I'm always stunned by the number of talented, budding writers who come striding out of the landscape for my introductory workshops in creative nonfiction. As an outgrowth of these classes, I'm editing free-
lance for writers wanting to shape, sharpen, and polish a manuscript or proposal, a query letter, even a cover letter, before submitting it for publication, or to an agent. I enjoy, as well, working with the aspiring writer interested in developmental edits as an on-going learning experience to strengthen skills. In addition to teaching and editing, I mentor in aspects of the writing life, the art of researching, the function of serial drafts, the secrets of self-editing, capturing cadence and flow, and writing great beginnings.
What is creative nonfiction?
Creative nonfiction is frequently referred to as a lively and fashionable “new genre,” but I prefer to think of it as a “cross-genre” or, as others have suggested, a “movement.” Its genre category is not all that remains unsettled. Other appellations—including “new journalism,” “new nonfiction,” and “literary journalism”—have been put forward, seemingly often as mollification for those finding the term “creative nonfiction” a dangerous oxymoron. Yet, whatever its final genre or name, any newness resides purely in the contemporary labels, as the form dates back to the French essayist Michel Eyquiem de Montaigne of the late 1500s. Creative nonfiction is written most often in first-person point of view—though not egotistically so—and with a voice that, to varying degrees, is personal.
Writers in pursuit of creative nonfiction should plan to embrace, with earnestness, one of its more exacting modern-day definitions: factual literary prose. In other words, the creative part does not come with license to invent, as do the fiction forms of the short story and novel, but rather with the idea to take the facts sought in journalism and steep them imaginatively in the techniques of fiction (scene, dialogue, intimate detail, flashback, metaphor, and so forth), the analytic explorations of essay, and the lyricism of poetry. The goal is to enliven writing, short of straying into concoction and deceit.
Lee Gutkind, the founder of modern creative nonfiction and also the founder and editor of the journal Creative Nonfiction (www.creativenonfiction.org), has this to say about it:
We are attempting, as writers, to show imag-
ination, to demonstrate artistic and intellectual inventiveness and still remain true to the factual integrity of the piece we are writing.
[Creative nonfiction] allows a writer to employ the diligence of a reporter, the shifting voices and viewpoints of a novelist, the refined word play of a poet and the analytical modes of an essayist.
Whether your interest is personal essay; nature, humor, travel, or adventure writing; memoir, autobiography, historiography, biography; science writing, journalism, war correspondence, exposé; even poetry, or some hybrid of the preceding, you can incorporate creative nonfiction.
Editorial service:
Because my own writing demands much of my time, I accept only a limited number of manuscripts (of varying length) and establish even fewer on-going mentoring relationships. With the writers I take on, the process involves a combination of traditional hard-copy editing and phone consultation—unless, of course, you live in western Montana and then we can go for lunch.
My fees are figured on a sliding scale. They also reflect the extent of the feedback desired, from general manuscript evaluation to assistance with structural development to in-depth, line-by-line editing for clarity, continuity, tone, usage, rhythm, grammar, and punctuation.
Query first by email with a not-more-than-two-paragraph synopsis of the particular work and a brief description of your writing background and goals.
(Please don't send attachments, I never open them.)
*References will be supplied upon request.
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