4 Things I've Learned About Writing Reading Nonfiction
I’m going to admit to you my reading weakness: nonfiction. I’m not crazy about long form nonfiction. I’ll read short form (essay, articles, etc.), but I will only pick up a nonfiction book if someone recommends it to me or I’m in the midst of researching a topic for my own work.
Why? I prefer fiction for its juiciness and drama. I love to use my imagination. Nonfiction, in many ways, is rooted in the cut and dry of informative writing. There are exceptions to this of course: Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me, Tara Westover’s Education, Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime or Michelle Obama’s Becoming name a few. When I come across a work of nonfiction I like, I pay attention because there’s a lot to be learned between the covers of a well written work of nonfiction.
These are 4 of my lessons:
Look, unless it's a narrative memoir, the amount of research that goes into conveying the nuts and bolts about a topic from a particular framework has to be rooted in research. Two of my favorite books, both written by Peggy Orenstein Girls & Sex (2016) and Boys & Sex (2020) are rooted in years of anecdotal evidence, a plethora of interviews, and a literature review to hold up any particular claims.
Research is the bread and butter of the nonfiction genre. And this skill, while perhaps not as utilized in text as a fiction writer, is equally important to understanding context around topics. One example was writing Griffin Nichols from In the Echo of this Ghost Town. I am obviously not a male, nor am I one grappling with his male identity or his understanding of male culture. I needed more perspective, so I turned to books written by men (and Peggy Orenstein who interviewed hundreds of young men) about the topic. Though the books weren’t used as source material for my work, I heavily relied on the themes and suppositions offered to help me understand the topic on a deeper scale.
One thing that all fiction writers can gain from reading nonfiction is the absolute necessity of clarity in conveying meaning. Often the brevity and pithiness of the work conveys a wealth of meaning. This is a strong lesson about making the words, the short scenes, the chapters work harder with less words. Hemingway anyone?
Just like with language and clarity, stellar nonfiction relies on the inclusion of content that adds to the work in its entirety. Anything extraneous is left out. There is reliance on the condition that if it is text, it is worth paying attention to. Fiction writers get this wrong a lot, adding details and flourish that aren’t important for a particular scene or in the broader context of the work’s structure. There is a lesson in recognizing that not everything should be included, and often, less is more just as there is a perfect dance between showing and telling.
Finally, another lesson I have been able to attribute to my own writing is the section “pay off”. When reading nonfiction, each section, each chapter provides the reader with a takeaway of sorts. Whether it’s a small textual morsel to chew on intellectually or an actual nugget of information about the topic, nonfiction writer’s know that their reader needs to walk away from reading having gained something meaningful. This keeps readers invested and reading, and eventually contributes to what’s beyond the book.
Fiction writers don’t always recognize this in the smaller context of scene to scene. Sure, we might recognize that the scene contributes to the next, which adds to the next, which leads us to the final battle, but what keeps the reader reading from scene to scene? It’s the emotional takeaway, the payout a fiction writer offers in little nuggets or morsels about character growth, relationship teases, momentum shift, or one more clue. Every scene should matter in the broader context of the development of character and narrative, but not at the detriment of becoming a play-by-play. While this might be obvious to the author, it needs to be intuitively sensed by the reader to keep them invested.
I vow to be a better nonfiction reader. And if you have a recommendation for me, drop it in the comments!
