Tonight is the Orem library I attended a panel about nonfiction. The authors on the panel were Michael Rutten, Connor Hilton and Grant Olson. They provide some useful advice some of which is below.

-Michael Rutten told a story about the football player Manti Too. At first he told about having a girlfriend he corresponded with on email. As the media expressed interest in his girlfriend the story got stretched out further and further and tell a story giving details it didn’t exist. This is an example of how something that is innocent can be stretched out to no longer be true.
-Don’t fib on details.
-The truth of the story is controlled by word choice and by language.
-Make sure what you print is accurate and be backed up by facts.
-When you write you must put aside personal bias and opinions. One example was where the writer wanted to alter quotes of those who worked for a political party he did not agree with. He wanted to alter their quotes so he could substantiate his previous opinion. It’s important to be accurate without an agenda.
-Book: One million pieces by James Tracy.
-For historical nonfiction, be careful of quoting newspapers sometimes those newspapers were not accurate. Look for other sources besides newspapers when writing historical material.
-The one true sin of a writer is to tell a bad story.
-Each publication leads to additional publications.
-Publish everywhere you can.
-For markets submit to the A-list, B-list, C-list and D-lists with the exception of those publications that will only let you print something once.
-When you submit a query tell them what you been published before.
-Online publication is often paid by the number of hits of the article.
-You can get paid by sponsors for material you write sometimes they will give you products they want to have featured in your article.
-When referencing a product in an article reference attributes that are relevant to the story.
-You can get a lot of gear for writing nonfiction so you can review those products.
-If you want to do a certain project such as going to another country to find the remains of a plane in a pond, ask for sponsors of products that you would use to accomplish your task.
– Writing is becoming more specialized such as articles just on fly fishing or just on boots. The reason for this is that readers want a lot more specific details on articles than just generic articles.
-Essay is a traditional nonfiction form.
-Each work goes to 40 – 50 drafts.
-Find something that you’re passionate about.
-A good headline can also help sell the article.
-Write an article that you would want to read.
-People are more willing to be interviewed when they know where you’re coming from even if you don’t agree with them. They will want to be interviewed so they can give their point of view.
-People let you interview them if they trust your work.
-Live on half the money you make and invest the other half.
-Read every day.
-Your article needs to be an issue driven product.
-Education advice: many authors recommend English and journalism.
-The way you can determine if you have too many details in your article is that you need a clear idea of where you want the article to go. You write the article and then cut out unnecessary details.
-You control the story.
-Highlight any great sentences that you want to keep in the article.
-Add variety in sentence length.
-Write what you need to write and then you can cut after the articles written.
-Figuring out your purpose on the article will help determine what details need to be kept.
-Tolkien was dedicated to world building while Lewis was dedicated to the theme.
-Read aloud to find where you lose yourself in the details and that will show you where you can cut.
-Daniel Hawthorne apologized to someone for the length of his letter because he didn’t have time to make it shorter.
– Write and then chop.
– As you’re writing a book submit subsets of the book to magazines. That will help promote the book.
– You can become an expert voice by synthesizing from other sources. You don’t have to give references if you write it in your own words.

If he has some advice on writing nonfiction or Hugh Fred some nonfiction that you find was well written please give your impressions in the comment section of this blog. Thank you.