Let's Talk about the Art & Craft of Creative Nonfiction
January is Art & Craft Month at the Writers Chatroom. This Sunday we are going to talk about the Art & Craft of Creative
Nonfiction.
Let talk about what Creative Nonfiction is and some of the techniques are used to create
it.
I have just finished two novels that really messed with my head. So, I thought I’d change things up and try on some Nonfiction for a change of pace. I am glad I
did.
Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author who writes The Atlantic’s weekly “Dear Therapist” advice column. A contributing editor at
The Atlantic, she also writes regularly for The New York Times, and has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, CNN, and NPR. Learn more at LoriGottlieb.com or by following her @LoriGottlieb1 on Twitter.
I am enjoying the way she disguises her clients by melding some together, the way she shows us how each client changes her, what she learns, what she does with it.
Some of the chapters break my heart and at the same time Miss Gottlieb gathers my pieces and puts me back together again. Maybe, with a leftover piece I no longer need beside the candy dish on the end table.
She is both a novelist and a memoir writer. A researcher. When she isn’t writing I am sure she is as interesting in her own kitchen as she is sharing a session
between herself and her therapist.
What exactly is Creative Nonfiction?
In some ways, creative nonfiction is like jazz—it’s a rich mix of flavors, ideas, and techniques, some of which are newly
invented and others as old as writing itself. Creative nonfiction can be an essay, a journal article, a research paper, a memoir, or a poem; it can be personal or not, or it can be all of these.
We are going to take a deep look at the Art & Craft of Novel Writing, this month.
From my notes –
“Storytelling is an elaborate form of lying. Both “fiction” and “story” are euphemisms for lies.”
“A storyteller uses every device at his command to instill in his fiction the verisimilitude that convinces the reader.”
“The art of fiction does not begin until the novelist thinks of his story as a matter to be shown, to be so exhibited that it will tell
itself.”
The Craft of Fiction - Percy Lubbock
In fiction what is not rendered, dramatized, is merely reported.
What is rendered will spring to life off the page and capture the reader’s emotions. What is merely stated, reported, told, is inert, dead
matter.
In other words, if you aren’t bringing the ‘art’ to your reader, making your reader, feel, believe in and be moved by your
story, you are simply reporting secondhand news.
Gather with us on Sunday at 7PM EST at the Writer’s Chatroom. We can practice telling lies.
To be effective, goals should meet three criteria: They should be measurable, meaningful, and attainable.
A wise writing strategy includes a mix of short-term goals and long-term goals.
Long-term goals help you determine where you’re going, short-term goals help you decide how to get there.
The most delightful thing about goals: You can change them. They are not graven in stone. They are not chains, meant to lock you into some sort of writer’s bondage.
Till Next Year Everyone at the Writer’s Chatroom Wishes all of you a Saner, Happier, More Productive and Healthy 2021
There is more to writing than opening a word processor. Much of the activity in meeting a writing goal goes on backstage.
When you are drafting your 2021 Writing Goals you should include some very important background tasks and remember to give them the time they deserve to make your goal succeed.
You may not do all of the things found on the Things to Consider List and you may have your own suggestions of inclusion.
You don’t have to spend mass quantities of time on each, some of them have the potential to become a writer’s biggest Time Sucks.
Recipe for Planning
Among the things you may want to consider as you work toward your goals include:
Social Media
Blogging
Maintaining a Website
a Submission Plan
Future Blog and Book Signing Appearances
Query Letters
Agent Searches
Scouting your Potential Audience
Developing Contacts for things like Formatting, Cover Art and Editing
Five Mistakes Writers Make When Setting Their Writing Goals
Management Review introduced the concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals — objectives that are Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time-based. The theory? People
are more likely to achieve goals that are “smart” versus goals that are vague and undefined.
My software says there are 24 Goal Oriented Articles on our site.
We are Wrapping up Novel Writing Month
This is going to be another informal chat, a relaxed topic.
When you have written 'The End' on the last page of your last chapter and your last scene, what do you do next?
Let's talk about it.
I'll start.
When I am finished with my first complete draft I put it on a memory stick and let it knock around a drawer for awhile. When I go back I read it all the way through. Then I make a Scenes List. I include who owns, the scene, where is it, what action or response took place during the scene. I may write these on index cards so I can pin them to my dressmaker's board and move them around as I edit them.
This activity reacquaints me with the story line, the characters and the overall structure of the story.
Let's talk about what you do at the end of a novel, short story or non-fiction project.
We have on more Sunday in the Writer's Chatroom Novel Writing Month. I thought it would be a great time to talk about how we know our books are finished. I've lifted sentence fragments from Penguin Random House Newsletter for Authors.
…if I’m no longer waking up in the middle of the night with an urgent need to write down some dialogue. When those little moments stop happening, I know I’m
done.”
… it’s time to let go of a book when those tweaks and changes are not adding anything significantly meaningful to a work. A book is done when it’s the best
expression of what it can be.”
… If I feel good about sharing it, it’s ready—or close to ready. If I immediately feel panic, it is clear that it still needs
work.”
…Stop writing when you notice your most recent changes have made matters worse, not better.”
…When you get back diminishing returns, you know it’s finished.”
…Usually at this point, the book is done . . . until I get back the edits
…“I knew I was done when I read straight through a draft of my manuscript and realized I had fixed all the things on my ongoing mental ‘to-fix’
list.
… at the end of the day only the author can know when they are done.”
…begging for a comma to be removed on page 134 will eventually, ultimately, mercifully do me no good.”
Go on over to the Penguin Website and read the excerpts in their completed state.
Chapters, scenes, and sequences are structural units of storytelling. These are the basic blocks of a story that contain all other elements, from characters, plot,
and setting to action, dialogue, and description.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, a scene is “a sequence of continuous action in a play, film, opera, or book.” Each scene usually occurs in a single
location: in one scene, the characters are sitting in a bar having a conversation.
We are halfway through Novel Writing Month. We talked about Character and Setting on Sunday we will talk about Scenes and Chapters. The idea of Scenes and Chapters
as parts of each other makes me think about Murder.
All murders are homicides but not all homicides are murder.
Drop by and chat with us about Chapters and Scenes, can you string a bunch of scenes together without wrapping them in
chapters?
Can you write a chapter without using a scene?
Who came first, the Chapter or the Scene?
Sunday, November 14th at 7PM EST
How Important are Your Characters and Settings?
We know how important our characters are and settings are nothing to sneeze at.
To see how much they change your novel, all you have to do is snatch Dorothy out of OZ and put here in the middle of George Orwell's 1984.
There must be other and better examples.
Bring them to chat and let's talk about it.
Sunday 7PM EST at the Writer's Chatroom
Are You Planning To NaNo?
Sunday marks the first day of NaNo. Where do you begin your writing project? Do you start in the middle? Do you need to know your ending so you can plan your goal to write toward that ending? Do you start with characters and toss them together to see what happens? Who outlines? Do you have wordcount
goals?
If you are not participating in the event, the topics we cover apply to all kinds of Writing in all genres, stages and experience levels. If you are writing a How-To, an Epic Doorstopper Novel, a handbook on where to place your dinnerware, a poem, well, you get it. If you Write, November in the
Chatroom is where you want to be.
My NaNo Plans
#NaNoWriMo starts, tomorrow. I am a pantser this year. Starting from scratch with Speculative Fiction set in a Covid-19 World approximately 2 years post March Shutdown.
The focus is going to navigate life in general with a plot line that could happen anytime but the potential for a very bad outcome is
compounded.
I have thumbnail sketches of 3 characters and of course the setting, time and place. The starter ingredients for a #NaNoWriMo project or a writing project for any time of year.
Visit with us on Sunday, November 1st at 7PM EST
(Consider the Time Change from Daylight to Standard in some parts of the
world.)
What is in the Basement? Sub-genres of Horror
In literature, horror (pronounced hawr-er) is a genre of fiction whose purpose is to create feelings of fear, dread, repulsion, and terror in
the audience—in other words, it develops an atmosphere of horror.
We have spent the Month of October talking about Horror and I think we have had some interesting conversations. On Sunday October 25th we will talk about
sub-genres of horror. It will be a relaxed topic chat. 7PM EDT
When the topic of Gothic Horror came up during a chatroom discussion, I said I didn’t write it and as far as I know, I don’t read it. Then added, I am going to use
Gothic Horror as a topic and I bet when I start looking into it I will discover that I have read it.
It turns out, I have been almost an avid reader of Gothic Horror. Wilki Collins Woman in White is one of my favorites. And who hasn’t read Poe? The Picture of
Dorian Grey, Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein for crying out loud. What was I thinking when I said I wasn’t a fan?
The battle between humanity and unnatural forces of evil (sometimes man-made, sometimes supernatural) within an oppressive, inescapable, and bleak landscape is
considered to be the true trademark of a gothic horror novel.
Gothic horror seeks to suck the reader in with highly descriptive passages. If you get the sensation of being able to see, feel, touch, smell, and hear the story within the words.
It’s also common for there to be at least some romantic elements.
Gothic horror tends to utilize a central antagonist (usually in the form of a ghost or other supernatural entity) attached to one building, region, or person.
Another standard template that’s been used in countless Gothic horror books is the mental and emotional decline of the main protagonist(s).
Early novels in the gothic horror subgenre heavily feature discussions of morality, philosophy, and religion, with the evil villains most often acting as metaphors for some sort of human temptation the hero must overcome.
In 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s debut novel, Frankenstein, marked a shift in gothic horror by changing the
typical gothic villain from an evil man or supernatural creature into an physical embodiment of human folly, brought to life through the power of science.
Edgar Allan Poe managed to condense elements of gothic horror within his short stories, starting in 1839 with the release of "The Fall of the House of Usher”
The Victorian era (1837-1901) produced some of the most well-known examples of gothic horror with the publication of such novels as Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White (1859) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897).
Although the genre was named after the gothic castles and crumbling medieval ruins so prevalent in early novels, many modern gothic novels have moved away from this traditional setting towards more contemporary locations.
This has become a rather long post, be sure to use the links to the full articles and maybe add a new title
to your reading list.
Did you know the two genres have less in common than you think?
The article I have chosen for Sunday’s Topic will take at least 12 minutes to read. More than twelve if you are like me. I stop and absorb things before moving on
to the next and then may or may not go back to figure out where I disagree. So, sit back with your favorite drink and read through this post before chat at 8PM EDT on October 11th.
Horror fiction ultimately has different goals than thrillers.
Horror fiction has the specific intent to frighten, scare, disgust, and/or startle the reader by inducing feelings of terror. These elements can be delivered in a
variety of ways, but in the end a horror novel wants to keep the reader in a constant state of dread.
The thriller genre is also different from horror in many ways.
While a work of horror will often merely fill the reader with dread, a thriller relies on suspense through each development of the story. Thrillers give readers
feelings of excitement, anticipation, surprise, with devices such as red herrings, plot twists, and cliffhangers natural additions to the story.
I am urging you to take a little bit of time before chat, this article is quite well done and even if you don’t write in these genres it never hurts to be able to hold up your end of the conversation should you stumble into an award ceremony at the THE HORROR WRITERS ASSOCIATION.
Let's Talk About Fear
What attracts a reader to Horror? Why do the volunteer to be scared? Why do they express disappointment if the author doesn’t deliver on this fear?
When a Reader chooses a Horror Story she enters into a Contract with the Author. She expects the writer to deliver the goods and if you do not deliver a less than positive review will follow.
I am not an expert on fear but I have been afraid. It is a very emotional feeling that causes real physical reactions. Flight or Fight. Heartbeats rise and many other physiological changes happen. Why on earth would be volunteer to let an author do this to us?
Again, I am not a psychologist, but I think we are willing to let others terrify us because we know we aren’t actually going to be eaten by Griffins or be locked in someone’s basement. At the most, we may put down the book and check under our beds for a few nights but we, the reader, will escape
with only a little lingering stress, at worst, a bad dream.
We are willing to indulge because we know we are safe. We control the book. We can put it down anytime we wish. We don’t even have to commit to reading the whole thing.
