On Writing Nonfiction Novels & Stories

I started writing at midnight. I told myself it was not for filing. I needed to see the story clearly. There is a difference between raw evidence and a real story that people can understand, I had done this before with other investigations. You put it all together in sentences to feel its true shape, the writing helps you know what you really have. That is what I told myself. I opened a blank document. The words came fast. When a story is truly complete, it almost writes itself. I had carried these pieces for so long, in bits and pieces inside that boring folder, that once I started they flowed with their own energy. The opening lines came in two clean sentences, the structure fell into plac

Indeed, Daisy has my type of spirit. "Do you have an editor?" "She will make use of my editor, Larry", I remarked. "That's great." "What is your book setting? Fictional?" Mr. Gonzalez demanded. "Non-fiction." "Did you carry out any research work or questionnaire survey before you commenced the book?" "No, I didn't. The inspiration comes naturally." I could see she was surprised at the question. "Ok, then. Here is the company's email", he pushed a tiny paper towards Daisy who was sitting across from him. "Send us an email as soon as you are done and prepare your manuscript after your editor must have gone through it."

He was old school if he read a wide variety of the comics that inspired them. “That’s really cool,” she told him honestly. He smiled. “Not as cool as reading nonfiction for fun. That’s seriously impressive. I never read nonfiction unless it was for school.” “Fiction and nonfiction both have their places in terms of entertainment and how informative they are. I feel like fiction does a better job of overall explaining the human condition and how people tick than nonfiction does because of the variety of characters’ emotions and motivations.” “That makes sense. I suppose there are psychology textbooks but those are clinical and often use terms laypeople can’t understand.”

"Faster than most people. I usually finish a book in a day if I have time." He leaned back in his chair. "What do you read?" "Everything. History. Narrative nonfiction. Novels, if they're good." I paused. "Business writing, sometimes. If it's actually about ideas and not just someone padding a magazine article into a book." Something shifted in his expression. "Which business writers?" "Depends on what I'm reading about." I kept my voice even. "Industry-specific stuff is usually better in journal form than book form. Too much gets lost in the translation to general audience."

Ernest wrote in the journal that evening, after Don had gone to the kitchen garden for the late-afternoon walk that had become his habit in the thirteenth year: Don has begun the ground-knowledge book. The form is the narrative — the doing to the knowing, the inside account's form. The argument and the form are the same thing. He is writing in the study with a different rhythm than the essay writing. The narrative carries its own forward motion. The pauses are the catching-up rather than the finding. This is also what the journal is. The doing recorded, the understanding arriving in the recording. The form that has been here for thirteen years is the form the next book needs.

Of course, this doesn’t mean there’s no use for the rules, it simply means fiction writers need not follow every one of these rules to the exact letter. Note that these rules for novel writing can apply to other forms of fiction, like a short story or screenplay. They aren’t even limited to fiction books: An engaging nonfiction book can be written under many of the same principles. If you keep these writing tips in mind before you start writing, you can maintain your own style and your own point of view while simultaneously employing the discipline every writer needs to successfully complete a work of fiction.

As I put the cup down on the table, I power up my computer and start making concepts. Two hours later, I find myself writing page fifty-four. It is not much, and it is far from finished but it’s progress. Even though I am writing a non-fiction book, where you do not have to use your imagination as much, you still have to be creative about how your story takes shape in the way you assemble the words. Writing is an art and it shouldn’t feel like a chore, so it’s enough for the day. I save the file and shut down my computer.

She thinks about the third book. Not the content — she does not yet have the content, only the argument sentence that has been forming since Beatriz asked the question three years ago. The form. What kind of book can say: the first life is not a mistake, it is the research, without saying: and here is how I know, from personal experience, that this is structurally true in a way that the argument alone does not account for. The form is not memoir. She knows this. Memoir requires the specific named, and the specific is hers and will remain hers. The form is something else — the argument wearing the clothes of the life without the life being exposed. The evidence without the exposure.

I sat with the message for two hours before I told anyone. Not because I was unsure if I could write it. Because I wasn’t sure I wanted to write it like that. Melinda’s POV When River showed me the email, I expected celebration. But they were quiet. Leaning on the kitchen counter, staring at the screen. “This is a good thing,” I said softly. “I know,” they replied. “I just… I don’t know if I want it to be nonfiction.” That made me pause. “You want to fictionalize it?”

“Of course not. It’s just a house . . . my house, as you said.” “I can’t believe it. You’re Mr. Horror, and you don’t believe in ghosts? How is that even possible?” “Okay, Bias, I’m going to blow your mind with one hell of a revelation about writers and their stories. I’m pretty sure Lewis Carroll never fell down a rabbit hole into a magical Wonderland; it doesn’t seem likely that Anne Rice believes in vampires; and I highly doubt J.K. Rowling has met any real wizards. That’s what makes it fiction and not nonfiction.”