Story Space: Creating Passion in Your Nonfiction Writing
What’s new in my writing room: If you’re looking for escape from dreary weather, check out my latest novel, Last Bets, for a fast read and fun vacation to a Caribbean island with two women artists who can’t seem to avoid trouble, even in paradise. Just about a year ago this week, Last Bets was selected for Kirkus Reviews’ Top 100 Best Indie Books of the Year! I’m still humbled, stunned, and delighted.
What’s new in your writing room?
Photo by Darío Méndez on UnsplashI’ve long remembered this quote by writer Malcolm Gladwell from the preface to his book What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures.
"Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade," he said. "It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head--even if in the end you conclude that someone else's head is not a place you'd really like to be."
I’ve published a good number of nonfiction books in my writing career. Eleven to date, with five different publishers. Each had their unique topic, but each book worked only if that topic was engaging to the reader.
Sounds simple, obvious, but it’s harder than it appears. It depends on something I’ve named “container.” Basically, it’s the story space you create.
Why is that important to nonfiction today?
Your story’s spaceThe environment of your story, even if it’s all information, delivers your passion for your topic. Here’s where nonfiction writers can borrow a lesson from fiction. Container delivers more emotion than plot, characters, topic, structure, or all of these combined. These are fiction or memoir terms, but in nonfiction lingo we might say information, method, anecdotes, formulas, etc.
Using a fiction technique for nonfiction might seem counter-intuitive; we write nonfiction to inform, to excite, to inspire. But really, we’re after a response, right? We want the reader to become involved in what we’re presenting, even if it’s to disagree. We want an intellectual or emotional response.
In fiction, plot creates momentum. It drives the story forward. It creates tension. What does that in nonfiction?
Story space in nonfictionWhen I wrote nonfiction, I kept coming back to Gladwell’s theory of engagement. I wrote a weekly food column for the Los Angeles Times syndicate, and my editors always wanted a story to go along with whatever I was presenting. Story creates an atmosphere or space for the information to live in, it humanizes the topic so a human reader can relate to it.
My favorite food writers, when I was a food journalist, were those who conveyed emotion in their writing. Their recipes made me want to cook, but the stories that surrounded the recipes—the container—made me feel a tender moment of history when the writer first tasted this dish, or a heart racing with anticipation as they tried it the first time for company. Passion came through those stories.
Why these folks—and me at that time—would rather read a cookbook before bed than a novel. Why they thought about food all the time. If this is you, as a nonfiction writer approaching your subject, your passion needs to come through. And container, the story space you create, is the easiest way to convince us.
Without container, information is just a series of details, like a newspaper report. This, then this. I’m already bored.
Passion for your topicWhen I read nonfiction writers, I read those who have this passion and know how to convey it with story.
Since I love food and food writing, I follow several food writers here on Substack. writes La Briffe. Reichl was editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, among many other accomplishments, and she shares old menus, history, her own memories in the kitchen and as a restaurant critic and writer. What I love most about her posts is the passion that leaks through every description of ingredients or dishes she tastes. She’s excited, therefore I get engaged.
Gladwell shares a similar excitement, as do many nonfiction writers today. Why else would I, as a reader, have become so engaged in the healing of a crime-ridden neighborhood, the comeback of Hush Puppy Shoes, and other examples from Gladwell's long-ago bestseller, The Tipping Point?
When I read it, I didn’t care about Hush Puppies for a millisecond. His passion to engage, not persuade, brought me into the story. It’s a good lesson for all of us writing nonfiction.
Your Weekly Writing ExerciseFind a dead spot in your nonfiction writing, a paragraph or a page.
Ask yourself how you are using one of these five “passion producing” techniques. Insert one to try. See if more passion comes through.
details of physical setting (creating a story space)
use of the five senses (smell, sound, touch, taste, sight)
physical sensations (felt in the body of the writer or person in the anecdote)
word choice (varying the length and punch of words to create rhythm)
paragraph length and flow (same as with word choice)
What did you notice?
Shout Out!I love to give a shout out to writing friends and former students who are publishing their books and encourage my newsletter community to pre-order or order a copy to show your support of fellow writers. Be sure to let me know if you are a former student and will publish soon (pre-orders of your book are available now), or have in the past two months! Just email me at mary[at]marycarrollmoore[dot]com to be included in a future Shout Out! (I’ll keep your listing here for two months.)
Mary Walerak, Finding Alineade (Kirk House Publishers), August
Julia Twaddle, Aurora Syndrome (Dry River Publishing, LLC), August
Karen Lueck, The Green Thread: Reclaiming Our Spiritual Authority (Goodness Press), September
James Francisco Bonilla, An Eye for an I: Growing Up with Blindness, Bigotry, and Family Mental Illness (University of Minnesota Press), November
I’m a lifelong artist, and I love to inspire and support other creative folk, which is why I write this weekly newsletter. My goal with these posts is to help you strengthen your writing practice and creative life so it becomes more satisfying to you.
I’m also the author of 15 books in 3 genres. My third novel, Last Bets (Riverbed Press), was published in April, after becoming an Amazon bestseller during pre-orders. it was also a Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Book of 2024. My second novel, A Woman’s Guide to Search & Rescue, was published in October 2023 and also became an Amazon bestseller and Hot New Release from pre-orders. For twelve years, I worked as a full-time food journalist, most notably through my weekly column for the Los Angeles Times syndicate. My writing-craft book, Your Book Starts Here, won the New Hampshire Literary Awards “People’s Choice” in 2011 and my first novel, Qualities of Light, was nominated for PEN/Faulkner and Lambda Literary awards in 2009. I’ve written Your Weekly Writing Exercise every Friday since 2008.
