Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life

by Philip Gerard (Contributor)

Gerard covers everything from getting the assignment to conducting a stirring interview to working with an editor - including how to go "where the story lives" to experience the first-hand emotional facts - sights, smells, sounds - that will give your story immediacy; find the right form for the story you want to tell - essay, memoir, nature piece, political analysis, investigative exposes, personality profile; write an opening that catches the reader's attention and an ending that leaves a lasting impression; craft an engaging story by applying fiction elements such as dialogue, plot and conflict; find a voice readers can trust, and a writing style that "sings"; write other people's stories. (Gerard addresses such ethical and legal questions as libel, privacy, "off the record"); and revise your work in light of what you know now ... re-envision what the story really is. Throughout, you'll find examples, advice and inspiration from some of today's greatest nonfiction writers - such as Terry Tempest Williams, Annie Dillard, Barry Lopez and Ron Powers.

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Philip Gerard is the author of 13 books, including The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina. Gerard was the author of Our State's Civil War series. He currently teaches in the department of creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.