The All Is Lost Moment in Nonfiction

Can there be an All Is Lost Moment in nonfiction?

Here’s an example from The War of Art, which is definitely not fiction.

The hero of The War of Art is the reader. I’m imagining this individual—male or female—to be an aspiring writer/artist/entrepreneur/human being.

The All Is Lost Moment happened before the reader/hero picked up the book. That moment (perhaps many, many moments) was constituted of the realization by the hero/reader that he or she possessed (perhaps in secret) a dream of creative fulfillment or self-realization that he/she had never fully committed to … and that his/her life had been disfigured emotionally and psychologically by this failure to take action in pursuit of that dream.

That’s the All Is Lost Moment.

What’s the Epiphanal Moment? Hopefully it occurs during the reading of The War of Art (or at some point thereafter), when the reader says to him or herself, “I’ve had enough! I can’t go on like this! One way or another, from this moment forward, I’m going to pursue my dream and my calling!!”

Elizabeth Gilbert from her TED talk, “Your Elusive Creative Genius”

Here’s a second example. This one comes from Elizabeth Gilbert’s 21-million-view TED talk, ‘Your Elusive Creative Genius.” In the talk, Ms. Gilbert tells her own story of a moment of personal crisis (in other words, nonfiction) that she experienced after the runaway success of Eat Pray Love.

The All Is Lost Moment was the coming together of her fears (reinforced by the concerns of others) that she could never top that hit, that she would spend the rest of her life banging out books and other creative projects and never, never produce one that rose to the artistic/commercial level of Eat Pray Love.

That’s the All Is Lost Moment.

What’s the Epiphanal Moment (again, in real life, in nonfiction)?

“And what I have to keep telling myself when I get really psyched out about that is don’t be afraid. Don’t be daunted. Just do your job. Continue to show up for your piece of it, whatever that might be. If your job is to dance, do your dance. If the divine, cockeyed genius assigned to your case decides to let some sort of wonderment be glimpsed through your efforts, then ‘Olé!’ And if not, do your dance anyhow. And ‘Olé!’ to you, nonetheless… for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up. “

Ms. Gilbert’s epiphany was not some stroke of brilliance that guaranteed that she would top Eat Pray Love. Quite the opposite. Ms. Gilbert accepted that likely reality. But she added, “I don’t care.”

I’m a writer, Ms. Gilbert said to herself, and I’m going to keep doing my best at that craft and that calling. Come what may, I can do no more. And that, brothers and sisters, is enough.

So indeed, there can be (and, in my opinion, should be) an All Is Lost Moment and an Epiphanal Moment in our self-help book, our Substack post, our biography of our sainted aunt Hilda, and, yes, in our TED talk.

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