Creative Nonfiction by Philip Gerard

Author:Philip Gerard [Gerard, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781577663393
Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc
Published: 2004-01-31T14:00:00+00:00

test pilots) for most periodicals.

That doesn't mean some magazines won't publish very long articles-The New Yorker is famous for its long pieces. But the odds go down. By 10,000 words (forty manuscript pages) you're really on the

edge. At some point, you need to reassure yourself that the piece

needs to be that long-you're not just indulging yourself, throwing in

every thought that occurs to you. Consider breaking it down into a

two-part series, or simply two or three separate pieces, each with a

different focus. Give an editor a way to make it work. And remember

that in some distant future you may find the rest of your book.

Remember, too, that you may be confusing superficial connections

with subject. The same assignment may yield several different, and

different kinds of, pieces. I went to Poland in 1990 to find distant family

who had been separated from us by two world wars and a revolution,

to find out how their future had been different from the future of those

who had emigrated to America. That was one story.

I also wanted to investigate the allure of the Cult of the Virgin in

Eastern Europe-the widespread belief in the miraculous intervention

of the mother of Christ in history and everyday life. I interviewed

many of the same people, visited many of the same places, explored

many of the same historical circumstances for both pieces. But they

were separate. I kept them separate in my mind even as I was asking

questions, and the first thing I did upon returning home was to divide

108

What Form Will It Take?

everything-photos, interview segments, impressions, notes-into

two different piles. Both pieces were destined for the same magazine,

and in any case I was careful not to overlap content.

If you plan to "double-dip"-to write more than one piece from

the same assignment and publish it in different magazines, which

freelancers often do to recover costs-talk it over with your editors.

Beware: It's bad practice-and bad ethics-to use one magazine to

bankroll an assignment for another. Nothing will get you blackballed

faster than betraying an editor's trust. Make sure everybody is clear

about the terms of what you are doing, and if possible arrange the

terms ahead of time. Obviously, if you've done a piece on your own

time at your own expense, your obligation is less-usually you just

want to make sure you're not doing pieces that are too similar for

overlapping readerships.

Still, be alert to the life your subject takes on even after you've

written and published the piece in question. Long after I returned

from Poland, I found myself writing a short story about the night train

from Warsaw, and the experience yielded several public radio essays

about the discoveries I made while doing the pieces. And the assignment provided general background for a novel, now in an unsightly first draft.

WRITING OUT LOUD-A NEW GENRE

Once a week for the past four years I have been writing-and reading

for broadcast on WHQR, our local public radio affiliate-essays of 500-

700 words. The word count matters less than the time it takes to read

them, between three and four minutes. Any longer, and they can't fit

into the "hole" reserved for them in network broadcasting.

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