Getting Started Non Fiction
Tips for Writing Non-fiction from Carol Tallon
I deeply suspect that, if asked, most published writers would admit to getting it right the first time ‘by accident’. It requires certain perseverance with a dose of planetary alignment to get your book published.
From my own personal experience, I have learned that writing non-fiction is a process. This can be a positive and a negative. It is positive because, once you find the process that works for you, writing will become as natural as getting dressed in the morning. On the negative, it can take a while to streamline this process and it will take a few false starts to really get stuck in. Below are a few points that I wish I could have known in advance:
1. Turn up, keeping turning up and don’t forget to breathe!
While this may not sound original or particularly enlightening, struggling writers should focus on this as a first step. Turn up and keep turning up until it no longer requires any conscious effort. You might not be in the mood to sit at the computer, and you may even feel that it is a waste of time if your mind is blank, turn up anyway. The ego of a writer is a great thing as it means we will not tolerate a void, regardless of whether that void is in our mind, in conversation or on the screen in front of us. Our aim will be to fill that void. It’s a compulsion. Give into it. Over time, with discipline, your words and ideas will be transformed into concepts that can be shared with the world.
Defamation: Staying out of Trouble When Writing Non-fiction with Rachel Fehily
Most defamation cases are brought by litigants who have been defamed by newspapers. Authors can also be targets for defamation proceedings and publishers don’t like to be sued for defamation so it pays to know what you can and cannot say!
Litigation is expensive and can ruin the reputation of the author and the publisher. The law of defamation is different in different countries but for the purposes of Ireland the following is a brief overview of the law that I hope will point you in the right direction:
What is defamation?
Defamation law was updated in 2009 - the use of the terms “libel” and “slander” have been replaced by the word “defamation.” “Defamation” means the publication by any means of a defamatory statement. It can be published orally or in writing, by visual images, on the television, radio, internet or electronic communication.
A defamatory statement is a statement that tends to injure a person’s reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society.
Read more: Defamation: Staying out of Trouble When Writing Non-fiction with Rachel Fehily
The Seven Rules of Writing
Barrister and author Rachel Fehily brings you a wry look at the essentials of writing - take note!
1. Domesticity is the Enemy
I write at home and it’s a disaster. I have a computer set up on a desk in the house and I pretend to myself that I can access it whenever I feel like it and fit in my writing around my legal work and child rearing duties.
Yeah right.
So I get up in the morning with the intention to write but before I get near the computer I can’t help but notice list of chores crying out for attention: the magical never ending pile of laundry, the permanently dirty dog bowl, an unemptied dishwasher and dust on the top of the doors (does anyone ever clean the top of their doors?).
Then the phone rings and the dog whines and demands a walk.
If I do decide to try and sneak in a bit of writing when the kids are around you can bet they’ll want to start using the computer as soon as I sit down. Big dilemma – which is more important, their homework or my magnum opus? No contest really.
Writing What You Know
This is the first in a series of articles on writing non-fiction. In it Rachel Fehily discusses how to improve the tone and style of your non-fiction. Over the next few weeks she will be helping non-fiction writers improve their work by offering tips on different aspects of non-fiction writing, including research, the act of writing, presentation, exercises for writing and looking for a publisher. Rachel Fehily is a barrister and a mediator. Her book “Break Up, Don’t Crack Up: A practical guide to dealing with the end of your marriage or relationship in Ireland” is due for publication in January 2012. Her website is http://www.familylawmediator.ie/
Novels can be plucked out of the air and the imagination. The only rule is that there are no rules. Anything goes. You can make it up, invent new words and ignore grammer. Think of the portmanteau words of James Joyce, magical realism of Márquez and hysterical realism of Zadie Smith.
Are you feeling inferior as a non-fiction writer? Do you think you’ve given up on your dream of becoming a great artist? Don’t fret. You can still be artistic, creative and passionate but like all great artists you will have to channel it with discipline.
Your book is not a chocolate and cream covered fantasy. It’s a solid meal full of events, facts or information - but it’s not going to be boring. Never forget that you have a duty to your reader to entertain as well as inform.
Self Help for Success
Are you stuck trying to write a novel? Are you finding it difficult to get started? Can’t find an agent? Can’t get published? Maybe you should expand your horizons and think about writing non-fiction. It’s a great way to get started as a writer and publishers and agents will take you more seriously once you’ve published your first book in any genre.
There’s a growing market for books in the self-help genre. If you have an area of expertise you’d like to share or you want to further your career by marketing your knowledge, then you should put away your novel for a while and seriously think about writing a self help book.
The first two things you should think about before you sit down to write your non-fiction book in the self-help genre are (1) your subject and (2) your reader.
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