 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  "If you are going to write about the truth you must have a deep desire to know the truth. If you settle for anything less, your readers will sense in your writing that you have settled!" - Read... A NEW TALE by Stu Leventhal
Real Verses Make-believe
By Stu Leventhal How creatively can nonfiction be written before it is disqualified from the nonfiction genre? That is the question every non-fictionist eventually ends up staring in the face! Nonfiction is supposed to be about facts and proven data which can be tough to write about entertainingly for long stretches without ad-libbing. But fabricating is not allowed! Guessing and supposing and filling in the grey areas that one is not sure of is a no go, against the rules! You cannot make anything up if you wish your work to stay in the nonfiction category! Therefore, it should be easy for us all to agree that research is the key to great nonfiction writing. The more research an author does the more material he or she has to work with. The goal is to show a complete representation of a specific time period; the ugliness and the beauty, the good and the bad, the boring and exciting. The quest has always been to find more truth! Readers want to know why! Why did it happen? Could the bad and the hurt have been avoided? Can the beauty be duplicated, the blue print learned, the triumph bottled and distributed so we all can benefit or is mankind destined to repeat the same mistakes over and over again? Is truth the ultimate oxymoron? Is there ever really one complete undebatable version of the truth? I have said to my students often that when you find yourself working extremely hard to explain something you should stop and take a step back then reevaluate your idea or premise. The truth is not evasive and usually even young children can recognize it. Therefore it should not take a scholar or a professor or a genius to puzzle out the truth and then even more effort to point it out to the rest of us! Nonfiction is always about history, things that have actually happened. Readers are seeking new ideas and new perspectives not old ideas that have been beaten to death and re-hatched many times already. So the challenge for writing successful creative nonfiction lies in the question; how can we write about happenings gone by and bring something new and worthwhile to the discussions? Time marches on but history should not be forgotten. Humans shall evolve, mankind will progress; it is man’s legacy to continue to develop. Remembering where we came from is important if we are to move forward with confidence. The future is directly related to the past. Creative nonfiction is not meant to keep old irrelevant discussions alive! Creative nonfiction is here to help us understand the present and build a better future. Our ancestors did not always answer life’s questions thoroughly and so many of those same questions still haunt us. Those who came before us did the best they could with what they had to work with and they generously made it their business to pass on to the next generation their best knowledge. Our job is to continue to pass this knowledge down the line adding what we can add. We now know the earth is round instead of flat but that does not mean we laugh at our ancestors for believing the earth was flat or for believing in witches or for worshipping all the different Gods of Greek mythology; Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Hermes, Aphrodite, Athena… We continue to tell their stories with awe and pleasure! This is the purpose of great creative nonfiction writing! Make the tales of our past pertain to our present issues and future wellbeing and you will have readers eating out of your hand. Our ancestors struggled for our benefit; their stories deserve our utmost respect. History is exciting and interesting as is all human life and human endeavors. How can history not be relevant to today? Without history there would be no today or tomorrow! Creative nonfiction is modern man’s means of showing respect and thanks for all the work everyone who came before us contributed to our state of affairs. Through creative nonfiction we pay homage to all the great deeds and sacrifices people made and are still making just by living and struggling. The key is to show a way of life as close as possible to the way it actually was. To accomplish writing of that quality, you start with a deep love for one’s fellow human being! *Need some help sprucing up your nonfiction projects contact: [email protected] DEFINING NONFICTION WRITING
Nonfiction is Writing That Deals With Reality TELLING THE TRUTH! Nonfiction Exposed! By Stuart Leventhal Nonfiction is a classification or category of literature consisting of works of prose other than fiction. Simply put, since fiction is the term applied to fake, make believe, imaginary stories then Nonfiction works are Real Stories, true stories, stories that actually happened about people and places that actually existed! Literary works that are not fabricated by the author’s imagination often take considerable skill and discipline in order to be written in a way that captures and holds the reader’s full attention span over the long haul of the piece. Good nonfiction writing requires siphoning out the gist or essence of life’s moments then replaying them for your audience. Your readers do not want to hear about every single thing that happened and you do not have the time to depict everything either. Your readers are counting on you to tell them the important stuff, the defining moments then to go into explicit detail when the details are worth your readers’ time. Nonfiction includes narrative prose that reflects reality and depicts or reenacts true events as they actually happened. Attention to detail, adherence to facts, figures and getting the data correct is all of the utmost importance. Nonfiction text often deals with or offers opinions or conjectures upon facts and reality but it never alters the facts. Historic essays and Biographies are all good examples of nonfiction. Prose accounts of real people, places, objects, things and ideas or events are all nonfiction. Nonfiction covers everything from instructional manuals to history, from science text books to cooking and gardening books. Nonfiction books include law books, diet books, self-help books and travel books. There is also Creative Nonfiction Writing, which at first may seem like a contradiction of words since when we are dealing with telling the truth we are often taught we are not supposed to get creative! But remember, factual stories can be presented in many different, varying, innovative and unique ways without changing or altering the facts! Creative Nonfiction Authors are breaking ground all the time with telling true stories more entertainingly. Creative Nonfiction Authors have recently been having great successes exploring nontraditional uses of storytelling to hammer home ideas and to teach in the mostly non-story telling arenas of higher education and learning that are more used to the text book style, memorization types of teaching and learning such as in the scientific and mathematical fields where the emphasis has been mostly focused on memorization of formulas, definitions and theories. Anyone can go to a library and borrow a pile of books on a subject, read through the books taking out episodes that one feels are important, cross check and confirm the facts, dates, figures and names with other books then compile a summary text of the events based on all the accounts gone over. There is a place for that kind of writing; school text books, history class…After all it is important that mankind remember history accurately and pass the details of the events down to the new generations so they can learn from our mistakes and accomplishment and honor our historic heroes and geniuses and celebrate worthy accomplishments but that is not creative nonfiction writing. Creative nonfiction writing goes deeper and evaluates things from more than just the popular points of view. There are facts and then there are always the stories behind the facts. These smaller tales are equally if not more important than the big picture but they are a lot lesser known and rarely documented or explored thoroughly. For example: 1245 people die in one week in a small town in the hills of Maine from a still unidentified, mysterious illness. The outbreak came suddenly claiming the first victim little Henry Barney Forsythia the 3rd just 11 years old at 4pm July 16th. The fifth grader, Forsythia suddenly collapsed on the basketball court during a scrimmage game. He never recovered! The disease, if that was what it was, (poison natural or deliberate was never ruled out) swept through the rural town downing victim after victim for seven straight days! On july23 the sudden collapsing or pedestrians ceased and so did the unexplained deaths, just as mysteriously as they had begun. After a full two weeks past with no more symptoms appearing the army finally lifted their quarantine clearing the town folk to go back to resuming normal activities which the survivors attempted to do to the best of their ability considering the travesty the had just experienced. Now the above info may make for fascinating news stories around the globe and even great nonfiction background for essays for medical journals but can you see how telling the more personal true story of any of the victims or lucky survivors or doctors or scientists who worked on the strange case or politicians who dealt with the social damage or family members of the victims involved in the episode whose lives were devastated by the unexplained loss of their loved ones would be much more engaging? Sure the main large more talked about story is still the most important story but it really only is important due to the way it influences so many other smaller stories. Your readers’ knowledge is enhanced by your writing helping them to understanding the relationship between the big picture and the effect it has on altering or shaping all the little tales. When we add knowledge to a read we add meaning and purpose increasing the value and fulfillment of the read and thus enhance and extend the readers enjoyment. Sometimes the impression an informative, enlightening read makes on us can last a long time even the rest of our life. In this way, exposing one’s mind and senses to a well written creative nonfiction writing piece can be life altering. The power of creative nonfiction writing is that it personifies the big events of history. It converts vague, staggering large numbers and often boat loads of confusing data into emotionally charged relevant scenes which the reader can better relate to. Nonfiction is the record of human existence. Nonfiction tells the tale of our heritage; keeps the memory of our ancestors alive and reminds us of from where we have come and how we have grown. Nonfiction is also all of societies rule and regulations and our guides, tips and instructions for living. That being said, nonfiction writers have a lot of responsibility to live up to! Want to learn more about Writing Nonfiction? Check out these recommended readings! RECOMMENDED READS: News Reporting: http://www.anewtale.com/news-reporting.html Literature: http://www.anewtale.com/literature.html 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] WHEN WRITING NON-FICTION THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO GET YOUR FACTS CORRECT. THE READER IS RELYING ON YOU TO BE SURE ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE WRITING. THE READER EXPECTS YOU TO KNOW MORE THAN THEY DO. CREATIVE WRITING NON-FICTION AUTHORS NEED TO WRITE WITH INTEGRITY!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 eye witnesses. 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!  The World of the Nonfiction Writer by Stu Leventhal Nonfiction means fact! Libraries, book stores, book catalog houses use the terminology; nonfiction and fiction to separate their books into two main categories. Any type of writing where all aspects of the details are 100% true, would be classified as nonfiction and fiction is everything that is not true, meaning imaginary writing. Also, usually included in the nonfiction, true, textual category are any works that an author wrote then published with the sincere belief at the time, that the account was true, despite there being conflicting accounts of the subject matter at hand for example, new evidence can pop up a few years later or old knowledge is deciphered to a different conclusion years after the publication or perhaps better technology is developed that disproves some or all of the author’s statements. If it was written as a nonfiction book, it stays classified as a nonfiction book. Now, obviously, scientific journals and history books for example are going to be updated as new information is constantly being unearthed and analyzed and man’s knowledge continues to grow and advance. As we progress, man naturally is disproving and proposing new theories all the time. But, nonfiction text is still considered nonfiction even if it is disproven because it still represents what was believed to be true during its time of being written and published. Books, stories and novels are not shuffled back and forth between the nonfiction and fiction as they are proven to be true or proven to be inaccurate. Furthermore, the classification of nonfiction is not used as a legal definition of truth or to label facts to be courtroom worthy or un-debatable but only as a literary means of defining the nature of an author’s work. But if the author knowingly writes falsehoods then his words would have to be classified as fiction. If one intentionally tries to pass off false information as true that would be deemed deception.
It must also be mentioned that the lines between the truth and lies may seem clear cut but when it comes to writing about a vastly recognized subject such as a well-known historical event there will be many different publications on a given subject at any specific time and different authors will no-doubt have very conflicting view points on what the facts actually are or were. Now, we all know that different, conflicting versions of the same events cannot all be true! Yet, these varying perspectives on the same subject will all still be classified as nonfiction literary works even though they don’t all agree. Some examples of nonfiction are; medical journals, college text books, biographies, documentaries, essays and instructional manuals. Most journalism and integrity based news reporting can be deemed nonfiction, except for the hype, promotional, kind such as publicity stunt news or phony tabloid articles written to cause controversy or to create dramatic emotional responses from their readers usually with the prime motive of selling more papers or for their sheer entertainment value. Writing quality nonfiction gets complicated because it rarely is as simple as just relaying the known facts to the reader. Many different ideas may have to be presented but a dominate opinion still has to be formed then backed up by statistics and confirming data. Assertions have to be stated and conclusions have to be made. This can be tough when the author is faced with two or more totally different accounts of the same incident and he has to decide which accounts to include and which to exclude in his telling. Nonfiction writing is not always cut and dry despite it being assumed that the author will not intentionally put things to paper that he knows are deceptive or misleading. Publishers expect their authors to write convincingly. Readers need to be swayed to acknowledge then accept the author’s opinion as being sincere and not fraught with malice whether they agree with it or not. Diet books and new healthy lifestyle theories, legal stands and political arguments all are prime examples of nonfiction. Yet with each of these, the author will undoubtedly be very selective as to which facts, figures and data he chooses to include in his account based on how he is trying to sway his readers. These works also will still be deemed nonfiction works despite the obvious one sided favoritism being displayed by the writer. Certainly not every nonfiction classified author or nonfiction classified book, story or article can be all true. Even the most scrupulous authors tend to be partially bias in their accounts. Though the best try their very best to stay as neutral as possible and show all sides of their subject matter, every valid opinion can’t possibly be allotted equal time and attention. Therefore a more accurate definition of literary nonfiction would have to be, a means of classifying writing based on the belief that the author’s sincere intention was to utilize and disclose only facts that were true to the best of his knowledge, when retelling a tale, forming or expressing an opinion, relaying information, documenting events, coming to a conclusion or trying to persuade readers. The exclusion of embellishment, fantasy, imaginative inventiveness and purposeful deception from all nonfiction text is also presumed. Plus, the work should be factually based, written to inform the reader and not knowingly intended to fool. Let’s look closer at two common Nonfiction Creative Writing Careers 1. Writers of educational materials and Learning materials are always in demand due to the ever ongoing development of new and improved teaching methods and constant updating and revision of school subject, textual materials. But it’s not easy. In our modern world, proven, talented, focused writers are ever challenged to create new text-based teaching materials that captivate student interest. You must possess the fundamental knowledge of at least basic math, language and science skills to be able to write with the intent to teach even up to the k-6 grade level. More knowledge is necessary as you attempt writing for higher grade levels. Remember you must be able to write not only for the students but also for the teachers since a teacher edition is usually supplied too. You will also be working closely with product developers, editors, artists and marketers so a social personality, excellent communication skills and a collaborative approach are a must to succeed. Parents teachers and administrators expect children authors especially school instruction text writers to have excellent written and verbal communication skills since your writing will be setting an example for our impressionable youth. Teaching experience and a teaching degree would be a plus but is not required. Expect your writing to be viewed under a microscope. You will be responsible for aligning your text to all state, national and education institutional standards and requirements. 2. SPORTS NEWS REPORTER You have to be community-minded, have strong communication skills, be a self-motivator and have the ability to multi-task, as well as being an excellent writer and interviewer, if you want to gain the competitive, coveted chance to cover news and sports even at a small local newspaper. Now-a-days you will be expected to write for the Newspaper’s website and probably for their blog too. As a Sports News Reporter, you will be expected to provide accurate and skillful non-biased journalism regardless of which teams you are a fan of. Through daily reporting, on location game assignments, interviews, statistical analysis as well as your own personal views and thoughts you will be responsible for covering a wide array of sports minded stories with a connection to your local or beat. Successful candidates will need a demonstrated ability to work independently, the gift for developing sources and a nose for break news. Besides quality writing skills, you should also have some photogenic skills as well as a working knowledge of a variety of, at least basic, digital, audio video devices and iPhones. Experience with database searches, texting and tweeting will help you keep abreast of all that is happening on your beat. Even if you are only writing text you still should be comfortable with appearing on air and in the spotlight as well as with asking interview questions in crowded public settings and around other media representatives, since this is the atmosphere where you will find most of your stories. All reporters today must be comfortable with all aspects of social media. In addition, you should be able to connect with readers through your own distinct story-telling skills and writing style. The best sports writers can evoke a visual image for their readers allowing them to experience a feeling of being at the game as they read their renditions. Your nights and weekends must be free to work since that is when many sports events are held. Effective time-management skills are essential to being capable to meet your publishing deadlines. Qualifications generally include a College degree but not always, as long as you can show you have experience and the skills to handle the job. Prior work experience as a reporter is almost always a must although you may convince a small independent paper to take a chance if you have in depth sports knowledge or an insider’s access to unique stories. By just viewing the requirements of these two nonfiction writing jobs one can see the differences of writing in the nonfiction arena compared to creating fiction stories, plays, poetry and lyrics. Fiction writers rely mainly on their imaginative minds to conjure up their stories and they do their writing in quiet setting spending lots and lots of time alone with their keyboards. While the non-fictionist relies on research, interview techniques and hustling to be in the right spot at the right time. There is a lot of money to be made in nonfiction as well as fiction but generally successful writers pick one or the other field to specialize in. Although there are a few writers who have been able to successfully dabble in both for example William F Buckley Jr. the political commentary and syndicated news columnist who also wrote numerous spy novels. |
AuthorStu 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! Archives
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