The Crafty Writer

Welcome to the second installment of my 8 week course on non-fiction writing. If you haven’t already, why not check out last week’s lesson on finding opportunities to get published? And now, read on…

Gone are the days when non-fiction writing was synonymous with academic tomes. Thank goodness the ‘experts’ are beginning to realise that informative writing does not have to be turgid and boring. From education to commercial magazines, the tone is casual and familiar. For a great example of children’s non-fiction, check out the Horrible Histories series; I wish it had been around when I was at school!

It’s all in the source

Non-fiction writing for a popular readership needs to serve the dual purpose of being informative and entertaining. In this course we will not be discussing academic writing, however, the rigours of research still apply. Make sure the facts you are giving your readers are accurate. Non-fiction books are expected to cite sources, but that is not always the case in writing for magazines. Each publication I write for has a different attributing style. Some require it in the text, others in footnotes or endnotes and still others not at all (take for example my Witch Hunt article). This does not mean, however, that you can be sloppy with your facts and you should always keep your research in case its validity is questioned.

Keep it casual

One of the main problems new writers have when handling non-fiction is formality. Which of these intros do you prefer?

North East England, like the rest of Europe in the 17th Century, has a shameful history that it would like to hide. But with Halloween just a short broomstick ride away I’ve started hunting for the old witches of Northumbria and found a cauldron-full of dirty secrets. (From Witch Hunt)

or

The North East of England in the 17th Century had a series of witch hunts resulting in the execution of hundreds of women. This article will tell you more about them.

Hopefully you will agree that the former is far more entertaining without compromising on accuracy. And that’s important. The moment a catchy phrase or chatty idiom gets in the way of communicating the facts, it’s crossed the line.

Who? Where? When? What? Why? How?

This is the mantra that every journalism student or cub reporter learns on Day 1. The key is to get Who? Where? When? and What? into the first two paragraphs and the Why? and the How? will usually be expanded upon in the rest of the article.

Let us take both of the paragraphs above and see how many of the criteria are included.

Paragraph 1
Who? Witches
Where? North East England
When? 17th Century
What? A cauldron full of secrets

Paragraph 2
Who? Witches
Where? North East England
When? 17th Century
What? Witch hunts and executions.

Hopefully from this exercise you can see that an entertaining article can also be an informative one.

Exercise 1:
Take another Who? Where? When? Why? What? How? Intro:

‘Scientists believe that changes to gardening practises in the south east of England are due to the affects of global warming.’

Work out the answers to the questions then rewrite the paragraph in a more entertaining way while still communicating the core information. Keep your paragraph under 40 words.

Less is more

To quote Gracian: ‘Good things, when short, are twice as good.’ Most writers overwrite their first draft; that’s fine, the key is to be able to cut back to as few words as possible. Magazine editors will give you a word count; stick to it (a double page article with an illustration is around 1200 words). Book editors will negotiate the word count up front; again, stick to it. And at all cost, cut out any repetition. I say again … just joking!

Exercise 2
Cut this 110 word paragraph down to 60 words without losing the essential information:

‘The best violins were made pre-1750, and these are greatly sought after. Names like Stradivarius and Guanerius have taken on mythical proportions, with stories of the discovery of ‘lost violins’ titillating media interest. And of course, the world’s leading violinists only want to play the world’s leading violins. It’s simple economics: a finite supply, an infinite demand. No wonder, in some quarters, it has become such a sordid industry. The great violins were made through a very specialist technology centred in northern Italy with secret knowledge being passed from father to son through a small group of leading violin families. When these families died out, the technology died out too.’

Ready, steady, go!

In a few weeks time we will be looking at Writing Specialist Articles and will discuss some more points on structure and style. For an excellent guide see Nicholas Corder’s chapter ‘Writing Your Article’ in Successful Non-fiction Writing. But for now, just work on getting your article or book started.

Exercise 3:
Last week you came up with ideas for articles and books. With these style points in mind, write the opening paragraph of your article or book.

Next week we will look at blogging and writing for the internet.