The Success of Nonfiction

Nonfiction pieces are successful I think when they read like fiction, which is clearly not possible in all cases of nonfiction (like in the case of this blog post) so maybe I will amend: generally, nonfiction pieces, especially in the case of personal nonfiction, are successful when they read like fiction. It is the responsibility of, and an opportunity to, the writer to make the piece that he or she is writing enjoyable. This is a never ending circle that will always wheel around trying to find the correct answer and never fully find it. No one piece will be enjoyable to all, that’s impossible. However, there are some key factors that play into (generally) successful nonfiction writing.

Key factor number one: Build images in linear fashion. Employ digression to explain.

A writer could use the numbers and letters tactic wherein at the top of each section there is either a number or letter or both which moves the linearity right along, placing the reader in a position to understand that some sections are commentary on the subject and that others are digressions or examples or follow-ups, whatever you’d like to call them, for explaining the commentary. It’s like Q&A, but more interesting.

There is also linearity which comes from chronology or illusion of chronology. For example, a writer may include sections that flow steadily throughout the piece but that jump back and forth between childhood experience and adulthood reflection. This piece of nonfiction may not be numbered or bulleted, but the reader can follow the story easily by understanding that the childhood sections provide the commentary, while the adulthood sections provide the digression. The differentiation will be minute and less distinct than the number and letters tactic, but it is there nonetheless.

Key factor number two: Employ the elements of the novel (i.e. scene, setting, characters, dialogue, drama). In other words, the author of a nonfictional piece needs conflict and vivid imagery to mold the scenes of the story into faux fictional magic.

Successful writers do this by placing the reader (or jolting the reader, rather) from scene to scene, much like we discussed in key factor number one. He has a conflict—say the writer has strong, loathsome feelings regarding laugh tracks—and he uses vivid imagery—describes real scenes in his life which have led him to hate fake laughter.

It would be understood based on the publication and sometimes subtle elements in the story itself, that this is a piece of nonfiction. We would have a good feeling that this is the writer talking about his actual feelings and that it is not a made-up character. But if we set this piece, say, in a Hemingway novel and called the character by a different name and deemed him a cynical, opinionated journalist for the New Yorker and dubbed this a scene in which he passionately expresses his disdain for laugh tracks, the story, in all its nonfictional glory, would be transformed into fiction and no one would ever know the difference. That, my friends, is nonfictional success.