How to Write Non-Fiction: Elements of fiction in non-fiction
Yes, you’re writing non-fiction, but there are techniques you can borrow from fiction writers that will bring your book alive.
People are interested in people
Great fiction is all about character, because people are interested in people.
You are the main character in your non-fiction book, so you need to include personal aspects of your journey that will enable readers to get a sense of your emotional story behind the facts.
Obviously, you’re not going to make anything up because this is non-fiction, but you can dramatise your writing by ‘showing, not telling,’ as I did in Part 1. I wrote about my decision in Bali as if it were happening, rather than just telling you the result. An anecdote like this one brings life to the book and anchors the meaning of a chapter in a personal story.
If you conduct interviews for research, you can also use dialogue or reported speech to bring aspects of the book alive, as I have done throughout with excerpts from podcast interviews. Steven Pressfield also talked about doing this for The Lion’s Gate as he described in an interview on The Creative Penn Podcast,
In non-fiction, you have to go by the rules of storytelling. The book was narrative non-fiction. I put it together, as an artist would put it together, and moved one interview here and one interview there, and cut this and cut that, to tell a whole story with recurring characters.
Use a narrative arc
The arc of a story takes a character from where they are at the beginning through the trials and tribulations of what opposes their goal, to an ending where they either triumph or fail. The character is transformed by the experience, and there is a clear arc from where they started to where they end up.
Your book can take the reader on that same arc if they follow the path you have set before them.
This book has an inherent arc. The reader (you) starts with wanting to write a non-fiction book and — if you put the steps into practice — can finish with holding your published book in your hands.
If you’re writing a memoir, the arc is the emotional and perhaps physical transformation of the character, the writer, but is also about the reader going through a similar journey inside.
Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found by Cheryl Strayed is the perfect example. While the vast majority of the millions who loved the book will never walk the Pacific Crest Trail, they identify with the emotional heart of the book, which is about finding yourself when life is difficult. The subtitle, From Lost to Found, signals the arc, so the reader knows what the transformation will be.
Open loops
If you ask a question early in the book, don’t answer it immediately.
Keep an open loop in the reader’s mind, so they want to read on.
Diet books do this all the time. They have an enticing title and the promise of weight loss and health at the beginning and then spend the first part of the book outlining all the problems you might have, and usually the transformation of the author, before finally giving you the key to success at the end.
Use specific details
“The truth of writing is the more specific we are, the more universal our experience becomes.”
—Rachael Herron, author of Fast Draft Your Memoir on The Creative Penn Podcast
If you want your writing to be effective, you need to control what happens in the reader’s head. One way of doing this is to use specific details as opposed to generalities.
In The Healthy Writer, I tell a personal story about my experience of headache and migraine, using specific details about the sounds, sights, and physical sensations of pain.
Two bars of steel bore through my eyes and the surface of my eyeballs expand from pressure. Pixels split into too much detail, and everything is magnified and in capitals. Sound is amplified to a roar made up of billions of tiny noises all crowding for attention.
Breathing sounds like a deafening waterfall, a footfall is a crash, music a thudding cacophony. There’s buzzing in my ears, an insect trying to get out or blood knocking on my brain. My vision narrows as a mask, pink and orange patches dancing on the walls.
Hopefully, you will agree this is more specific than saying, “I had a bad headache.”
You can also be specific around settings or locations for your story, as I did with sensory detail in my Bali story in chapter 1.12.
* * *
If you’re bored with your book, the reader will be too, so use some of these techniques to bring your book alive. If you need any more fiction tips, check out my book How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book.
Questions:
• What elements of fiction could you use to make your book more engaging?
• Where does your reader start? Where do you want them to end up? What is the transformation they will achieve through your book?
Resources:
• The Lion’s Gate, Fighting Resistance and Mental Toughness for Writers With Steven Pressfield: www.TheCreativePenn.com/pressfield1
• How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book — Joanna Penn
• How to Fast Draft Your Memoir with Rachael Herron, The Creative Penn Podcast — www.TheCreativePenn.com/fastdraft
