Novel Nonfiction

Narrative nonfiction is a novel new world and the ideal place to find yourself, as an author, if your life has become a fascinating drama.

The tools of narrative nonfiction allow us to dramatize a life by finding the central story of that life, then filling in the gaps with research and interview. Tom Wolfe became famous for his autobiographical account in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. This was early narrative nonfiction at its best and most revelatory. His later novel, The Right Stuff, detailed the lives of others in a similar style: frank and deeply personal, yet suspenseful and thrilling. Such stories are all the more poignant and compelling because of their veracity.  Jon Krakauer wrote Into Thin Air with all the emotion of a memoir; meanwhile, he never sacrificed story-telling skill. This perfect combination helped the book become a can't-put-it-down thriller that clings to the reader's mind and memory forever after. Many more memoirists and autobiographers have used these techniques for literary success.

At the same time, numerous biographers and autobiographers have received criticism for making up entire conversations, entire events in their lives, for the sake of a best-selling book. This is not the spirit of narrative nonfiction! The thing that makes this style "narrative" is not the act of making up information, rather it is the act of boiling down the essence of a life and its events into a storyline that is supported by reality. That storyline can be embellished with research into parallel plotlines that may have occured, interviews with relevant persons to the story, and deep thought as to your interpretation of the meaning of events both then and now.

So if you're considering authoring a memoir or autobiography, you'll benefit from getting to know this style and its many modern authors thoroughly. A co-writer or  ghostwriter familiar with the genre can help to bring your idea to fruition and leave behind a fascinating legacy that is more than a detailing of events. Self-published, your story will become both a treasured heirloom and an eye-opening literary work that helps family members understand the real you. Commercially published, your life's adventures will delight, inform, instruct, and amuse millions for generations to come.