Email 3 May – All things non-fiction
Want to ask questions? Got any follow-up? Don’t agree with something I said? Then here’s the place to do it. I’ll follow the chat thread on this post for a few days following my email, and I’m happy to talk about anything at all.
Meantime, here’s a picture of a scary-but-pretty bug.
Hi Harry, having read your thoughts on the surge in popularity of non-fiction I was wondering if we would be able to submit that as part of the competitions for FoW19? I have a novel in progress but is is my non-fiction that is absorbing me at the moment. I am taking a novelistic approach to my non-fiction so it could potentially work well, but just didn’t know if there was a rule that said the comps have to be fiction.
I don’t think there’s any such rule – but for sure, I think creative non-fic should have its place. So by all means enter it. Good luck!
Very good article, illuminating as ever. I am a little confused about the terms narrative non-fiction and creative non-fiction.
I am about to launch a literary biography, published by a small independent. I guess that would count as narrative as I haven’t “made anything up”
Narrative non-fic = anything that tells a story in a start-to-finish sort of way. So a literary biography would certainly qualify.
Creative non-fic – well, I’ve always found that a confusing term too. I get that a book on (say) “How to prune roses” doesn’t count, whereas (say) Hare with the Amber Eyes or Tara Westover’s Educated are more classically creative (ie: prettier writing, more personal reminiscence & reflection, more obviously literary values.) But in the end, I think the term smacks of bull****. I don’t think my This Little Britain would be called creative non-fic, but there was plenty of good writing and creativity that went into it. So why shouldn’t that count? But in the end, it doesn’t matter. A good book is a good book.
Thank you, Harry. How kind of you to reply! I never expected it! This is my first entry into Townhouse and I’m quite overwhelmed with everyone’s kindness. I always enjoy your e-mails too. Very best wishes.
Don’t be surprised, Jenny – Harry’s a good bloke. I’ve met him a few times at writerly events he has arranged, but I’m not even a member of Jericho Writers yet and he still talks to me 🙂
Thank you, Tony. I was very impressed when he gave me a warm welcome to the Festival of Writing last year. He’s totally professional but never distant.
Nice to hear from you.
When I have better understood the system here (I am a late entry to this world of posting all sorts of stuff) I would like to send you a synopsis.
Uh, yes, if you do, I probably won’t read it, I’m afraid! I’m too short of time for that kind of thing. If you’re a member of Jericho Writers, you can get free feedback on query letters and synopses. Or you can send your work for a regular manuscript appraisal (details here: https://members.jerichowriters.com/bazaar/full-manuscript-assessment/ ).
Either way, we’ll be happy to help.
Glad to join the Townhouse. Will post more as I get the drift of how this site works. Just discovered JerichoWriters and joined the club. Wonderful resources there and I look forward to the forums here.
Fab! Willkommen und bienvenue. Townhouse at the moment has a kind of new house on a new estate kind of quality. All rather shiny, but not very lived in. I especially hope that people start using it to critique each other’s work. That will be its very best use, I think.
Hello, Mr Bingham. I’m greatly enjoying this new Townhouse and have you to thank for that, I suppose.
This question has nothing really to do with your email, but it has been bothering me for a while, so I will risk asking it here (😕). I apologise if this is the innapropriate place….
If a writer were to choose the self-pub route (on Amazon, for example) is it still worth trying to get an agent at any point? Are there are any pros/cons that they should be aware of?
Thanks in advance, and again, please forgive me if this is not the correct place for such questions.
If you self-publish, and do so successfully, then it’s unlikely the trad route will look enticing for your US/UK work. On the other hand, agents can still unlock good stuff in overseas markets, with TV & film, and audio. So yes, many very successful indies will end up with agents. And of course you may have some projects that you want to publish in a traditional way. But all that lies quite well ahead of you. If you self-publish, you won’t need or want an agent for some years yet.
Thank you!
My title is: Angelita’s Song.
Book: Angelita is an eighteen year old Spanish girl living during the Franco era.. She is a gifted poet/songwriter opposed to the regime and longs to leave the shelter of her mountain village to join her real father in Madrid and work for the liberation of women. She discovers her father was a captain in the government and responsible for the torture and death of many women. She abandons him and joins the resistance movement. Theatres are controlled by the government. She joins a group performing songs of rebellion and resistance in streets and cemeteries around Madrid, but is discovered, arrested and placed in The Cemetery of Forgotten Women, to be used by the Generals. She falls in love with one of the Generals, who helps her to escape. She flees the city, but learns he has been arrested and tortured. Knowing of Franco’s love of music, she returns to Madrid to perform for him in his palace while planning the release of her lover. But her plans are compromised by the appearance of her father …
Am I right in saying that the cover picture for your book ‘The Dead House’ (as above) is a photo of the loggias under the Bute Hall, Glasgow University, Gilmorehill, G12 8QQ? Having been there literally thousands of times myself I recognise it is an iconic pic and a favourite of photographers (the BBC seems to like it a lot, whenever they want to show a gnarly old Uni building in the background, they choose that one).
Pls forgive me but I haven’t read that particular novel, but if I saw it in a bookshop I’d immediately recognise the location and wonder whether it was a – presumably, crime – story set in a University, probably Glasgow University, As would at least 100,000 others of our graduates (we graduate about 4,000 students a year).
Just a thought, but I’m curious, why *that* pic? I once took a visitor to the West Quadrangle on a drizzly November afternoon by when the huge, overbearing towers were gleaming with moisture. He looked up and said, in awe ‘Gormenghast!’ You have to pick your shot…