Using fiction craft techniques to engage the nonfiction reader

It was an unseasonably warm afternoon in October as I hurried along the corridor to the classroom. The room was packed full of fellow METM attendees, eager to hear the wisdom of Andrew Hodges, cultural anthropologist turned developmental and stylistic editor. Today’s presentation was about using creative techniques in nonfiction writing, and I was very interested to hear how it could be done.

The talk began with an exercise in free writing, as Andy put up a slide of a fish market in Hong Kong and gave us five minutes to describe it from an “I” perspective. When the time was up, various members of the audience shared their creative texts with us, bringing the scene to life. Andy then compared them to a straightforward description of the photograph; an informative, factual report.

It was a perfect illustration of how fiction is a product of the author’s imagination, a type of story-telling that presents the information to the reader in a particular way. Andy then gave us a clear demonstration of the difference between reported and immersive text, highlighting the disparity between “showing” and “telling” the reader. Stories may be easier to remember and can adapt to the reader’s experience, but they also tend to be more subjective, something nonfiction would avoid.

We were then introduced to point of view and perspective in writing, as we were shown a striking photo of a block of flats. When prompted by Andy for adjectives to describe the photo, “cold”, “damp”, “draughty” and “cramped” were some of the suggestions. Then we were asked to look at the photo again, but this time as someone who had lived there for the last twenty years and considered it their home. This time around, the adjectives changed to “neighbourly”, “familiar” and “supportive”. The message was clear: perspective renders the exact same image with a completely different meaning.

With the scene set, Andy began to outline some creative writing tips for improving narrative descriptions in nonfiction writing. They recommended using strong verbs and details; building a picture with sensory descriptions makes it more vivid and immersive. Word choice is important: choosing unusual or overcomplicated language for the sake of it would hinder the task at hand. Each adjective should be used with intention to alert the reader to the personality of the narrator behind the text.

Including dialogue was useful for bringing in other voices to the writing, and a good tool for changing cadence. Andy stressed that it was important to pay attention to the rhythm and the flow of the text, to be aware of its musical quality, and to keep it varied.

They also discussed framing devices, along with using creative techniques like anaphora in sentences, choosing an unusual character to be the narrator, and focusing on small details to bring emotion into the text. The order in which information is presented is also important. And of course, most importantly, always rewrite!

Andy’s own work in developmental editing also brought the talk around to the subject of AI, a hot topic at this year’s conference. As far as they are concerned, developmental editing is significantly about context: nuanced, human, cultural context. Human judgement is key here, which is one of the reasons why they never work with manuscripts produced by AI.

With human writers, there is naturally a creative element to all writing, whether it be fiction or not. Andy’s engaging presentation was full of interesting ideas that proved how easily creativity could be incorporated into nonfiction writing with the right approach.

This METM25 presentation was chronicled by Louise Keohane.

Featured photo by METM25 photographer Julian Mayers.