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Essential Reading for Nonfiction Writers
So you got an Amazon gift card for the holidays. Lucky you! You know what you should do? Beef up your writer’s library with these five essentials—my favorite books on writing for nonfiction writers. These are the volumes I find myself reaching for time and again because their advice is invaluable or their examples of the craft exquisite:
- On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. I’ve mentioned this one before, but it’s always worth a repeat just in case you’re a nonfiction writer who doesn’t yet own this fundamental. King’s part-memoir/part-tutorial is my favorite book on writing and the only one that I recommend my writing students purchase. He weaves his personal story from struggling to successful writer together with clear nuts and bolts advice about the process, including reading lists, writing exercises, and advice about plotting, revising, and creating a writing practice to get the work done. You’ll be crossing out all your adverbs after reading this book, and your readers will thank you.
- The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr. Mary Karr arguably launched the modern memoir movement with her bestselling book The Liar’s Club in 1995, which delved into her difficult childhood with clarity and humor. She’s written two other memoirs since: Cherry, which followed her into young adulthood, and Lit: A Memoir (P.S.), which covered her alcoholism and sobriety. In The Art of Memoir, she brings her expertise as a writing professor to the table, analyzing excerpts from her favorite memoirs as she imparts lessons about the craft. A must read for any writer of memoir and personal essays.
- The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi. Show don’t tell! Show don’t tell! Writing teachers won’t shut up about showing—rather than telling—your readers about your emotional inner life and that of your characters. In The Emotion Thesaurus, the authors highlight 75 emotional states—from anger to pride to worry—and list out verbal and nonverbal ways that your characters can communicate these feelings in lieu of just saying, for example, “I’m sad.” Need help showing instead of telling in other areas of your writing? Ackerman and Puglisi have developed a series of writing thesauruses to assist you whether you are writing setting descriptions or developing character traits.
- On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinssner. The late journalist William Zinsser’s guide to writing nonfiction may be several decades old, but it’s far from stale. The author, who was beloved by his students, offers tips of the trade to help you develop your voice, write leads, and nail down the rules of usage and style whether you are writing about people, places, or yourself.
- True Stories, Well Told: From the First 20 Years of Creative Nonfiction Magazine by Lee Gutkind & Hattie Fletcher, editors. Creative Nonfiction is the largest literary magazine dedicated exclusively to publishing high quality nonfiction prose. True Stories, Well Told, a collection of the best essays from the magazine’s first twenty years, gives you a front row seat in a master class on the craft of writing nonfiction, especially first person essays. Because to be a better writer, you need to first be a voracious reader.
Happy holidays! Read. Write. Improve your craft.
Who’s on fourth
This month we invite you to learn more about yeah write’s very own executive editor, Stacie Dalrymple! The interview will publish Monday at 12pm ET, but in the meantime, head over to her page and catch up on all of her awesomeness.
Yeah write super challenge
The yeah write super challenge #2 may be over and done with, but stay tuned for news for the next one coming in early 2017! Make sure you sign up for our email blast so you don’t miss out on any announcements regarding super challenge #3.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Nonfiction know-how:
class is in session
What do you remember from learning to write in school? Did you have a particular teacher who made writing interesting? Did you read a story or article and think “oh, I wish I could write like that?” We get so used to the structured learning in school that sometimes when we’re out on our own in the Real World we’re not sure how to continue – or even begin – the learning process. That’s what this month’s nonfiction know-how is about: finding the master class that’s happening all around you.
[Ed’s note: (legal stuff) yeah write is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. (not legal stuff) That means that if besides reading my obviously great advice you were thinking about buying one of the books Cindy recommended, doing it through our link will help support all the content we bring you, too, like the nonfiction knowhow! /RBG]
Want more info?
Is this your first time here? Check out Sunday’s post which kicked off the week here at yeah write. Our email subscribers can also join us in the yeah write coffeehouse at its home on Facebook. If you’ve never taken the time to read them, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with our submission guidelines. The rules are a little different for each of our challenges and we’d hate to have to send back great writing on a technicality.
Did you happen to end up here because you suddenly saw yeah write in your stats? Sometimes members of our community spot excellent writing and they send those posts on over to us. We hope you don’t mind. Take a look around and get to know our community. We’re sure you’ll be happy here.
Have questions you can’t find the answer to by poking around the site? Email us or find us on Facebook and Twitter and we’ll happily help you out.
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How to submit and fully participate in the challenge
Basic yeah write guidelines: 1000 word limit; your entry can be dated no earlier than this past Sunday; nonfiction personal essay, creative opinion piece or mostly true story based on actual events.
1. In the sidebar of this week’s post, please grab the code beneath the nonfiction badge and paste it into the HTML view of your entry
2. Follow the Inlinkz instructions after clicking “add your link” to upload your entry to this week’s challenge grid
3. Your entry should appear immediately on the grid if you don’t receive an error message
4. Please make the rounds to read all the entries in this week’s challenge
5. Consider turning off moderated comments and CAPTCHA on your own blog
Submissions for this week’s challenges will close on Wednesday at 10pm ET. Voting will then open immediately thereafter and close on Thursday at 10pm ET. The winners, as always, will be celebrated on Friday.
Thank you for sharing with us your hard work! Good luck in the challenge…[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
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