Write Nonfiction in November

It’s Day #9 of the Write Nonfiction in November challenge! We’ve covered a lot of ground already, and I thought we’d take a break from the business side of nonfiction writing to talk a bit about actual writing—memoir writing to be exact.

Memoir writing represents an area of nonfiction writing I know much less about, so I’ve asked my friend and Linda Joy Myers, president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW) to join us today and cover this topic. Recently, however, she and I spoke together during a NAMW teleseminar, and we discovered many ways memoir writers can put to use the tips and tools being offered here in this blog this month to publicize and publish their work. So, I hope memoir writers will take advantage of the great information from WNFiN’s guest bloggers. I also hope those nonfiction writers who have wanted to try their hand at writing a memoir will take advantage of Linda’s experience and wisdom and get to work this month on their memoir or some vignettes.

The Top Six Questions Memoir Writers Ask
By Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D.

Most people are inspired to write a memoir, because they have something significant, such as experiences and lessons, they want to share. Some writers have been capturing their wisdom by journaling for years, but a journal does not constitute a story and it isn’t written for others. A memoir is written to be shared and includes events and situations shaped into a story.

In my work as a memoir coach, I see memoirists struggling with some basic questions. In addition to some basic questions, such as “Where do I start?” and “What do I include?”, they want to know how to deal with family and how much to write. Indeed, memoirists have many questions, so I compiled the top six questions memoir writers ask—questions that all memoir writers must solve as they begin to write their life story. They are:

• Where do I start?
• What do I include?
• Should I just copy my journals?
• What makes my life interesting to other people?
• Do I have to write a whole book? (Gasp.)
• What will my family do when they find out I’m writing a memoir?

Now, here are the answers I typically give when asked these questions.

1.  Where do I start? Begin a memoir, essay or a book with a significant turning points, or moments of change, in your life. It might include the death of your grandmother, the day you fell in love, the moment you found out you were adopted, or the day you discovered you were pregnant. We have many of these moments in our lives. Ask this question: when did my life take a turn from the direction in which it was going? When were the moments of profound change?

Make lists of these turning points, and then begin writing. Choose one turning point that grabs you emotionally, and go with it. You do not have to write in any kind of chronological order. Allow your emotions to be your guide.

2.  What do I include? This is a big question. To craft a memoir you must choose from the overwhelming details in your life. If you begin with turning points, include only what is necessary to give the reader an experience in scene of what happened. You need to interleaf action and feeling, and use sensual details such as taste, sound, texture, and description to create a world the reader can enter.

3.  Should I just copy my journals? I tell memoirists that a journal is not a story, unless the journal was written with a reader in mind—but that’s not what a journal is for. A journal is meant to be private. Most people vent and write randomly in journals, leaving out details, because the writer already knows them.

A memoir is an artistic combining of significant moments to construct a text that brings a reader into your world and gives them an emotional experience.

4.  What makes my life interesting to other people? People who read memoir want to understand themselves better by entering into someone else’s story and learning how they worked things out. Many people are not aware that they have lived an interesting life and that even small moments of a life can inspire others. Stop worrying about whether your life will interest readers, and go about your business of finding the turning points significant to you. You write a memoir for you first and foremost, as a way for you to reflect and learn about yourself and to contemplate your life in new ways. You will learn about yourself as you write, and you will be surprised by what you discover. Stay in the flow of the process of writing. It is your friend and guide. Trust it to lead you into the heart of your story.

5.  Do I have to write a whole book? (Gasp.) Yes, that is how I felt every time I thought of writing a memoir. Feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of my task stalled me for a long time—until one of my mentors said, “Just write one vignette, one small story, at a time. Keep it small, focused and about something important to you.”

That gave me permission to stop being so grandiose in my expectations about writing a book that I was scared into silence. I began writing one significant moment at a time for a few months. When I had quite a few stories, I could see how I might fill in the blanks of my timeline. I didn’t know where my story ended—after all, I was still living my story as I wrote it! As I saw the themes emerge as I wrote, I discovered the arc of my book and the appropriate ending.

After you capture some turning point stories, you may find yourself with several personal essays you can send out for publication. Each vignette or chapter represents a story with a desire, conflict and resolution. Shape your memories and your stories so they have dramatic form. You will find out that you have many small jewels—of your life—that have meaning and that can be shared.

6. What will my family do when they find out I are writing a memoir? It depends on your family! Some family members get worried, rattled and defensive, wondering if they will be portrayed fairly, worrying about secrets being revealed or if you have the “correct” version of the family history. If you share your memoir with family and friends while you are writing it, you run the risk of censoring what you have to say to keep the peace or trying to please everyone, which is impossible. Remember this is your story, and it has to be written from your point of view with your feelings and reactions.

I always recommend that memoir writers create what I call a “safe sacred space” while they create the first draft of their stories. It’s important to guard your creativity from prying eyes. Our early sketches are fragile, like small sprouts, and need to be protected from the winds and weather of the world.

The most important advice I can offer is to begin writing your memoir today! Select your turning points, and immerse yourself in the moments that shaped you. Close your eyes, and see yourself at that moment. Bring it alive in your memory, and begin to write.

Writing your memoir and revealing yourself represents a brave act. It also constitutes one of the most satisfying things you can do. Use the month of November to write 10-30 new vignettes. Keep them short and focused, and do not edit. Just keep writing!

About the Author

Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D. is the President and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers. She is the author of the prize-winning memoir Don’t Call Me Mother. Her new book, The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story will be available in January 2010. Through her workshops, online coaching, and speaking engagements, Linda integrates the principles of healing and creativity in presenting the powerful healing process of writing true stories.

www.namw.org
www.thepowerofmemoir.com

Please visit www.copywrightcommunications.com and sign up for the free newsletter to receive a gift at the end of the Write Nonfiction in November challenge!

Don’t forget to sign into the WNFiN social networking and chat room and tell us what you are writing about or start a discussion. http://writenonfictioninnovember.ning.com/

If, like me, you enjoy journalistic endeavors, but you also enjoy the more literary side of writing, you might want to try your hand at a piece of creative nonfiction this month. If offers a journalist with a fiction-like flair to have some fun while still reporting on true events.

However, creative nonfiction writers must know the rules of this genre or risk getting themselves in a world of trouble. For that reason, I’ve asked the experts at Writer’s Relief, Inc., an author’s submission service, to offer the readers of Write Nonfiction in November some advice on how to write trouble-free creative nonfiction manuscripts. Take heed of their words!

Creative Nonfiction: How to Stay Out of Trouble
By  Ronnie L. Smith, president of Writer’s Relief, Inc.

What is creative nonfiction?

Lee Gutkind, editor of Creative Nonfiction magazine, sums it up best: “This is perhaps creative nonfiction’s greatest asset: It offers flexibility and freedom while adhering to the basic tenets of reportage. In creative nonfiction, writers can be poetic and journalistic simultaneously.”

Creative nonfiction is a genre that holds great creative possibilities. It involves the use of factual events or characters to create dramatic nonfiction using techniques such as dialogue, scenery, and point of view (POV). It combines the fact-finding of journalism with the literary techniques of the fiction writer to create a dramatic story that just happens to be true. This is also called literary journalism, and, like journalism, it is a genre based on truth.

Suppose an author has written her memoir under the guise of creative nonfiction, but she has spiced things up with a near-death experience and perhaps a rape scene—things that never actually happened in her life. Ethically, this author must redefine her piece as fiction. The basic facts must be true in creative nonfiction.

If the same author wrote a biography about her great-grandfather, she has some license to fill in the blanks, as long as it doesn’t affect the outcome of the story. She most likely doesn’t know what her great-grandfather’s farmhouse looked like on the inside or what he liked in his coffee—ethically, the author has the right to create dialogue and other “facts” that make up the creative element of creative nonfiction. Some authors use disclaimers to make sure their readers don’t feel duped if names or minor details are changed.

Readers must assume that they are reading a biased interpretation of events as they view them through the author’s eyes. The basic facts are there, but the author is reporting his or her own version of those facts. The implied pact between writer and reader is this: I am telling you the truth, but the truth as it is filtered through my eyes.

Legal Pitfalls

While the people and places mentioned in creative nonfiction pieces are still around, writers often change the names of characters in their work to avoid conflict. As long as it doesn’t impact the story, changing Linda, the waitress at the Burger Barn, to Cynthia from the Hamburger Hut might save Linda some awkwardness. And if you’ve fudged the facts about her, changing Linda’s name just might save you from a lawsuit, but there is no guarantee. Linda can still sue you for defamation if she is obviously defamed, regardless of the name you give her in the book. Changing a person’s name is not a guarantee of protection, but it might help.

Other Ways to Stay Out of Trouble

Stick to the truth. In a defamation of character suit, an offending statement must be false for a plaintiff to prevail against you or your publisher. Untrue facts that negatively affect a person’s reputation or credibility are considered defamatory.

Be careful not to report facts that may cause damage to another person’s physical being or business. Revealing that Johnny from the bank is actually a mob snitch, even when the facts are true enough, can lead to physical harm to Johnny and legal hot water for you. And be prepared for an invasion of privacy lawsuit if you are exposing embarrassing or private facts about a person, even if they are truthful.

Protect yourself by getting written permission from people you wish to write about. And if they are no longer living, make sure you aren’t setting yourself up for a lawsuit from their family. (Obviously, you are fairly safe in writing about people who died long ago.) If the person is a public figure whose actions or background are a matter of public record, then you do not need permission, but be judicious about the facts you report. Senator Mucky-Muck may have an obsession with women’s feet, but leave his foot fetish out of your story, especially if it’s merely something you’ve thrown in to add some excitement to your story.

This article is for informational purposes only. For expert legal advice about your own publishing questions, always consult an attorney.

About the Authors

Writer’s Relief, Inc. is a highly recommended author’s submission service. Established in 1994, Writer’s Relief will help you target the best literary agents or editors for your creative writing, and they can prepare your work to meet industry-standard guidelines. Their goal is to relieve you of the time-consuming frustrations of the submission process so that you can do more of what you love: write! Visit their Web site at http://www.WritersRelief.com to receive their FREE Writers’ Newsflash (today, via e-mail), which contains valuable leads, guidelines, and deadlines for writing in all genres. Or you can connect with their submission strategists to get answers to all your questions about garnering more acceptance letters and publications.

www.WritersReliefBlog.com
www.twitter.com/WritersRelief
www.facebook.com/WritersRelief

October is half over…That means it’s almost November. Time, once again, for Write Nonfiction in November! Whoo hoo!

I didn’t manage to post a blog last month. I was too busy setting up some really great guest bloggers for this year’s challenge. You’ll be so pleased with the line up!

And, to get things rolling, tomorrow you can listen to me talk about Write Nonfiction in November on The National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW) teleseminar. If you recall, last year one of my guest bloggers was Linda Joy Meyers, founder of NAMW.  Meyers and I will be chatting about Write Nonfiction in November, my response to National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO). For anyone new to this site, Write Nonfiction in November (WNFIN) is a contest that has fiction writers writing 50,000 words in 30 days during November. My blog challenges nonfiction writers to spend the month of November writing and completing a work of nonfiction. While they do so, the blog itself provides nonfiction writing, promotion and marketing information to help them sell themselves and their writing to publishing companies and readers. Additionally, via the blog comments, Write Nonfiction in November provides a forum for nonfiction writers to comment on their writing experiences during November each year.

During the NAWM teleseminar, I will discuss different types of nonfiction, including:

• journalistic articles
• personal essays
• inspirational essays
• booklets
• books

If time allows, I’ll also discuss:

• the difference between personal essay and memoir
• platform building on the Internet
• how to use your nonfiction skills to write articles to generate publicity for yourself as a writer
• how the business of writing can be a spiritual endeavor

NAWM  invites memoir writers from all over the world to connect, learn, and become inspired about writing their stories. The goal of our organization is to help memoir writers feel empowered with purpose and energy to begin and develop their life stories into a publishable memoir, whether in essay form, a book, a family legacy, or to create a blog.

Many memoir writers want to use writing as means for healing and transformation, so we assist in this goal by offering workshops, teleseminars, and interviews with writers and experts in the area of memoir, writing skills, therapeutic writing, spiritual autobiography, and healing through writing personal, authentic stories.

Myers, President of NAMW, has been a therapist for 30 years, and is the author of three books, a prize-winning memoir Don’t Call Me Mother, about three generations of mothers who abandoned their daughters, and two books on the ways that writing helps to heal emotionally and physically. Her new book The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story will be released in January, 2010, through Jossey Bass publishers in San Francisco. She teaches writing workshops nationally, online, and in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Those who join NAMW receive a unique package of memoir writing resources including the NAMW welcome kit and a collection of online and hard copy resources to help memoir writers within all phases of the exciting journey of memoir writing.  Members also receive discounts on select NAMW teleseminars, workshops, retreats and other learning opportunities and materials.

To learn more about NAMW, contact info@namw.org or visit http://www.namw.org

Now…you do have to be a NAWM member to listen in on the teleseminar tomorrow. But if you are a memoir writer–or want to become one–this is a great time to go ahead a join this great group of writers.  So, hurry up and join and call in by 11 a.m. PST!

Here are the details:

Date: October 16, 2009
Guest Speaker: Nina Amir
Times: 11 am Pacific | 12 noon Mountain | 1 pm Central | 2 pm Eastern
Cost: Free for NAMW Members
Become A Member of NAMW Today to take part in this teleseminar!
To join: info@namw.org or http://www.namw.org

I’ve always wanted to write a memoir. One agent even recommended that I write one of my prescriptive  nonfiction books as a memoir. I never did. I saw her a few months ago. It had been about two years since she wrote that response to my book proposal. She told me now she would probably advise me to stick with my original idea – write it as a self-help book.

That said, I’d still love to write a memoir one day. I have lots of ideas. My life as a stepmother. My short experience as the owner of a race horse. Growing up without a father.

Given that I know little about writing memoirs, I asked someone who knows a lot about this topic to write a blog post for Write Nonfiction on November. Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D. is the president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers. In addition, she is the prize-winning author and a writing coach. Read on to find out how to get over the first – and last – hurdle of writing a memoir: telling the truth.

Truth in Memoir Writing

Linda Joy Myers

President of the National Association of Memoir Writers

Truth.

What is it? Who defines it? Dare you tell it as you see it?

Memoir writing, especially in a post-James Frey age, is fraught with all kinds of questions. We know that a memoir requires that we write the truth the best we can, yet we worry about being accused of making things up. Of enhancing too much.

And then there’s the family. “Why do you have to write that stuff?  Leave us out of it.” Or they say things like, “How dare you air the family’s laundry like that. You should be ashamed.” Or: “You are wrong. It never happened that way!”

It’s enough to make you put down your pen and turn off your computer.

So, why do you want to write a memoir anyway? People who tell me they want to write a memoir have many kinds of reasons: to leave a legacy, to sort out memories and feelings, to tell a very personal story that might help others—such as overcoming great obstacles like an illness or recovering from abuse. To tell an uplifting story that will inspire others—climbing a mountain, starting a business and becoming a success. Memoirs are intriguing to us as readers, because they satisfy our voyeuristic urges—we get to peek behind the doors of other people’s houses and learn about who they are, how they coped with the struggles and challenges of life. Maybe we can learn from them. We feel less alone with life’s challenges when we know that others suffer or fail or yearn. When we read about love, forgiveness, and success.

Some people write for revenge—to show others that they were wrong. Who’s to say if this is a “correct” motivation, and it might make a good story—if you are not sued by those you’re accusing. Write a first draft to get out the feelings, and then stand back and assess if it is publishable. Maybe it is just good therapy.

Judith Barrington in her book Writing the Memoirtells us that the memoirist whispers in the ear of the reader, sharing intimate details. The tone is personal; the reader is being inducted into the special club of the family, friends, town, group whose inner life is detailed in the book.

But for most writers of memoir, the very thing that makes a memoir interesting sends shivers down their spines. Write intimate secrets? Reveal personal details? As much as the story might be interesting and even compelling, the inner critic taps them on the shoulder and as they write, or try to, and the critic’s warnings shut down the flow of words. “You can never go home for the holidays again if you write this. They will disown you. No one else agrees with you so you must be wrong. You will lose your friends, and you will be isolated.”

These voices are the inner critic, but what if your fears are justified? Each person has a family and friends who have their own versions of history and “reality.” Perhaps your family really is very private, and they will truly ostracize you if you write a memoir. I have met students for whom this is true. You might be aware that writing certain truths that are evident and not all that significant to you will be very hurtful to someone in your family. Does that mean you have to give up your writing?

James Frey wrote A Million Little Piecesand appeared on Oprah after he was accused of making up parts of his memoir. He admitted that he had done this, and there was confusion about how much the publisher was involved in selling as a memoir a book he’d presented as fiction to the publisher. Afterward, this public flogging/debate caused many memoirists to be fearful and almost too careful when writing their memoirs. I find that most memoirists take great pains to be accurate, almost to the point of not writing. Just write your truth, and be as accurate as you can. After all, a memoir is about memory, not just facts.

Here are some tips for dealing with these challenging issues:

1.    Write the story you feel passionate to write, and keep it private until you are finished. Don’t tell anyone you are writing a memoir, except your writing group or perhaps your best friend. Don’t show it to anyone but your writing group. Protect your creativity.

2.    In your first draft, lay out your story without much editing, trying not to let your inner critic shut down your story. Write down the inner critic’s comments to get them out of your head.

3.    Make a list of the important truths of your life that you want to tell in your memoir.

4.    Write about the truths that you don’t want to put in your memoir. Seeing them on the page can help you sort out the focus of your story.

5.    Create an imaginary dialogue between yourself and family members who don’t want you to write about them.

6.    List the 10 reasons you want to write your memoir.

By wrestling with your truths, you will find your way into the interior of your memoir, and yourself. Sift through the significant themes, stories, and turning point moments, and decide what your story is that you want to write, the story that is only yours to tell.

About Linda Joy Myers

Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D. is the president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers. She is the prize-winning author of Don’t Call Me Mother: Breaking the Chain of Mother Daughter Abandonment, and Becoming Whole: Writing Your Healing Story. Linda Joy is a therapist, speaker, and writing coach, and offers online teleseminars on memoir writing.

www.namw.org

www.memoriesandmemoirs.com

Today’s agenda: Learning ways to make our writing more marketable, a necessary skill for writers to learn if they are to successfully sell their writing. After all, if we want to be published writers, or authors, we have to be able to sell our writing. That means what we write must be marketable. Makes sense, no? Sounds simple, but it isn’t.

To help us learn this all important lesson, Write Nonfiction in November welcomes guest blogger Philippa Burgess, an entertainment professional with Creative Convergence in Los Angeles. She specializes in developing and marketing literary content across Hollywood and the publishing and publicity industries. Out of all her experience, she’s culled three guideposts to help us hone our prose into marketable manuscripts.

Marketable Prose Informs, Inspires and Challenges Readers

By Philippa Burgess

Entertainment Professional and Consultant

Partner, Creative Convergence Inc.

I commend you on your participation in Write Non-Fiction in November. I know you’ve already received a ton of invaluable expert tips, and I have no doubt there will be more to come. I’d like to offer three of my own signature guideposts in order to help you develop your content so that it is inherently more marketable: to inform, to inspire, to challenge.

1. To Inform

What type of non-fiction are you writing?

Broadly speaking there are two types of non-fiction. You may want to consider which one you are writing because that will help you think about what types of media you can use to best share your story.

Type 1 – Narrative Non-Fiction - This tells a true story about your or someone else’s experience using a clear narrative structure. This type of story can be told in any particular literary genre, such as romance, comedy, thriller or adventure, but all the facts, characters and timeline are true and corroborated by primary and/or secondary sources. There are a lot of opportunities to publish these types of stories and they can take the form of articles, memoirs, biographies, and other types of non-fiction narrative books. They also may be pitched or adapted for television and feature films.

Type 2 – General or Prescriptive - This offers information that is either a newsworthy account of facts or a how-to approach that provides the audience with a way to save time, money and/or energy to achieve a desired result. Another popular style is to offer an opposing view to conventional wisdom. In either case, you are coming to the conversation with a certain amount knowledge that gives you credibility based on a combination of experience, education, and research.

2. To Inspire

How can your story generate the greatest impact?

For maximum impact you want to make sure your content is authentic and compelling. I offer you a simple but effective “Your Signature Story” formula that you can use to hit your mark with any story or message.

Picture a triangle and each side answers a different question: Who are You? + What is Your Mission + Who is Your Audience? In the middle of that triangle is the answer that comprises an authentic and powerful story or message.

Who are you? What experience or expertise do you have? What human and emotional truths can you share? All notably authors (either fiction or non-fiction) have a clearly defined voice and point-of-view about the world. Take for example John Grisham, JK Rowling and Sebastian Junger, who all brought part of their own story to their writing. Grisham was a Southern lawyer (writing about Southern lawyers), Rowling lost her parents (remember, Harry is an orphan), and Junger writes about dangerous jobs (he’d had his own workplace accident while cutting trees and was a war correspondent for many years).

What is your mission? Whether it is to inspire, inform or entertain, you’ll do best with a clearly defined agenda when you enter the marketplace. Grisham spins tight thrillers that take us inside the justice system and into world of high powered business professionals; Rowling shares a philosophy of life and entertains with spellbinding magic and lore; Junger tackles what it is like to take serious risks with your life and in your work, because he believes humans have a greater capacity for physical risk than we normally acknowledge.

Who is your audience? It is important to know the audience your story or message is meant to touch. Think about what other books they might read, what TV shows and movies they watch, what magazine they buy, and what internet sites they surf. Surely, you might say that your story is ideal for everyone, but it helps if you have a primary demographic in mind when you start. This helps you in three ways: 1. You focus your voice. 2. You can explore the marketplace and see how else it has been served and where there is a gap for you to fill. 3. You’ll know exactly where to find your audience when you are ready to get yourself and your stories in front of them.

What is your signature story or message? Your particular story or message should serve each side of the triangle. It’s a good way to start for whatever type of writing endeavor you are initiating or a tool you can use as you approach rewriting your material.

3. To Challenge

But really, who cares?

I trust you’ve been informed and inspired, and now it is time to challenge you. You’ve got a great story to tell. You know what type of non-fiction story you are writing. You’ve done well to ask those hard questions about you, your mission, and your audience and crafted a story or a message that supports it. But then someone turns to you, as I have done to many writers, and asked the most challenging question of all, “Who cares?”

I am not trying to insult anyone in asking this hard question; it is a “tough-love” challenge. Many writers have stared at me in wonderment (or great disdain) at that moment. The key here is that the story may be about anything and just because you wrote it, you think I should care. The truth of the matter is that, as a reader, I want to know (I mean really know) that there is something in it for me. I want to know that I will uncover some secret knowledge that will make my life better or be moved by our human condition and get in touch with my own emotions. I want to be empowered either with information or with a renewed confidence in my own strength and abilities.

The answer then, when you are posed with the question, “Who Cares?” needs to be a resounding, “You.” The person you are pitching your idea to at that moment should be able to find something of value in it for them. And if they are really not your audience, because they don’t happen to fit the demographic you’ve defined, then jump right in and enthusiastically answer with great detail who you know cares and why.

With my three tips – to inform, inspire and challenge – in mind, I’m going to use myself as an example, so we can look at them in action. I’ll do this by asking myself the same questions and answering them. Here goes:

What type of nonfiction do I write?

I write prescriptive non-fiction on marketing for writers.

What kind of impact do I want?

(Formula is You + Your Mission + Your Message = Your Signature Story)

I am an entertainment professional, and my mission is to inform, inspire and challenge writers to achieve greater success. My audience is writers, authors, experts and content creators who are interested in working across media channels.

Who cares?

I trust those writing Non-Fiction in November or those who want greater success in accessing and leveraging the power of Hollywood, publishing and publicity can benefit from my  experience, guidance and message and that of my company.

I encourage you to continue on your road to Writing Non-Fiction in November. My thanks to Nina for inviting me to share on this blog. You are invited to learn more about our professional services at Creative Convergence Inc. and our teleseminar courses, resources and free member site for writers, authors, experts, and content creators. All of this is all part of Your Signature Story: From Content Creator to Media Brand.

About Philippa Burgess

Philippa Burgess is a partner at Creative Convergence an entertainment company in Los Angeles that specializes in literary development and marketing across media. The company has recently sold client projects to Warner Brothers, Paramount, Lifetime, and ABC Family. Recent TV production credits include “52 Fights” for ABC/Touchstone and “Men’s Guide the the Women’s Bathroom” for CBS/Paramount. Among their non-fiction film projects were “Thieves of Baghdad,” “Queensized” and “52 Fights.”

Philippa oversees the consulting division of the company. The department provides a collaborative creative and business development process for a dynamic list of consulting clients that include emerging non-fiction writers, experts, authors, and content creators who want to establish a media brand. She teaches at conferences around the country and facilitates the popular “Your Signature Story: From Content Creator to Media Brand” and “Million Dollar Screenwriting & Content Career” teleseminar courses.

www.creative-convergence.com

In case you’ve only recently discovered Write Nonfiction in November (WNFIN) or you’re still struggling with what to write for the challenge – or you simply haven’t found time until now to get started, here’s another idea that you can still complete before month’s end: write a newspaper or magazine article. Put your pen to paper or your fingers to keyboard and whip out an essay or a reported piece of writing.

I’m a journalist by trade, so I thought today I’d offer you my expertise. (Sorry, no guest blogger; just me, Nina Amir.) I received my degree in magazine journalism specifically, although Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Journalism required all magazine journalism majors to also know how to write for newspapers, do layout and edit copy. (The latter put me on the path of becoming a nonfiction article, book and proposal editor.) I’ve been writing articles since I was in high school, where I began my career by reviving the defunct school newspaper and went on to become the school news reporter for the local newspaper.  Since then, I’ve written for more than 45 local, national and international magazines, newspapers, ezines and newsletters on a full-time or freelance basis. I’ve written hundreds of articles on more subjects than I can remember. 

I love what I do. I get to write about so many interesting things and people and so many things that interest me. For example, recently I was asked to write an article on the new Crique de Soleil show, Believe, opening in Los Vegas. I had a blast learning all about its creator Criss Angel and writing about the people who helped him bring his dream into reality. (Look for it in the November/December issue of Movmntmagazine.) Then, I got to write an essay for InterfaithFamily.com on something very personal – my struggle with my husband’s loss of faith.  (You can read it in this week’s issue.) Prior to that, I wrote a reported article for the same ezine on how to prepare for the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. (Read it here.) And before that, I wrote a reported article on the state of the organic market for a trade journal called Grocery Headquarters and a story on female tap dancers in a show produced by Emmy-award winning choreographer Jason Samuels Smith for Dance Spirit magazine. (My son’s a dancer, so I loved writing this article and talking to these phenomenal dancers. Plus, it provided great platform building for the book I’m writing on mentoring boys who want to become professional dancers. If you have a son who dances, check out this blog.)

If you’ve never written an article, don’t be put off. It’s not that difficult. Just tell them what you’re gonna tell ‘em. Tell ‘em. Then tell ‘em what you told ‘em. At least that’s what my old Professor John Keats, rest his soul, used to tell us students. (It sounds just like what most high school students are told when writing an essay.) So, let’s break down the three parts of an article.

The Three Parts of an Article

1. Just tell them what you’re gonna tell ‘em. An article consists, first, of a lead, or a first paragraph that entices the reader into your article. This could also be comprised of several paragraphs if you choose to use an anecdote or a few bulleted items or to talk about a trend occurring. After that, however, you need a sentence or a few sentences that tell your reader what the article is about – a statement of purpose, if you will. Tell them what the article is about so they have an idea of where they are going. Hopefully, you’ve enticed them into wanting to go there.
2. Tell ‘em.  This section represents the meat of your article. Here you place all your supporting material, such as statistics, quotes you obtained from interviews, additional anecdotes, your analysis, etc. Remember, however, that if you are writing a reported article, in most cases you must write in an unslanted manner; this means without an opinion. If you are writing an essay, you may voice your opinon as loudly as you like. Also, if you are writing an essay, you may not be using quotes but relying instead on your own “voice.”
3. Tell ‘em what you told ‘em. Now write your conclusion. Sum up what you wrote about without simply repeating what you already said. That’s right: Say it again but in a totally new way so your readers have no idea that they are reading the same information again. Give it a new angle. Put a new take on it. Offer additional information to support what you’ve already offered. For an essay, if possible, provide a bit broader view or some quote or anecdote or bit of information that takes the reader into the future. You can use this tactic with a reported article as well, but it works especially well with essays.

If you are looking for a great topic to write about, ask yourself what interests you. Prof. Keats, like most good teachers, always said, “Write about what you know.” I tend to look at my life and identify issues with which I’m currently struggling. I query magazines and newspapers with those topics, and I usually find the editors pretty receptive. Most people are just like you. They struggle with the same issues.

I have a caveat to the “write what you know” advice: Know about what you write. A good writer/journalist can write about anything at all simply by becoming the expert on that topic. I’ve written about life insurance tax law, immortality, retail store imaging, Kabbalah, geodesic domes, lobbying, and the supermarket pet aisle. I served as the managing editor and primary writer for two international medical newsletters, Same-Day Surgery and Clinical Laser Surgery. I didn’t know about these topics when I began writing about them. I knew a lot about them when afterwards. The biggest compliment I ever received came from an employee at the Equitable Life Assurance Society. I was working as the associate editor of employee communications and had just written and published a huge article in the employee newspaper about life insurance tax law. She came up to me and said, “That’s the first article on the subject that I’ve ever understood.”  I told her, “I had to understand it to be able to write about it.” 

So, pick a topic for an article or essay, preferably one you are interested in or feel passionate about. Learn about it. Understand it. Then write about it. And dont’ forget to try and get it published!

For more information on article writing and publishing, check out last year’s archive of blogs. Or contact me at cpywrtcom@aol.com.

The I received a request to write about the different forms of nonfiction. I teach this – at least in terms of article forms – in my “Writing for Publication” teleseminar and class, but I’ll give it a go here as well in shortened form and without telling you how to structure any of these articles or books.

First, of course, we have the news article. You can find a news story in any newspaper. Most newspaper articles are written in the classic “inverted pyramid” form, which means it begins with the most important facts and ends with the least important ones. News stories are comprised of all facts and no opinion. They can be slanted by presentation of facts, but they are supposed to be unslanted (written in a way that offers no opinion) and neutral. That said, I’ve read some wonderfully slanted news stories. Here’s an interesting fact: The reason the most important facts are at the top and not at the bottom of the article is due not only to the fact that they make up the crux of the story but because if that particular day’s edition happens to be crammed full of news, the story can be cut by full column inches from the bottom without worry. They just delete the least important paragraphs from the bottom up. Most news stories cover the 5 W’s and 1 H – who, what, where, when, why, and how – and they often manage to give readers those details in the first paragraph or two.

Feature stories often arise out of news stories. In a newspaper, these would be more in depth coverage of a news story. In other words, the reporter or journalist takes the basic facts and digs deeper, looking for more meaning and information. Often a feature story will deal with one aspect of a news story, an issue, a problem, etc. The story might take the form of a trend piece, or it might focus on one individual, thus becoming a profile article, or it might be a general feature about a certain subject. General features, trend stories, profiles often are found in magazines, since feature articles are the name of the game in magazine journalism. (I should know, since that’s my specialty.) You could take a news story and write a book about that news story in much the same way you write a feature article — only longer.

How-to articles, a favorite of mine, offer readers advice on – you guessed it – how to do something, such as lose weight, find a mate, sell a house, make money, or change jobs. These stories represent a staple in the magazine industry. E-zine directories also love how-to articles. Many books on the market today are how-to books.

Essays appear commonly in magazines, but they can be found in some newspapers, too. These articles are based on personal experience; however, the writer then broadens the subject so it applies to a wider audience. I love writing essays. They are slice of life pieces with an educational twist. If you learned something from an event that happened to you, teach others what you learned. Essays require little to no research or interviews, making them quick and easy to write – another reason I like to write them.

If you prefer to voice your opinion, you can write an opinion piece. Newspapers love to publish these on their op ed pages. These are short opinionated essays on a subject you feel strongly about.

Narrative nonfiction has become a big deal these days. It’s like literary journalism or a nonfiction novel. The writer writes a story based on facts or goes out and conducts interviews and then writes a novel based on those interviews. All the information in the novel is true and factual – none of it is made up.

Other nonfiction books are based either on interviews (with experts, people who have had a common experience, etc.), research, or the author’s expertise. As such, they are factual rather than fictional.

Then, you have the autobiography, a book written about your whole life.

A biography is a book written about someone else’s whole life.

A memoir is a book written about a period of time in your own life.

An anthology is a compilation of essays or articles written by many people.

Most nonfiction writers aspire to write a book. So, maybe this blog seems a bit off base, but my college professor once told me that if I could write an article, I could write a book. He said, “Each chapter in a book is like one article. You just write one article after another.” So, if you haven’t ever written a book, you might want to try your hand at writing a few articles first.

(If I missed any article or book forms, I’m sorry. Drop me a note. I’ll write about it tomorrow.)

I’ve gotten quite infatuated with writing short booklets rather than books. I came upon this form of nonfiction writing when a friend of mine shared with me what she had learned in a class about speaking and promotion for writers. (Surprise, surprise. We’re back on that subject again, but only briefly.) The man who taught the class suggested that speakers should have something to sell at the back of the room (of course), and he suggested selling booklets. These short (often only 28-pages) little books can be printed at your local Office Depot or Kinko’s, since they are simply copied, stapled and folded. This man’s version didn’t involve a color cover, just cover stock.

I set out to produce one of these when I got frustrated by my inability to get one of my book projects sold to a publisher. I pulled one section of the book-to-be out of the manuscript and published it myself as a booklet, which I called From Empty Practice to Meaning-Full and Spirit-Full Prayers and Rituals…In 7 Simple Steps. Unwilling to wait for a publisher to pick up another book project about which I felt quite passionate, this past year I produced a second booklet, Abracadabra! The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation (10 Mystical Steps to Manifesting Your Dreams and Desires). My Write Nonfiction in November project involves writing a third booklet, again from a book project; while promoting this project I taught a four-part teleseminar based on several chapters in the book. I am now taking my class scripts and putting them into a booklet called The Priestess Practice.

I like this form of publication for several reasons. First, I can revise my booklets as often as I like. I don’t publish very many of them at a time, so if I want to make changes, it’s no problem. I make the changes on my computer and then run a disc down to Kinkos. The next day, I have new booklets. Abracadabra! has already grown by eight pages, and I’m about to revise it once again. When I’m done, it will have grown by at least another eight pages. One day it will be large enough for me to actually get self-published in another form, but in the meantime I can continue selling it when I speak and on my web site, which allows me to promote prior the book being complete.

Second, I really believe that people prefer to read short books. A booklet simply is a short book – a quick and easy read. With the busy lifestyle most of us read today, this published form appeals to many people. In fact, I recently saw a series of booklets on sale in Border’s, which looked just like the ones my friends teacher suggested producing. They were short and simple with no spine – just copied and stapled. (And they were self-published). The fact that Border’s had them featured at the check out convinced me that production and sales of booklets would soon be on the rise.

Third, booklets provide a quick and easy structure for producing a book. I can take an idea I have for a full-length book and write it in booklet form in just a week or two. I then have a product to sell. People get to read what I’ve written, and I get to sell my booklet. In the process, that booklet helps me promote the book I ultimately wan to sell to a publisher. That booklet also helps me show a publisher how I would deal with the subject I am proposing and that I am serious about helping promote and market my book project.

Fourth, should my book project never get published, I’ve not waited around so long that I’ve lost interest in ever writing about that subject. In the meantime, I’ve produced a piece of nonfiction writing that I have self-published, that people can read, and from which I can earn a bit of money.

And, when I go speak somewhere, I’ve got something to sell at the back of the room – like all good writers – I mean speakers – should have.

Blogger’s Note: Happy Thanksgiving! No Blog tommorrow. Sorry about missing yesterday. We were delayed in several airports and didn’t arrive at our destination until 2 a.m. We travel again on Friday. I’ll try to post, but no promises.

I focus so much of my time on editing my client’s nonfiction books and on writing and promoting my own nonfiction book projects that I sometimes forget that I’m trained as a magazine journalist. I still love writing articles, though, and I often use my skills as a journalist. I love to query magazines with ideas and to get assignments. I enjoy conducting the interviews and then taking the information I’ve compiled and putting it together into a cohesive and interesting article. And I enjoy seeing it in print, not just on the screen of my computer.

I use my journalism skills in other ways as well, including every time I promote myself on the Internet by posting free “news releases” to e-zine directories. I do this a few times a month. While it’s good for business, I get a lot more satisfaction out of writing an article that appears in good old fashioned print and for which I receive a big fat check.

There’s nothing like writing an essay or an article, submitting it to a magazine or newspaper and then opening up that publication to find your story published there — hopefully word for word — with your byline showing off the fact that you wrote every one of those words. And then to get paid for doing what you love…well, that’s even better.

And there are so many different types of articles to choose from. Profiles, news stories, trend pieces, human interest articles, personal essays, and opinion pieces — take your pick. Depending upon what you like to write about, you can surely find one or two article forms that you’ll enjoy using and numerous magazines, newspapers, trade journals, or e-zines that will be happy to have you write for them.

If you aren’t concerned about pay, of if you are looking to promote yourself or you other work (such as your nonfiction book), writing for the numerous e-zines provides great exposure. If you’re just starting out as a writer and need bylines and clips to prove that you can write and meet deadlines and article specifications, try writing for small or regional publications. They usually like “free” writers, and working for them can be a fun way to become a nonfiction freelance writer. Additionally, you might try writing for trade journals published on your area of expertise.

As I said, I interned every summer in high school and in college without pay. I ended up with some great clips that helped me land my first few jobs after graduation.

I teach Writing for Publication classes that expose attendees to a variety of article forms. As a magazine journalist, however, I love writing profiles of interesting people and human interest articles. I also love to pen a good essay, which is an article form I did not learn in college. Essays fit my lifestyle these days; I’m usually very short on time, and they don’t require me to do any research or interviews nor are do they have to be too long. My life experience is enough fodder to fill several pages with type since I’ve lots to say about what happens to me, why it happens to me and what others can learn from what happens to me. Getting paid for essays is fun. I write something off the top of my head and someone pays me for it. What could be better?

And as long as I didn’t make it up, it’s still nonfiction. (Ah…Those of you writing memoirs remember that.)

So, if you are trying to figure out what to write this month, try an article. It’s doable in a month, that’s for sure. Pick a topic and a form, then do whatever research is necessary, and start writing. You can easily finish an article in the days left in November.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to work on MY writing project…which, between writing this blog and my other blog and editing a book for a client, seems to be falling by the wayside. And I am determined to finish it before the end of the month.

(Okay…I technically wrote twice today, since yesterday’s blog was written after midnight this morning. I guess that makes up for technically missing Tuesday. If nothing else, I’m writing lots of nonfiction in this blog, that’s for sure!)