction you want to travel. The basic skills that have been put here still apply and always will. It’s just that the style changes based on where you take your skill level.

… and so, we begin.

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Nonfiction:

Memoir, newspaper, and magazine articles, reviews of all types, diaries, journals, essays, both personal and critical, and travelogue; all fall under the umbrella of nonfiction.

What defines nonfiction as a genre? Some will say nonfiction is an inexact label put on a wide variety of writing one thing in common; it’s all based primarily on fact and real-life events.

With the recent popularity of memoir and personal essay moving beyond the boundaries of traditional nonfiction, a newer label was created: creative nonfiction. Some would say all writing is inherent to creativity. Faction is another label affixed to a new breed of nonfiction that uses narrative devices generally associated with fiction. In the end, good nonfiction borrows from all forms of writing, whether it is cadence and rhythm from poetry, interesting narrative structure common to fiction, or solid research inherent to all journalism. The best that can be done to simplify this is to break it down to three aspects of nonfiction.

Fact:

Something that can be shown to be true, or to have happened; or the circumstances of an event, motion, occurrence, a state of affairs rather than an interpretation of its importance.

Memory:

The knowledge or impression someone retains on a particular person, event, time period, or subject matter.

Reporting:

Using all the senses to describe a scene or situation, or event in clear and concise detail. Good reporting uses the five senses to create vivid images for your readers.

When it comes to nonfiction, never second guess your topic or subject. Research as much information as possible. If your intent would be to write a nonfiction book based on the life and times of James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, then you would study up on not only the character himself but read the history of how he came to be, which would be the writer himself and what made him decide to create Kirk to begin with.

In your research, you may learn small, yet important details not commonly known or known at all by the public. Make certain you get dates and times correct. If possible, get interviews with people on the subject you write. The best information is right from the horse’s mouth in many cases.

The key though is one word with any nonfiction write (and this includes everything in this section): research, research, research.

Many of the basic tools given throughout here, can still be applied.

Autobiography:

An autobiography is an account of someone’s life as told by that person. While many published autobiographies chronicle the lives of famous or historical people, you don’t have to be famous to write one. Sometimes it can be useful for individuals to document their own lives for clarity, or perhaps to give themselves closure on an incident or just see where they have been, where they are going or want to go with their lives.

Autobiographies often follow a timeline from childhood to current time, and include anecdotes, background profiles of family and friends, education, former work places, acquaintances, and it also tells of any accomplishments, triumphs, challenges, ordeal, as well as failures.

A good place to start, especially if you want to break in as a nonfiction author, start with someone local in your area that has done something amazing you think the world should know. Perhaps this person may have been an unsung hero who gave his life for the greater good of others. You see more than just a story, but a complex series of events that brought that person to the forefront, and you want the world to know.

Now this part I will get into later, but how do you get it published? Query letters. Feelers to publishers/editors who strictly work with nonfiction. Submit an outline. Don’t be concerned if you send a hundred letters and get a “NO!” It happens. But someone will buy into your idea. Yet here is the bigger thing. Continue writing the story no matter how many rejections you get. If you believe in what you are putting together and believe in yourself to tell the story the way it needs to be told and read, that is 90% of the battle right there.

(So as not to dwell on the subject … the biography is an account of a person’s life written by someone else. Research is still required and more so as at times you won’t have direct consent to write this. Often, permission is given—other times it is not. It’s a tricky slope without permission is all I will say.)

Here are two very good nonfiction books of autobiographies.

Fredrick Douglas—Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass

Published September 4, 2004 and first published in 1845 - Frederick Douglass was born a slave in 1817, but he never stopped dreaming of his freedom. How did he use education to get his freedom?

Jeannette Walls—The Glass Castle

Published January 17, 2006 – This is a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that, despite its profound flaws, gave the author the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms. I will say here that when I read this account I was practically left speechless by its contents.

Memoir:

Many people have a hard time differentiating between autobiography and memoir. Both forms are in fact personal accounts of a person’s life as told by that person. The main difference lies in focus.

While an autobiography sets its sights on the broad details of a person’s life, memoirs tend to be more intimate. Here, I am sure the ladies will agree that their teenage diary (memoir), was a sacred book not meant for anyone’s eyes but their own. If anyone else read it, it would feel like a personal violation to them.

The focus in a memoir is the author’s memories about a particular time, specific event, that could prove a turning point in life.

If you haven’t, I recommend two books to read, which both will give you a strong sense of how a memoir should be. Both are excellent examples.

V.S. Pritchett—A Cab at the Door

A Cab at the Door, originally published in 1968, recalls his childhood in turn-of-the-century and World War I London with the urbane subtlety and wry humor that have marked his other works. For the wild and eccentric Pritchett family, life is a series of cabs waiting at the door to transport them to a succession of ten-bob-a-week lodgings, in their flight from creditors and the financial disasters of their father. It also captures the texture and color of the working-class side of Edwardian England. Midnight Oil (which Wilfrid Sheed called a ‘little Rolls Royce of a book’ when it came out in 1972) opens in 1921: with L20 in his pocket, Pritchett arrives in Paris to commence a literary career. Gradually, his creative sensibilities emerge as he travels as a reporter to Ireland, Spain, and America. Midnight Oil provides an intimate and precise record of a writer’s discovery of himself and his art.

Maxine Hong Kingston—The Woman Warrior

Published April 23rd, 1989 by Vintage Books (first published in 1975). A Chinese American woman tells of the Chinese myths, family stories and events of her California childhood that have shaped her identity. It is a sensitive account of growing up female and Chinese-American in a California laundry.

Finally: Criticisms and Reviews:

Formal criticism includes subjective or opinionated responses to certain events, or bodies of work using rumination, comparison, and examination. Topics can include but are not limited to novels, art, other writing, movies, music, theater, events, festivals, and food—just about anything someone could have an opinion on.

Step One: Decide What to Look At

The first thing you need to do before you start your review is decide what aspects of the item you are going to evaluate. What I mean is this: what is it that can be good or bad about something you’re going to review? An example: when you’re watching a movie, you can look at the acting, the special effects, the camera work, or the story, among other things. Those are all items you can examine and decide if they are well or poorly done. With a book, you can look at the plot, the characters, and the way that the author puts words together. With a restaurant, you can look at the food, the service, and the setting. In fact, everything has qualities you can analyze and evaluate; you just need to sit down and figure out what they are.

Step Two: Decide What Makes Things Good or Bad

Before you can decide whether something is good or bad, you must figure out what you mean by “good” and “bad.” Do you like stories/books/films that have a lot of action or a lot of character development? Do you like acting that’s realistic or acting that’s wild and nutty? Do you like authors to use a lot of complicated words, or very simple words? You decide. Whatever you like, apply those standards to the thing you are reviewing.

How to do it

It is now time to start putting your write together. Here is a simple format you can follow:

Open with an introduction paragraph that does the following things:

Catch the reader’s attention, and identify the things you’ll be reviewing (e.g., the title of the book or movie); identifies the author, star, or director, if appropriate.

Write a full paragraph about each of the aspects you want to examine, making sure each paragraph does these things:

Open with topic sentences that says what the paragraph is about and has several detail sentences that prove the point you are trying to make.

Use quotes or examples from the book or movie, if possible, to help prove your point.

End with a conclusion paragraph that does the following:

Briefly restates the main ideas of the review and makes a judgment about the book or movie or whatever, saying whether it is good or bad (some reviewers give ratings, like four stars or two thumbs up), recommend that the reader go to the movie or read the book or buy a meal at the restaurant (or not, if it is no good). Here are additional explanations.

Read, watch, or listen to the work more than once. The first time you read or watch something, get an overall sense of the work. Then think about its strengths and weaknesses. Read or watch it again to confirm your first impressions. This time, take careful notes. Be ready to change your mind if a closer look sends you in a different direction.

Provide essential information

Tell readers the complete title of the work and the name of its author or creator. Supply the publisher, publication date, and other information about when the piece was created and where readers or viewers can find it. Check your facts. The details in a review must be accurate.

Understand your audience

Reviews appear in all sorts of places. You’ll find them in local and national publications, online, and in specialized journals and neighborhood newsletters. Research the places you hope to publish your review and write accordingly. Think about what you need to explain. General readers will need more background information than readers of a publication aimed at experts.

Take a stand

State your opinion of the work you’re evaluating. Your review can be negative, positive, or mixed. Your job is to support that opinion with details and evidence. Even if readers disagree with you, they need to see how you reached your conclusions.

Explain how you’re judging the work

Decide on your criteria, the standards you’ll use to judge the book, show, or film. You might believe a novel is successful when it has characters you care about and a plot that makes you want to keep reading. State these criteria so your readers understand what you believe.

Introduce evidence to support your criteria

Support your judgments with quotations or descriptions of scenes from the work. Also consult outside sources. Have other critics agreed with your opinion of this work? You may want to mention these reviews, too. Always make sure to cite another writer’s work correctly, if used.

Know the conventions of the genre

Every type of writing or art has specific elements. A mystery has to have suspense, while a romance must have characters you believe would be attracted to one another. Consider theme, structure, characters, setting, dialogue, and other relevant factors. Understand these conventions and take them into account as part of your criteria.

Compare and contrast

Comparison can be a great way to develop your evaluation. Suppose you claim that a film has wonderful, original dialogue. Demonstrate this by sharing some dialogue from another film that has stiff, wooden, or clichéd dialogue. Use the contrast to prove your point.

Do not summarize the entire plot

Books, films, and television shows have beginnings, middles, and endings. People read and watch these works in part because they want to know what happens. Let them enjoy their stories. Provide a general idea of what happens, but don’t give away important secrets, especially the end.

Next time, we will delve into film and broadway screenplays, an entirely different form of writing.