The Confabulator Cafe

Tag: non-fiction

  • What’s the latest non-fiction book you read and why?

    Fiction writers need to read. It’s how we absorb stories best. Drinking coffee fuels the actual writing but things from the “real” world actually fuel the imagination. This week we’re asking each other what we’ve read that comes under the category of non-fiction. Whether it’s a biography or a science book, something about history or journalism, it’s going to be about something real and that’s what will inspire us to write something fantastic.

    Have you tried the dark roast we have? It’s excellent, but then so is the organic coffee. And did you know that we only buy free trade?

     

    R.L. Naquin:

    Most of the non-fiction books I read have to do with the craft of writing. With book three in my series looming, my main characters are going to have to sleep with each other soon. I can’t get around it anymore. So, I’m currently reading Be a Sex-Writing Strumpet by Stacia Kane. That’s right. There’s a how-to book out there for everything.

     

    Jason Arnett:

    The last non-fiction book I got was about writing (and that may be a theme here today) but the last one I read was a biography of a writer. Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century was fascinating and manages to collect the bits and pieces of a biography of the Grand Master from other biographies of authors into one place. I’m also spending some time with Brian Greene’s The Hidden Reality, though it’s not at the top of my reading list every day as the science there is mind-bending though the writing is sharp and crisp.

     

    Christie Holland

    The last non-fiction book I read was How Good People Make Touch Choices by Rushworth M. Kidder.  Oh, you probably meant something that I didn’t read for a class.  That would be The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks.  It was much more interesting and will be much more helpful when the zombie apocalypse happens.

     

    Paul Swearingen

    The Long Walk – Slavomir Rawicz

    This astounding book reads like a novel – a Polish teenager gets caught up in Russian deportations to Siberia in the early days of World War II, is taken to a prison camp, befriends the wife of the camp director, steals supplies, breaks out with a small group, heads south, adds a 16-year-old girl who is escaping from another camp to their group, walks across Siberia and Mongolia before losing two members in the Gobi desert, heads on through Tibet, loses another group member, see yeti, and end up in India, where he loses his mind for a month but finally recovers.

    I am personally fascinated by tales of survival and the triumph of the individual; this one was a one-sitting read.

     

    Nancy Cayton Myers

    Story by Robert McKee.  Seminal screenwriting text, that I’m never not reading.  This book, more than any, has helped me with story structure, character, plot, image, and how to make decisions at all phases of the writing process.   It’s a great how-to on the work and art of storytelling

     

    Sara Lundberg

    I’m right in the middle of reading The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide by John Seymour. I have this fanciful dream of someday acquiring a couple acres of land and try to live as simply and self-sufficiently as possible, but I have no idea where to even start. I figure it’ll be handy to have my own self-sufficient community for when the zombie apocalypse occurs.

     

    Jack Campbell, Jr.

    I have been reading The Ultimate Screenwriter’s Workbook by Ron Peterson. Ron’s bootcamp was the first writing workshop I had ever attended. Coming up on April’s Script Frenzy, it seemed fitting to re-read his book. I’m not sure if you can actually buy the book, I have never been able to find it anywhere other than at his class, but it is the basis of my screenwriting process. Ron will always sit right next to Robert McKee, Syd Field, and Aristotle on my desk.

  • Am I Supposed to Have a Character, or Be One?

    This week’s question: How do you develop your characters?

    I would like to object to the form of the question in that it involves facts not in evidence: to wit, that I am a fiction writer.

    Yes, I have on occasion committed fiction. Each November I do Nanowrimo, stringing together some 50,000 words of original— well, dreck is not too harsh— and there are a few instances of fanfic in my past (I was young and naive, all the cool kids were doing it, I didn’t inhale…). Every once in a while a stray plot bunny hops into my yard to die of neglect. But my bread and butter, quite literally, lie in non-fiction writing.
    When I write fiction, it is entirely an exploratory exercise. I’m building a world, manipulating my characters, applying my hard-won wisdom to their travails (also inflicted by myself). Sometimes it’s glorious. Often it’s a disaster. I don’t care either way, because I’m far more interested in the experience of creation than the end product.

    When klutzy, unathletic me was involved in sports, I always enjoyed learning the skills, but I never cared to compete. Other athletes couldn’t understand this at all, “What’s the point if you don’t want to be a champion?” they would wail, utterly befuddled. The point, of course, was the inward journey, the acquisition of skills, strengthening and using my body—never the score. In fact, I found scores and rankings the complete opposite of motivational. Who wants to see their name constantly at the bottom of the list?

    The same is true for having others read my fiction. I have friends who are published, and congratulations to them all. But I have no desire whatsoever to follow in their footsteps, to seek notoriety, glory, or acclaim for my work. There are those who ask, “What’s the point if you’ve not going to becomes a Big Name Author?” I have no answer except for the inside journey. I don’t need to seek anyone’s approval to keep writing. I don’t even want their approval. It would ruin the fun.

  • On Setting the “Scene” in Technical Writing

    All writing is persuasive writing—first you must persuade the reader to keep reading, if for no other reason than to justify your labor. You must persuade those who paid for your work that their money has not been wasted, and you must persuade your inevitable critics that you have sufficient credibility to make your argument. A fiction writer might have five pages to make their case. A technical writer is lucky to have five paragraphs to cover the same territory; more likely, five sentences. Nobody is reading your work for fun, so you have to set your scene quickly, directly, and elegantly.

    Who, what, when, where, why, and how? Who is involved, what is the situation, when did it start, where can it be found, why do we care, and how bad is it? There are potentially carcinogenic fracking chemicals in drinking water in Pennsylvania. The city council needs to know more about backyard chicken raising before changing an ordinance. Congratulations, you have just purchased our software! In the case of Smith vs. Jones, the defendant requests a dismissal on the grounds that the plaintiff has not suffered damages. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, … a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

    As far as the mechanics goes, just say it straight out, using clear, direct language that commands the reader’s assent. Don’t imply, don’t infer, don’t force the reader to come to their own conclusions. Imagine that they are busy people who want to be told what to think, preferably somewhere on the first page.

    Note: this is for non-fiction writing. In fiction, half the fun is in implying things. However, setting up a red herring in a policy document? Ninety percent of your audience will come to the wrong conclusion.