Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life by Philip Gerard

Author:Philip Gerard
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc
Published: 2004-01-31T14:00:00+00:00

Creative Nonfiction

relatively new and is no longer confined to public radio. "Commentators" as diverse as Daniel Pinkwater, an author of children's books, Robin Hemley, a short story writer and novelist, and Bailey White,

a schoolteacher, have taken up the form. Its succinctness and the

possibilities for the pure sound of language have proved especially

appealing for poets.

Writing "out loud" can teach a writer word-discipline and the nuances of spoken-compared to written-narration. You get used to reading your work out loud, and the ear picks up awkward phrases,

lapses in sense, and rocky transitions that your eye alone would never

recognize. (For that reason, I now read everything I write out loud

before sending it off to an editor.)

Pause and inflection are as much a part of the commentator's art

as punctuation is for the written essayist's. And spoken out loud, even

a mild moment of bad taste becomes magnified. Since the emotion is

part of the audible presentation, flat writing often works better than

sentences with a lot of modifiers, which can seem melodramatic. On

the other hand, overly terse writing may have to be softened a bit so

as not to sound like the hard-boiled voice-over from a '40s detective

film noir.

For this reason, radio essays usually require some editing to make

the transition into print. Irony that was obvious from the tone of the

commentator's voice has to be made plain through style alone on the

page.

"You don't need to be a professional-sounding radio person to do

the commentaries, and in fact it might even be a handicap if one was,"

says Pinkwater, who regularly appears on All Things Considered and

who refers to his own humorous commentaries as "Yiddish Dada"

meant to divert and amuse listeners as well as to make them think.

"There's a tendency to like-and I like them, too-people with regional accents, people with sloppy speech like me, people who sound not like somebody who gives you the news."

When I began writing for radio, I paid attention to guidelines developed by the staff at NPR, given to me by Jim Polson, our local producer. "Write the story the same way you'd tell someone who asked,"

they advised. "Tell the story as if you were telling it to a stranger over

the phone."

Other bits of advice, many of them valuable when writing for print:

110

What Form Will It Take?

• Use simple sentences with only one idea.

• Use clear language and words that matter.

• Always write in the active voice.

• Find the element of surprise in the story and use it to convey

information.

• Write descriptively, using visual and sound images so that listeners feel as if they were there.

• Allow your listeners the opportunity to discover the story with

you.

One of the limitations, obviously, is that you have to establish an

affiliation with a radio station that will air your pieces. Its programming

becomes your magazine. "You must have a microphone, or it will not

work," Pinkwater advises wryly.

One advantage to the form is that it can allow you to treat a subject

that isn't big enough for either a lengthy article or a book. Another is

that the reaction of your audience is immediate and ongoing-phone

calls, letters, even on-air replies.

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