Writing narrative nonfiction is more than putting facts on a page. It takes a steady hand to pull the story out of factual events and make it exciting. Whether you’re retelling your favorite historical event or sharing your own story, these tips can help.
What is Narrative Nonfiction?
Sometimes called creative nonfiction, narrative nonfiction retells true events in the style of a fiction novel. In other words: narrative nonfiction is the art of relaying facts as a story. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a great example of narrative nonfiction. The 1966 smash hit blends true accounts of murder with gripping literary techniques and a dramatic style. The seamless combo of truth an artistic flair not only sealed Capote’s position as an icon of the genre but helped to change the way we approach nonfiction today.
Narrative Nonfiction vs. Memoir?
The short answer is: yes, but probably not as much as you think. Narrative nonfiction gives a detailed story of true events experienced by someone else, while memoirs focus solely on your own true-to-life story.
Now that we’re up to speed on what nonfiction is, let’s take a deeper look at how to write it successfully.
Make Sure You’re Telling a Story
In other words: make sure there’s still a narrative structure! Some nonfiction authors think that nonfiction doesn’t need traditional story structure and instead stick to reciting facts in a timeline of events. While this approach gets the information in front of the reader, it doesn’t do much to grab and keep their attention. Successful narrative nonfiction should make the reader feel like they picked up a novel, not a textbook. At the very least, there should be “characters” (real people from the story), some type of setting, and a defined beginning, middle, and an end that draws the whole thing together.
For example, if you were writing about the civil rights movement in America, you’d likely want to focus on the key figures, ideas and social climate that drove that movement rather than listing dates and historical events. Diving deeper, past the impersonal facts makes a nonfiction novel something that a reader can identify and engage with instead of simply understanding it.
Do Your Research!
One of the biggest challenges of narrative nonfiction is the sheer volume of knowledge you need to make it work. This is less true when it comes to writing memoirs (after all, you’re kind of the expert on you), but it’s essential to telling someone else’s story. Believe it or not, research is often where the “magic” happens when writing narrative nonfiction. A solid knowledge base gives you a panoramic view of the story which makes it easier to retell in an interesting way.
Research isn’t just to help make your story pop, it’s also essential to presenting a factually accurate account. Whenever possible, take your research beyond the web! Diversify your sources by researching articles, books, or even interviewing living subjects when possible. You may even stumble across interesting information you hadn’t known before!
Use Emotional and Descriptive Language
As we said before, narrative nonfiction shouldn’t read like a textbook. This often means taking the facts of a story and then going a few steps deeper to explore how those facts and events impacted the characters and the world around them. That’s where all the “flavor” of writing narrative nonfiction is hiding.
Well-rounded narrative nonfiction should reach out and hold the readers’ attention, and bland facts simply don’t do that.
For example:
“The Great Depression, which started in 1929, was the worst economic crisis of the industrial world and lasted until 1939.”
And
“Black Thursday, the first plummet of the Dow Jones, marked the beginning of unimaginable hardship for many Americans and the world at large.”
The first example could have been pulled from a schoolbook, while the second example immediately centers the story on the human aspect while still acknowledging historical accuracy.
But Don’t Exaggerate (Too Much)!
It’s natural to want to write something that excites, and fiction techniques can be a great way to do that. However, narrative nonfiction draws a hard line between artful emphasis and making stuff up.
If you were writing about an athlete overcoming adversity and winning big, you may emphasize both the struggle and the victory because they’re the most impactful. You may even combine or slightly embellish certain events to highlight these impactful elements for the reader. But what’s on the page still needs to be true.
Embellishment takes a negative turn when they misrepresent the facts or used for “shock and awe” in a dishonest way. A prime—and astonishing—example of this is the since-debunked memoir, A Million Little Pieces, by author James Frey. The book accounts Frey’s time in and out of rehab, struggling with substance abuse and law enforcement. While some of the personal details have true elements, most of the memoir turned out to fake. It sort of defeats the purpose of “nonfiction.”
Whether the story you’re telling is yours or someone else’s, all it takes is a little bit of finesse—and maybe a lot of research—to knock it out of the park.
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