Category:

Nonfiction Writing Tips From a Pro Author

7/2/2015

Writing Nonfiction well is probably one of the most important things anyone can do in today's modern complicated world.

We need writers who are objective, concise, fearless, opinionated, heroic!

The internet has given Nonfiction Authors, reporters, bloggers, social media stars...a huge far reaching platform. Now more than ever before we need to have integrity when we pose our tales as true stories!

A NEW TALE by Stu Leventhal will teach you how to report the news, tell true stories, write dramatically without the hype!

# reportingnews #newswritingtip #newsreportingtips #learnreporting #writenews

YES! You too can start a newsletter! Learn Proper Grammar and Great English Composition technique! Become a better writer NOW!

#writingprompts #creativewriting

3 Comments

TRUE TALES

2/21/2014

0 Comments

The Truth The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth! (part 2)

TELLING THE TRUTH, WRITING THE TRUTH

BY Stu Leventhal

Journalism, non-fiction, biography, historic documentaries; for all of these, telling engaging true tales starts with the integrity of the author. A nonfiction author must build his platform on honesty and trust. Tell the truth first and foremost, that is what your readers expect and deserve. Get caught embellishing and you can flush even the most established nonfiction career down the toilet.

The craft of structuring a true story so it is entertaining can be taught. There are many proven, tried and true ways to present a true topic but remember new innovative authors are always showing us that the methods of telling a story in print are as diverse as all the varied delivering styles of standup comedians or religious sermon givers or singing styles.

THE TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION

The popular saying, ‘The Truth is Stranger than Fiction’ has proven itself time and time again. How? Why? While fiction writers are given a huge liberty to make up virtually whatever worlds, scenes and characters as they wish the trick to being successful lies in a fiction author’s ability to make the imaginary tale seem plausible. Super Man may fly and that may be totally impossible in real life but throughout the rest of the story the characters act, talk, react as we have come to expect people to carry and conduct themselves in real life.

Non-fiction; news, memoirs, exposés, history pieces are generally interesting to us because they expose something unexpected. There is no reason to tell a true tale if all the action is predictable and has been told a thousand times before. Thus Non-fiction’s success relies on exposing something unique, unusual and unknown. Nonfiction’s charm lies in the fact that it is all true!

All advances in education rely on writers of truth. Man’s growth and development relies on nonfiction. We must know what went on in the past to pave the way for the future. Non-fiction is man’s story and the tale of man’s quest.

Just like people have different styles of telling a verbal story, there are no wrong ways of telling a written nonfiction tale. The only criteria are that the facts are considered to be true by the author. Of course as with any other craft, some authors are more entertaining or more informative or better at conveying their message than other authors.

Styles of true story telling vary considerably and thus the impact of two true tales written about the same subject can vary considerably. Yet, both these tales, written from different viewpoints can still be considered true and both categorized as nonfiction even though their messages contradict each other.

Writing about observed fact, deciphering and verifying accepted chronicled data as well as confirming and challenging universally perceived theories can be quite challenging. Any policeman who has had the pleasure of recording 5 or 6 very different eye witness accounts of the same crime will contest to the problem of people perceiving things uniquely. Thus there can be many different nonfictional accounts of the very same incident or occurrence. Obviously they all cannot be true but they all can be classified as nonfiction! The requirement for nonfiction classification is that the author believed he or she was documenting the truth at the time of the writing. So, if ten years later, new evidence turns up dispelling a nonfiction work, it remains classified as nonfiction. But any new writing about the same subject must take into account the new evidence in order not to be deemed fiction!

Telling true nonfiction tales with integrity and applied high ethics is truly one of the most important undertakings a man or woman can undertake. In modern days with all our modern distractions, writing quality nonfiction is still just as admirable an undertaking as any ancient monk painstakingly slaving all day and night under candle light to transcribe history for the benefit of all future generations. A NEW TALE salutes all nonfiction authors as well as all fellow creative writers, writing students and scribe want-a -bees for undertaking the noblest craft of mankind.

*If you need help crafting a nonfiction creative writing project contact us with the details so we can give you a free price quote. Email your project details: [email protected]

Send us your project details. Ghost Writing Services Also Available! For a FREE Price Quote E-mail: [email protected]

0 Comments

Non-Fiction Verses Fiction

8/16/2013

0 Comments

The Whole Truth And Nothing But The truth (part one)
By Stu Leventhal

News, journalism, documentaries, expose, non-fiction, biography…Whatever you call them, the telling of true stories demands dedication, commitment, integrity, tenacity for detail, humility, respect and over all writing wisdom and creative savvy.

As a chronicler of human existence you are being entrusted with the most noble, professional career and job responsibility known to man.

Recording the story of mankind is no joke to be taken frivolously especially in the age of the internet.

If you write it today it could be passed around the internet, shared and reposted on thousands even millions of platforms by weeks end. That is power and power needs to be controlled by a tempered hand.

When an author writes then publishes something that they deem to be the total truth; readers, researchers, historians are going to take you at your word. Your writing becomes gospel.

Rarely will what you write be contested! So, if you rush your work to print because you are having a rough patch in your life or because you are fatigued or just frustrated with the dead ends your research keeps running into; for many your version is going to be their only version. Thus, if later it turns out what you say didn’t really happen, it did now!

As a writer of nonfiction not only do you have a responsibility to tell your tales truthfully, but you have the added chore of being entertaining too. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that these two tasks, truth and entertainment can conflict with one another. That is the challenge presented to the noblest profession known to man.

Just telling the truth does no one any good if your stories don’t ever get read because quite frankly, the truth can be a bore! Especially, when compared to some of the wild fiction out there.

Nonfiction writers must also learn how to compete for readers’ limited time and equally limited attention spans.

So, how does a fiction writer specializing in the art of telling true, true, true stories, hope to compete with Hollywood, comic books, music and all the other arts and industries who are filled with just as skilled professionals who are allowed to utilize their vivid, often outrageous imaginations?

Let’s face it, now –a-days, fictionists are expected and even encouraged and hailed for being as crazily creative as possible and nothing is too wild!

The answer is obvious; you don’t compete with them! We’ve all heard the saying “Don’t compare apples to oranges.”

Believe me when I tell you, fictionists are just as worried about competing with us nonfiction authors as we are with them.

Fiction authors do nothing but pine over whether or not their stories are believable and if their dialogs, settings and plots are realistic. Nonfiction has a powerful appeal that the most suspenseful, scary, funny, dramatic or even spiritual fiction can never claim. Nonfiction is true!

The key to making any true story better; more entertaining, funnier, dramatic, emotional…is RESEARCH!

Non-fictionists don’t have to make up anything.

There is a wealth of information out there already about their subject. All they have to do is go find it.

If the story you are penning isn’t turning out to be compelling enough, go back to the well. Dig deeper! If you are taking notes while a person gives you a play by play of an important happening and the tale doesn’t seem to be jarring, ask more detailed questions, find more eyewitnesses.

Get personal, don’t skate around the issues, ask the hard questions, the embarrassing questions, invade peoples’ privacy…of course with their permission! The secret to making a true story interesting is to get someone to open up and show their real emotions.

Gut emotion is where a true story has an imaginary story beat, hands down!

0 Comments

Author

Stu Leventhal has just released a mystery Kindle Book in the suspense mystery detective genre. HIGH SEA by Stu Leventhal is a thriller set on an exotic island resort. check out the Kindle Book Trailer!

Nonfiction Writing Tips From a Pro Author

TRUE TALES

The Truth The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth! (part 2)

Non-Fiction Verses Fiction

Author

Archives

Categories