Get Creative: The craft of non-fiction – on self-editing
Ever thought about writing non-fiction, be it an essay, a memoir or even a brief snapshot of your life? Why not take the leap?
In a new series, author, critic and broadcaster Cristín Leach explores the craft of non-fiction.
One exercise I give myself when I'm editing a draft of something I'm writing, is what I call The Headline Test.
In a variation of Denis Johnson's advice to write "as if you are never going to get home again", I imagine I'm on the phone and the line is about to go dead. If communication is about to be cut, what is the single most important message to get across quickly? Or, if this was a newspaper story, what would the headline be? Once you've got that, write it down, put it on a sticky-note, stick it on the wall. This sentence or phrase is not a sentence that will appear in your writing, but it is the guiding light that will help you to edit it.
The exercise produces two results. It ensures you will write what is most urgent. And it helps you understand what you can cut. To continue the news journalism analogy, it's a question that forces you to decide, what is the most important angle here? Picking a headline doesn't mean the piece of writing can't be complex, nuanced or layered. It is just that every one of those complications, nuances, and layers must serve the same purpose: to speak in some way to the headline that gets to the core of the piece of writing. Think of it as a version of an elevator pitch.
Listen to Cristín Leach's audio essay Take a Seat, for Sunday Miscellany
Sometimes stepping back and asking yourself 'what is this piece of writing actually about?' and identifying a one-line answer can be the editing question that unlocks the whole. Once you understand the main thrust of the piece, you can edit so that every sentence, anecdote, tangent, side-quest, and unexpected aside still talks back (in some way) to this angle. You can cut whatever does not. Something missing? You can also glance back at your 'headline' when you are wondering what it is that you have left out.
The other question I ask myself when I'm editing my own work (and that of others) is really five questions in one: why are you telling me this now?
1. WHY are you telling me this now?
2. Why are YOU telling me this now?
3. Why are you telling ME this now?
4. Why are you telling me THIS now?
5. Why are you telling me this NOW?
The five answers will help you to: identify the impetus behind the work, consciously establish an authorial voice, know your intended audience, figure out what to include or leave out, and understand what is most pertinent about this particular piece of writing. 'Why are you telling me this now?' can also help with The Headline Test. If you don't know the answer to any one of these questions when you are self-editing, it's likely the piece is falling down somewhere. When you figure out the answers to all five, you can fix it.
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