With SweatFest behind me, and Rhythm and Blues on the loose in book stores, I feel like I have some time to invest in this business of writing in other ways, namely: research and education. I never went to school for writing (I graduated from Ryerson with a degree in Theatre Production) but I have enjoyed, off and on over the years, workshops and one-off classes at schools like the University of Toronto and George Brown College.
Now, thanks to the Quebec Writers’ Federation, I’m taking a workshop on Creative Non-Fiction, which I hope will help me with different aspects of research for my novels (which tend to have a lot of facts in them) and also to write better articles and things that I can submit to magazines and newspapers and blogs to support my novels as they come out.
The course is being given by Elaine Kalman Naves and it looks like it’s going to be a good one.
Here is a doodle of Elaine Kalman Naves I did while she was teaching-- not because I wasn't paying attention, but because I'm a tactile learner and *need* to be doing something with my hands when I listen.
It’s being held after hours, in the same building that houses the Atwater Public Library. Somehow, I am resisting the urge to scale down into its shadowy depths and just run amok in the stacks.
In the first class, we discussed just what Creative Non-Fiction is. To me, it boils down to two points.
Creative Non-Fiction:
- is factually accurate
- uses literary techniques (such as style, dialogue, dramatization, personal perspective, atmosphere etc… ) to immerse the reader in the story
We were warned against the disgraceful slide into “truthiness,” and discussed the reliability and variability of memory.
Elaine also shared a number of pithy asides from other writers, on the subject of writing non-fiction. My favourite was attributed to Canadian novelist, Joel Yanofsky.
“Novels tell the truth and pretend they are lying. Memoirs lie and pretend they are telling the truth.”
And my other favourite was attributed to Somerset Maugham:
“There are three rules of writing. Of course, no one knows what they are.”
Well, I think I know what the first rule is, and it is DO YOUR HOMEWORK. I already have a ton of it. I volunteered to be the first person to submit my writing for critique, so this week, I have to write up to 750 words on the topic of my choice (I went with Panamanian coffee), write another short piece about my name, relating to a text we read in class from The House on Mango Street, and find the class text On Writing Well, and read chapter 12. Whoa. I’ll admit I’m really having to hustle to get it all done, but it will be a relief later in the course, when I don’t have to worry about writing my critique piece.
