The Art of Creative Nonfiction: Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality (Wiley Books for Writers)
This book is for the beginning creative nonfiction writer--one who needs to be  told that writers are an eccentric lot; one who has never heard of the Yaddo artists'  colony. Still, Lee Gutkind, the author of several books of creative nonfiction and the  founder/editor of the journalCreative Nonfiction, has some interesting things to  tell us about this genre of writing, which strives to communicate real-life stories  dramatically. The most important quality that a creative nonfiction writer can have, writes  Gutkind, is passion: "A passion for the written word; a passion for the search and  discovery of knowledge; and a passion for ... understand[ing] intimately how things in  this world work." Gutkind offers instruction on finding story ideas, focusing one's  work, keeping story files, fact checking, and interviewing; he tells us what to expect from  editors and agents; and he teaches us how to know when we're ready to start writing  (when you can "think of nothing more to ask or to learn"). Perhaps the best  tidbit here is Gutkind's emphasis on delving deeply into one's subject matter without  inserting oneself into the situation. "While immersing myself in a writing  project," he says, "I routinely like to compare myself to a rather  undistinguished and utilitarian end table in a living room or office. It is a fixture. You  walk in and out of your living room dozens of times a day. You see the table, youexpectto see the table, but you do not say, 'Well, there is the table, hello  table.'" Appendices include a sample book proposal and readings.