Creative Non-Fiction

Hey, writerly types, we spend a lot of time covering fiction on this blog because that's the main topic we discuss. But what about the other side of creative writing? No, not poetry. I'm referring to creative non-fiction. Let's bang that drum this week, shall we?

What kind of non-fiction do you prefer to write/read? Personal essays, how-tos, researched topics, true accounts (biographies, true crime, etc.)?

Alisa Richie Childress: I write personal essays. I write stories from my own life about mental health struggles (mine and my son's). Caregiving for me mother who passed from Alzheimer's last year. A lot about grief as I lost both of my parents in three years, my dad from cancer in May 2020, and my mom from Alzheimer's in June 2023. I write about parenting and what it is like to raise a child who had a major mental health crisis and who is gay (we live in a red state with conservative family members). Mostly I with about whatever I feel like I need to get out and what I hope will help others. My blog is alisachildress.com. I have been published in physical and online journals and write a lot on Medium.

Brian K Morris: I like to read mostly historical and scientific books when I read nonfiction. These days, I'm mostly into the business behind the creative efforts (such as how the comic companies were run by people affiliated with organized crime, or the boom/bust periods of comic books) these days. I also enjoy books on writing and marketing because I always want to do better at my job.

L. Andrew Cooper: I’ve been writing a lot of interviews for which I do extensive prep and into which I put significant thought, so that’s a biggie. Otherwise, I’ve done a lot of academic literary and film criticism, and after a long hiatus, I recently got back into film criticism a bit and found I still enjoy it. As for reading, I enjoy reading non-fiction for research related to whatever I’m writing (fiction or non). Otherwise, I enjoy reading philosophy.

Elizabeth Donald: Nonfiction is my bread and butter. I took my journalism degree into the newspaper world in 1997 and have worked in the news ever since, including my time on the national ethics committee and as president of the St. Louis Society of Professional Journalists. I was a full-time newspaper reporter for more than 20 years and I covered every beat except sports. I have stood in the snow outside a murder site and waited for an indicted governor at the end of a long dusty road and interviewed a president before he was anybody. Sometimes it was the county fair and sometimes it was the vicious beating death of a toddler. I wrote stories that changed the law and stories no one read. 

I went freelance in 2018 so I could have the freedom to go to grad school and begin teaching, but I have continued to work for local and regional news organizations, for regional and national magazines and so on, including a few investigative pieces. Freelancing has also given me the freedom to write more personal essays, writing essays and other free-form nonfiction, most of which is published on Patreon and Medium if it is not picked up by a magazine.

Scott Roche: Read - Biographies, history (particularly of science), and religious topics (not solely my religion, though primarily). Write - How to, reviews, commentary, and I'm getting to the point where I want to write some memoir-adjacent stuff.

Sean Taylor: I read a lot of various shades of nonfiction, everything from religious stuff (both classic like Augustine's City of God and contemporary progressive like Jim Wallis and Keith Giles), political/cultural stuff (currently reading White Rage and Hatemonger), to history (my fave is Lies My Teacher Told Me), and then also more fun stuff like books about horror and giallo movies and bios of my favorite actors and actresses. In terms of writing, I tend to do more essays about reading (like here on the blog), movie reviews (for a new book), and articles about the art and craft of writing. 

Van Allen Plexico: Most of my top sellers are nonfiction. Two books about the Avengers comics (I edited and coordinated both and wrote sections) and five books about Auburn sports (co-authored with my podcast cohost).

The Avengers books got me badges to Heroes Con and raised a lot of money for charity; the Auburn books have gotten me TV and radio appearances, speaking engagements before alumni/fan groups, and several book signings.

So yeah, I love writing nonfiction.

I also enjoy reading it a lot -- as a History professor I sort of have to -- and I find nonfiction works better in general on Audible than fiction does. So it's easier for me to listen to.

When writing non-fiction, particularly if you also write fiction, how does your routine or strategy differ from when you write fiction (if at all)?

Elizabeth Donald: Nonfiction and fiction use completely different brain cells, at least for me. My newspaper colleagues used to joke that I could sneak in a novel when the police beat was quiet, but I can’t work that way. After 25-odd years of writing news every day, I can turn out a high-quality news story in 15 minutes. It’s like falling off the proverbial log. Fiction, on the other hand, requires a good energy environment, the right caffeinated beverage, the alignment of the stars and planets and possibly the sacrifice of the nearest available virgin for the words to come. You’d think it would be easier to write stuff you can make up rather than the stuff that has to be accurate, ethical, responsible and all that jazz, but for me, the reverse is true. This goes back to one of those old writing saws we all hear and ignore: practice practice practice. Every word you write makes you a better writer, and I know journalism is easy for me because I’ve written 2-5 stories every day for decades. If I wrote fiction all day, every day for the next 20 years, maybe that would be like falling off a log.

Van Allen Plexico: I've found that when writing nonfiction I tend to outline very carefully beforehand--more even than I do in fiction. With fiction, I'm usually trying to leave myself lots of leeway to change the story as it wants to change when it unfolds.

With nonfiction, I need to know up front, "Okay, this section will cover the Sonny Smith years of AU Basketball; and this first chapter will be about how Auburn hired him and his first press conference and the preseason and then how his first team fared. And then the next chapter will be about how he recruited Charles Barkley and about Charles as a freshman. And then a separate chapter just of funny stories about Charles. And then..." sort of like that.

Alisa Richie Childress: I do not really write fiction, but I would like to. I have written a short piece in the Imaginarium anthology and am working on another. I have some ideas for novels. But I do not have a good fiction writing process. Or really a great writing discipline at all. I am working on this.

L. Andrew Cooper: Although I’m big in outlines for both fiction and non, for non, there’s an even more structured funnel process that goes from reading and research to organizing notes into conceptual groups that become outline points that become sections, paragraphs, etc.

Sean Taylor: It's actually easier for me to write nonfiction than fiction. I think this comes from being a Literature major in college and having to write so many essays and papers. They just kind of roll out of my brain onto the page. Fiction becomes so much more personal and that slows me down a lot because I really try to get my first draft super close to the way I want it. Nonfiction is the kind of thing I tend to trust myself to go back and edit/rewrite as needed.

Brian K Morris: Before I focused on New Pulp fiction, I wrote a number of articles about comic books. Usually, I'd look for the drama in the project (editorial whims, stumbling blocks in the production process, inherent challenges in changing a series' direction, etc.) and build a narrative with a satisfying conclusion. For instance, one of my favorite articles for Back Issue Magazine was about the final tales of the Silver Age Supergirl, how she'd gone from Superman's Secret Weapon to public acceptance, on-off powers, different locales, then her eventual death to become a spirit that helped talk people off the ledge, returning to her roots as a "secret weapon" for good.

What do you find most fulfilling about non-fiction writing?

Scott Roche: For me, any writing scratches roughly the same itch. Writing non-fiction does tap into a different vein. It requires more research/experience. For me it requires a different kind of brain work. I wouldn't say it uses a different part of your brain since I haven't done that research and am not a psychologist/neurologist, but it would make sense to me if it did.

Elizabeth Donald: I always knew I wanted to write and create, and I wanted to be in public service. Journalism allowed me to indulge both, while also engaging my brain, and I was able to make some small difference in the world around me. It is an incredibly difficult job, poorly paid with wildly unpredictable hours and an enormous emotional and mental toll, and as a weekend bonus, absolutely everyone hates you! We burn up new journalists at an alarming rate. But I loved it, and I still do. Doing what we do is a privilege, and one I’ve never taken for granted: we tell people what happened today, because they need to know. It’s that simple, and that complex, and completely unappreciated in this modern era. We write the first rough draft of history, as Phillip Graham said, and that is an enormous responsibility, as well as our honor.

Sean Taylor: When I write about writing, which is the bulk of my nonfiction, I'm telling the story of who I am directly. When I write fiction, it's still telling my story too, but it's far more subtle, far more hidden behind the symbols and the themes. With nonfiction, I can just come out and say what I think, feel, believe, etc. 

Van Allen Plexico: The really creative part of that kind of book for me is when I write the beginning and the ending, where I lay out what the book is trying to do, and then I make the closing argument at the end for what I was trying to say in it.

L. Andrew Cooper: I get to say what’s on my mind quite directly!

Alisa Richie Childress: The type of writing I do is very cathartic. Putting it all in paper helps me to organize me thoughts and my feelings in a way that I cannot do if I keep them in my head, it even if I am just journaling. Having an imagined audience to talk to helps me with clarity. I also hope that I am helping others. It really makes me feel good when someone tells me how much something I said resonated with them or helped them in their journey.

Brian K Morris: I enjoy finding out new ways of looking at something real, whether it's the history of a comic book character, getting perspective on a creator and their thinking, or instructing WHY something has merit, such as writing book reviews and how simple it can be.