Many non-fiction books are meant simply to inform. Informational books tell you about people, places, things, and ideas. Histories, biographies, travelogues and more can be found in this huge slice of non-fiction.
It is, perhaps, the most simple to write from a ‘rules to remember’ standpoint. But of course, there are some tricks to the trade.
To Tell the Truth is an 18-week mini-series exploring the practical side of non-fiction writing and publishing. The series outline is located here, and previous episodes may be found here. To Tell the Truth is published Monday evenings and is crossed posted at MélangePress.
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Before You Start
Decide right off the bat whether you plan to be combative – if you are going to hack and slash at your competition, consider heading into the analytical/critical side of non-fiction. Informational books can have a point of view, but they are best served by as objective a style as possible.
Have an Original Idea
Informational books should not be term papers. Sure, they strongly resemble them, but what separates the book from the term paper is your perspective and knowledge. You may have a hundred sources on the history of BMW, but you should also bring – and imbue your writing with – your own perspective, knowledge, and experience. If I write a book on libraries, you bet I’m going to talk about my own experiences in libraries as well as what other experts have to say.
This isn’t to say that some informational books aren’t a survey of the current literature – but you are the one bringing that literature together. Why? What makes them work together? Why these and not others? Have an original thought.
Do Your Research
Informational books offer information. So make sure your information is sound. Go for original sources as much as possible – even if they’re often used. Sure, everyone and their brother may have used Katherine Hepburn’s Me as a source for their own biographies of the actress, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. An original source is an original source, and you may have seen something there that others have missed.
Don’t Cherry Pick
Make sure you’re not quoting your sources in a way that proves your point and belies the actual meaning from the original author. I was struck recently by one of Chris Rodda’s diaries about the Congressional Bible myth, where David Barton, desperate to prove that the US is a Christian nation, significantly edited out words that would disprove his thesis – to the point of (probably intentionally) omitting a word in the bibliography; he said he was quoting from the History of the American Society, when he was actually quoting from the History of the American Bible Society.
The moral of the story is this: you may think your subject can walk on water, but if you discover that he can’t, maybe it’s okay to have your rose-colored glasses removed. You’ll tell a better story. And please... don’t make up facts not in evidence.
Tell the Truth
You may be compelled to fill in gaps with fictionalized versions of what may have happened – sometimes gap-filling is fine, but make sure your readers know it’s conjecture, not fact.
About a dozen years ago, I wrote a piece on Aimee Semple McPherson, the 1920s evangelist who founded the Four Square Church. She, like several of her contemporaries (including mystery writer Agatha Christie), disappeared for a few days. There are many theories about what happened in those days – was she having an affair? A nervous breakdown? An abortion? Or did she see it as a publicity stunt? There is plenty of conjecture...and many opportunities to fictionalize those days. In writing this piece, I offered my own theory (the publicity stunt), and I imagined how it might have gone – but I was very careful to say this was my idea, not what actually happened.
Now telling the truth doesn’t mean you should not make the writing interesting and dramatic; Bruce Catton and Shelby Foote are masters of historical writing that not only tells facts but also weaves compelling stories. In The Coming Fury, Bruce Catton writes that Lincoln waited until Virginia voted formally to ratify secession on May 23, 1861. He comments:
Once ratification came, however, he moved quickly. Long before dawn on the morning of May 24 he sent eight regiments across the Potomac to seize Alexandria and Arlington Heights and to establish a firm bridgehead on secession soil. The first invasion of the South was under way. It was not much of an invasion and it did not occupy much of the South, but it was a symbol. A great many young men must die before it was finished.
Much would die with them; including a way of looking at life and seeing nothing but its freshness and the fact that it was made to be spent, a special notion of how things might be with the spirit when the ultimate challenge is faced, a feeling for the overtones that can haunt a man's hearing as he goes down the long pathway into the dusk.
David Halberstam and David McCullough are very good at this as well, making their histories and biographies both very factual and highly readable. They know the cardinal lesson non-fiction: show the subject rather than just tell about the subject.
Show, Don't Tell
Another author who is great at showing rather than telling is naturalist Diane Ackerman. Her writing is graceful, luscious, and inviting, reflecting her subject in the words she chooses. She invites you in, takes you by the hand, makes you feel as you read. Take, for example, the contrast of the first few lines of her book A Natural History of the Senses...
How sense-luscious the world is. In the summer, we can be decoyed out of bed by the sweet smell of the air soughing through our bedroom window. The sun playing across the tulle curtains gives them a moiré effect, and they seem to shudder with light.
...versus the first few lines of her book An Alchemy of Mind:
Imagine the brain, that shiny mound of being, that mouse-gray parliament of cells, that dream factory, that petit tyrant inside a ball of bone, that huddle of neurons calling all the plays, that little everywhere, that fickle pleasuredome, that wrinkled wardrobe of selves stuffed into the skull like too many clothes in a gym bag.
Different topics, different focus, but inviting and engaging.
Now we we can't all be Catton and Ackerman, but we can do our very best to engage, delight, and immerse your reader in the subject.
The Organization Should Make Sense
Think about how the information should be presented. Chronologically? Geographically? Thematically? If you’re writing a book on Unitarian Christology, you might organize it by chronology or schools of thought or major writer or theological point. Where process pieces tell you how to organize by their very nature, other informational books may not. Choose one that you can sustain, that divides your book in to reasonably equal sections, and that flows from one to the next. In a book on the political climate of the US in the 20th century, you probably don’t want to talk about the aftermath of the Cold War before you talk about the Cold War itself, yanno?
Science writing may require a bit more rigidity in the organization – there, you have to explain terms, how the thing works, and the history of discovery. But at the higher level, you still have some flexibility in organization. Is it a chronological history of quantum physics, or a survey of the top minds in the field, or an examination of the various theories?
Non-Fiction for Kids
There is a great need for juvenile non-fiction, both on the picture-book level and the longer, more intense chapter books. Children need well-researched, engaging, informative non-fiction more than ever. The same rules as above apply, of course, and I would add only this: find creative ways to tell the story of the thing. Perhaps you follow a lima bean from seed to succotash; perhaps you see the Trail of Tears through the eyes of a child on the trail.
And now, a word from our sponsor...
Whatever kind of informational book you write, you will find that there are particular rules and guidelines. Biographies differ from philosophical tomes, scientific studies differ from historical examinations. Whatever the particulars, study good examples in your genre. What makes them work? What guidelines do they follow? In other words... do your homework.
Next time... we get critical. See you next week!
Cheers!