A reviewer lists one of the chapter titles that sounds daunting indeed. However, don't be put off by such things. Gerard has done an excellent job of gathering a group of writers who clearly know what they are talking about. The book is chock full of helpful advice on almost every level of non-fiction. This is one of the books you don't want to simply check out of the public library. Buy it and place it on your shelf. You will be grabbing it now and then for a refresher on some aspect of successful writing.
There are many books on writing, but this is one of the better titles about non-fiction.
Worth reading / / 2009-11-09
The editors found an interesting way to illustrate various topics of writing nonfiction: The first section has articles by teachers of nonfiction followed by actual nonfiction by these same teachers. It reinforces the points they are making. Not only a useful book that holds my interest but one that I will keep to reread.
Natalie Baeer
Writing Creative Nonfiction / / 2009-10-17
I am taking a writing course at Duke and this was one of the required books for the course.
The book provides the information a beginning writer needs to improve their writings and make their items more interesting to their audience.
Writing Creative Non- Fiction- Great book / / 2008-06-17
Great book. I'd recommend it to anyone who want to write interesting free flowing articles be it stories or anything. This book offers you with knowledge you'd need to write a good essay, story or book. I love this book it has really helped me improve my writing skills. Writing Creative Nonfiction
Writing Creative Nonfiction / / 2008-03-27
The book was well known before I ordered it. It is all I looked for and it is on my principal bookshelf.
Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life / / 2010-04-27
This book was the assigned "textbook" for an online writing course I am taking. Very dense reading (I feel I have to read very slowly to glean all the info), but that's because it IS packed with info! If you've ever wanted to try this genre, or dicover what it is...this is a valuable book to have! Creative nonfiction covers SO many subgenres (interview, memoir, biography, real-life adventure stories) and they are all covered in here. As somebody who has always been drawn to memoir writing, it really helped me overcome my fear of telling the cold, hard truths of my life, as well as the warm fuzzies.
Excellent guide book / / 2007-01-07
I was using this book as the support text for an online course with Writers Online Workshops, but would have been happy to have the book on its own. The author leads the reader to think carefully about the differences between fiction and nonfiction, and what is unique about creative nonfiction. There are a remarkable number of useful sections including those on form, interviews, and revising. I have followed the chapter on revising and found it to be the most useful information to date to improve my own creative nonfiction writing.
Painfully boring / / 2006-03-07
Last week, I happened to come across this book in the library. As I had recently bought "Writing a Book that Makes a Difference" and "Writing Creative Nonfiction: Instruction and Insights from Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs" by the same author, I thought it would be good to read this book to get a feel of what's in store when I finally get down to reading my own books.
Gosh! I hope the other two books are better than this one. I tried hard to read this book, but I had to give up finally. Call me a philistine, but I just could not "get into it" (I'm at a loss with words to describe how this book simply could not grip my attention).
Dumbed down / / 2003-11-28
I've used this book in the classroom, mainly because it was one of the only texts available on cnf. However, I really dislike this book for its dumbed-down approach. Whazzup with that, Phil? Most of your audience for this book would be those in an academic setting...so why not write with some real insight? You manage to make this fascinating genre sound dull and stodgy...middle-agey...ZZZZzzzzZZZzzz...
The problem with cnf, in general, is that so few good texts are available for those who teach creative writing. Even the AWP book with co-editors Carolyn Forche and good old Philip Gerard is second rate. It doesn't have NEARLY enough essays on the how-to's of writing cnf, and includes some cnf essays that are wildly inappropriate, as if the editors had to flesh out the volume and just crammed some stuff in at the last minute. If someone doesn't compile a better cnf textbook, I'm gonna have to do it myself. :-(
Exceptional tool for writers / / 2000-11-03
Creative Nonfiction is an invaluable resource for writers of reality-based material. I am a television producer and college film professor who specializes in documentary production. While this book is crafted for a print writer, it is by far the best resource I have found for a complete review of the nonfiction creative process. No film or television how-tos come close to the depth and insight of Gerard's work. From formulating an idea to conducting an interview, from structuring a story to creating suspense, Gerard has articulated priceless insight to a process that is too often intuitive and hard to communicate. A stunning achievement.
this is no ordinary book about writing non fiction. ayn rand is a gifted thinker. this book will uncover things you do not find in other similar title books or even college text books. read this book and discover for yourself. this book is about a brilliant mind sharing her ideas that will blow your mind. highly recommended.
Many excellent ideas / / 2010-01-11
Ayn Rand, the famous author of Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead and other books, and the founder of the philosophy of Objectivism, offered oral lectures to her followers on the art of writing nonfiction. Robert Mayhew rearranged the tapes of these lectures into a readable and helpful guide for writers and readers of nonfiction.
Rand stresses clarity more than anything else. Writing skills, she says, are not mysterious. If people follow about a dozen rules and practice writing, they will write competent articles. Writers need to focus on their subject and theme. Then, before writing, compose an outline of what they intend to say.
The subject must be stated simply, preferably in a single sentence. "I am going to write about... ." The theme is "What do I want to say about my subject and what is new about what I am saying?"
Beginners must use a written outline of what they want to say and how it will be presented. Even experienced writers need an outline; however, it can be mental. The outline should address what their audience is interested in reading.
Rand emphasizes that ideas come from the subconscious, Once writers know what they want to say, start writing and "let the words come automatically. Do not think over your sentences and do not (stop and) censor yourself...trust your subconscious. Give your subconscious the standing order that you are concerned only with your subject and the clearest presentation of it possible, and let that be the absolute directing your writing." Then, "In editing, you do the opposite: the dominant process involves your conscious mind."
Rand emphasizes that the style and rhythm of writing is also subconscious, and is frequently ruined by conscious attempts at improvement in the initial process which should only be to get the ideas on paper.
Rand mentions many things that authors should avoid. Writings should not be filled with generalities; it needs specifics. Readers should be able to see what you are mentioning through details, rather than being told about it. Writings should not preach, say something in a complicated fashion, and use hundred dollar words, pejorative adjectives, sarcasm, inappropriate humor, bromides, and unnecessary synonyms.
Rand spices her book with examples from her writings and includes many interesting thoughts, such as: "the whole history of philosophy is a duel between Plato and Aristotle." Plato's thinking was somewhat other-worldly and mystical, while Aristotle, like Rand, focused on the facts of this world.
Ayn Rand followed her teachings and presents a clear, detailed, down-to-earth guide for excellent writing.
Seminal Text For Writers / / 2007-05-25
Ayn Rand is one of the foremost communicators of our time. Her ability to communicate complex issues cogently, logically and passionately means that, decades later, her works are still being sited as `the text' to read, in politics, philosophy or morality. Clarity, integration and style are thoroughly discussed. The advice given here applies to all non-fiction writing (see also her book on fiction writing The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers) and it's not the usual recycled blurb. Rand's method of thinking, led to her method of writing and style. This book lets you into some of those secrets and allows anybody to improve their writing skills.
You cannot stop a bandersnatch. / / 2007-02-05
I was rather impressed with what Rand had to say about writing and style. As the authoress of the second-most influential book ("Atlas Shrugged"), she has a lot to say on the matter. And, as always, you cannot stop a bandersnatch.
There are some preliminaries. First, as with all of her writings, this book's ideas are outgrowths of her philosophy of Objectivism. For Rand aficionados, you know that it keeps cropping up with everything that she writes. So if you either agree with her, or are willing to plow around it, then get this book.
Second, this book is really edited selections from a longer seminar she had on writing. If the discussion seems out of joint at times, it is due to the selecting/editing process. To help round out here ideas, I suggest reading "The Art of Writing Fiction" and "The Romanic Manifesto," all of which were extracted from this same meeting.
Rand is one of the finest systematic thinkers ever, and this book shows it. She is able to take something apart, separate, correlate, and analyze the parts, and then put it back together again.
By being so analytical, she gets the writing process right. The first five chapters are really the basting cap essential in explosive writing. Writing can be simplified by preparation, organization, and thinking, which is the message of these chapters.
Chapters 5 through 8 cover the more traditional nuts and bolts of writing. Chapter 5, on creating an outline, is the key link between thinking and writing. She is right when suggesting that everyone writing nonfiction should use an outline. It organizes both the mind and the writing. I was glad that the editors included some sample outlines of Rand's writing, to watch how the process proceeds from outline to full article.
I think out of all of the chapters, "Writing the Draft" was the most helpful. The editor subtitled it "The primacy of the subconscious." This highlights Rand's point that writing is really something that comes spontaneously form a disciplined mind. Furthermore, the chapter contains several subsections on "The Squirms," helpful mulling, euthanizing pet sentences, and handling interruptions.
This last point cannot be emphasized too much: writing is a job, and it takes concentration. Rand likens it to heating a blast furnace--you work up to a high temperature, and that temperature must be maintained for weeks to get the desired results. While writing "Atlas Shrugged," she had to sequester herself for thirteen years.
I have a similar experience while writing. People visibly see you clacking on the computer, but what they do not see is the amount of focus inside your head, invisible to your eyes. So they want you to answer the phone, run this errand, baby-sit, chat, paint a house, watch some idiotizing program on TV, or come in on your day off because so-and-so called in sick so they could stay home watching some idiotizing program on TV. You need to be as harsh with writing as you would with your bill-paying job. Indeed, a good writer sees writing AS A SECOND JOB!
The last chapters are a potpourri of topics that did not fit in either "The Romantic Manifesto" or "The Art of Fiction." They are helpful for what they are, but seem a bit out of place and curt. They serve as surveys to the topics.
The only critique I have would be rearranging the chapters. Move chapter 12 ("Acquiring Ideas For Writing") up between chapters 1 and 2, since the thinking process--the process of reverie and listening to the unconscious percolate--precedes the choice of a subject and theme. I would also move chapter 11 ("Selecting a title") to go after chapter 7 ("Editing"), and moved chapter 8 ("Style") between the chapters on writing the draft and editing. Since this book was edited posthumously, this organizational error is not hers.
Here is my ideal order:
1. Preliminary remarks
2. Acquiring Ideas for Writing
3. Choosing a Subject and Theme
4. Judging one's Audience
5. Applying Philosophy
6. Creating an Outline
7. Writing the Draft
8. Style
9. Editing
10. Selecting a Title
11. Book Reviews
12. Writing a Book
Appendix: Outlines
For a second or third reading, it may be helpful to use this order, since it follows the process of thinking-writing-rewriting.
*
I have put this book in my mix of style guides, and will read it along with Strunk and White, Trimble's "Writing With Style," The Chicago Manual, and "The Little, Brown Handbook."
(I would rate it five stars, but the disordered chapter organization talked me out of it.)
Excellent guide to writing / / 2006-11-03
This book offers guidance on a variety of topics and problems that a writer of non-fiction, whether articles or books, might encounter. The advice is never formulaic, but rather gives the reader methods by which to improve his own writing process and style. Highly recommended.
Having spent two six-month stints in Varanasi, and being a film maker myself, this book had all the makings of a classic . . . and in ways it is. The dialog between the two men is classic . . . unfortunately the accompanying DVD itself - attached unwrapped and only by a small adhesive smear - was scratched from the word go. Disappointing. DVD should be in an envelope.
In sight / / 2006-01-17
Robert Gardner's masterpiece Forest of Bliss gives viewers a chance to soak in a striking visual document. However, as the meaning of events-along with the visual significance of color, grain, and the light and dark of day-is realized, viewers need to lean forward and analyze just what it is they are watching, with no narration or subtitles to guide the narrative. Viewers can feel captured, like the images, in the stages of life and death.
Making Forest of Bliss, a conversation between Gardner and Akos Ostor, an anthropologist and key collaborator of Gardner's in Benares, India where the film was shot, provides context for the film. Yet Gardner and Ostor do not translate the story; instead they tell something new. Beyond the four walls of the film frame existed their lived experience. As they move through the film shot by shot, their provocative memories emerge into an academic discourse about the nature of nonfiction film. Readers gain insight into the precision of composing actuality and the varied forms of ethnographic study and tempered revelation. Meaning is made, unmade, and remade in remembrance, between two artists in academia who share distinct viewpoints.
As far as cinema studies goes,
this is one of the classics; full of valuable information, reliable interpretations and insightfull comments.
If you're nterested in the numerous facets of documentaries, you could do much worse than start with Barnouw's seminal book.
Also, this is a very good example of great academic writing: clever but intriguing (granted, it's easier to write like that in writing history than theory, but nevertheless, you'll probably read this book with great pleasure).
Highly recommended!
A book about reality / / 2002-05-28
I own a splanish version of this book that I used on some of my school's courses. I belive this is a great book for people interested in the other face of the film industry. It is a must buy for the people that want to go into the reality film industry
An Excellent Learning Guide / / 2000-09-15
If you are interested in Documentary Film, this is a great introduction to the genre. Barnouw brings you through history with ease and enjoyment. I found it extremely satisfactory; definitely not a disappointment.
Definitive Introduction to the World of Non-Fiction Films / / 2000-07-05
I know that when you see a book receive the five star rating you think that the person reviewing is either tender-hearted or an ignoramus as it is inconceivable to think of a perfect book. However, since I am neither tender-hearted nor an ignoramus I give you my word that Barnouw's book is an amazing reference guide to the world of non-fiction films. Its an incredibly quick read, it took me a matter of days despite a hectic schedule, and though a lot of names and movies come flying at you they are easy to access and remember. So if you know nothing about documentaries you can quickly become knowledgeable by reading this book and then know what films you should seek after. The book traces non-fiction films all the way from the early experiments of Muybridge and the actualities of Lumiere all the way up to the 1990s. It divides the films not by region but by their respective genre and in the order they emerged. Then in the final chapter, "Movement," it carries documentaries up into our days and explains what's going on and where it's headed. Again, though you wished Barnouw could have delved even deeper into certain aspects, or become more localized as this is mostly a globalized look, you realize that this book is only the stepping stone into a whole new world. Barnouw is merely opening the door and inviting us to enter.
This is it! / / 2000-06-24
Barnbouw has taken a wealth of creativity and almost a century of filmmaking and not only made it manageable but intensely relevant and interesting, His breakdown of the various movements throughout the history of the documentary film is right on and remarkable. The research included in this masterpiece is unmatchable in other writings on the documentary. Filmmakers and non-filmakers alike need to read this book. It is a history lesson on a all too often over looked art.
With this book, Christopher Anderson -- a widely celebrated combat photographer (his pictures from places like Afghanistan, Gaza, and Iraq have won almost every major photojournalism award) -- turns his wry and insightful eye on life's more intimate moments. The fact that he's using a toy camera here gives each of his photos a surreal, fun-house-mirror sort of feel, and enhances the head-nodding sense of familiar-yet-unfamiliar shock that seach of his pictures seem to provoke. Also, his sense of humor shines through: The picture of two nuns on an airplane is like the punchline to some perfect joke. Highly recommended.
Cool / / 2005-12-09
The book is beautiful in design and content. The pictures are sort of fleeting moment, but have a quirky intrigue that make each page a surprise. The photographer seems to move from humor to David Lynch surrealism and back again. Not heady material, but perhaps the finest collection of Holga material around. And despite what another reviewer says, all of the pictures are in color.
LOVE IT / / 2005-12-09
This is a great little book. The photography is all in color beautifully wrapped in a bound (coverless) book that is housed in a sturdy box. The design is very clean and perfectly compliments the images. I love the first and last page: simple embossed dots on a white page, soft at the touch. The book is the perfect size and displays one photo per page. What I like about it is that the photos are very varied in subject matter (soldier in iraq, the tour the france, paris landscape, ground zero etc ...) so they are not necessarily related to one another but they are held together visually. The visual flow of this books is very strong and colrs, feeling, moods, more than subject matter, hold the book together. As the author states in the beginning of the book: ... the picures in this book are not about anything in particular ... they are conversations overheard and half remembered ...
Not Recommended / / 2005-10-05
I bought this book because all of the photos were taken by a Holga plastic "toy" camera. This is one of the very few books of photographs dedicated solely to images taken with a Holga camera. Unfortunately this collection of images is too disjointed. Content-wise the pictures cover a wide range from landscapes, to urban scenes, to people snapshots. Most are color, a few black and white. And although this collection is by a professional photographer, I have seen more interesting and cohesive image galleries of Holga photographs on the internet. Another downside is the physical production of the book. The book is a very flimsy softcover (with an unusual, weak binding) that doesn't seem like it will last very long. I would recommend this only to Holga collector's who must own *everything* Holga.
One of the biggest problems with this book is that it is poorly structured as a comic--the narrator, Heather, spends the bulk of the comic lecturing either her boyfriend or the reader. There's space for background, sure, but if so much of the comic is going to be devoted to drawings of the narrator's face alone, why make the book a comic? This is not to say that panels in which we see other people, or actual movement, are much better; the drawings are poor, and the wacky facial expressions and contortions characters go through (surely people do not have joints in the all the places Ed Piskor provides them) are distracting.
I had some doubts, too, about the depth of this book. Although I didn't expect this to be a definitive exploration of Macedonian history, a number of details--that Heather Roberson travels to Macedonia for an undergraduate research project that seems conceived on something of a whim, that she doesn't speak either Macedonian or Albanian, that she is only in the country for a month--made me wonder how this book made it to publication. Surely someone with more experience in the region could have worked on such a book? Instead of an authoritative exploration of Macedonian politics & history, the reader is given a narrator who is often learning things at the same pace as the reader. This could work, but doesn't. The comic's structure, drawings & story all leave a lot to be desired.
It ain't Captain America / / 2008-04-09
If you are looking for Spider-man or Captain America, then move on. Likewise, if your sole intention is to be entertained -- again, move on.
This graphic novel is a window into the quest of a Berkeley student to understand why the situation in Macedonia did not disintegrate into the same chaos that could be found throughout post-Tito Yugoslavia. It is an informative work, but as other reviews have noted, text-rich and not action-oriented.
This sort of work is engaging precisely because it shows the real world interactions of people trying to make sense of the world around them, as opposed to presenting idealized and simple caricatures.
This work fits into the same pantheon of work as Joe Sacco's "Palestine" and "Safe Area: Gorazde", but don't expect to be overly reminded of Sacco's artistic or narrative styles -- the art here is far more subdued, and the focus is on a country where peace has been more or less successful, so obviously the "action" is on a far different level.
This work serves as an excellent introduction to modern Macedonia for the reader with little background on the subject. The caveat is that this graphic novel was not written for the express purpose of entertaining you (although I was entertained), but rather to inform you. If you will resent a comic book that is informative instead of merely entertaining, then this probably is not the graphic novel for you.
I'm a fan of serious comics -- Pekar's, Sacco's, Spiegelman's, Satrapi's -- and I had very high hopes for this Piskor/Pekar/Roberson collaboration. My hopes were disappointed. *Macedonia* is a case in which well-meaning people have tried to share an important story but, for lack of artistic vision or time commitment, have failed.
One has to imagine that Roberson, without any experience with the genre, wrote the entire script. Pekar tried to save it, but true salvation would have required a far greater investment of time, completely recasting the script as something far less "talky" and didactic. The book would have grown in length, too, in order to allow similar stories to be told through something other than shot-countershot frames of fillibuster.
To make a success of Macedonia would have required, at the very least, completely reconceptualizing the opening sequence. Page after page, the Heather character essentially lectures her non-responsive boyfriend about her interest in Macedonian politics.
In fairness to Pekar, Roberson's long narrative isn't exactly the "pithy vignettes on life" format for which Pekar is best known. Sure, Pekar wrote at greater length of Robert McNeil (*Unsung Hero*), but that's the exception proving the rule. Moreover, the McNeil project was likely initially conceived as a comic. Though Pekar did encourage Roberson early on to take notes for a possible comic book, she seems not to have approached the concept through the lens of comics.
The book does have its moments, however. Piskor ably presents Balkan history -- clearly the toughest assignment given -- and he moves admirably from those moments, to depicting Eastern European architecture, to Heather and friends dancing at a local disco. It is when Roberson's/Pekar's torrent of conversation finally slows, or when the words can be presented through voice-over, that Piskor finally finds a quite moment to do something more artistically organic.
Nice political comic / / 2007-08-25
I bought this comic-book 'cos I wanted to see how my country Macedonia was pictured.I was suprised how well did the autor knew the situation in Macedonia and the Balkan.
Two books in one / / 2007-07-19
(Disclaimer: This reviewer has been a consultant in Macedonia on an NGO educational activity associated with the Ohrid Agreement.)
Harvey Pekar's and Heather Roberson's "Macedonia: What does it take to stop a war" is two books in one. One book is about the country Macedonia. I have been there a few times, and since this is a graphic novel, I wanted to see how the country was pictured. The pictures don't misrepresent the nation, but don't capture it either. There are not many iconic images of the capital, Skopje, but the illustrator Ed Piskor has drawn one on the cover. However, if one were in this city square and faced in the opposite direction, one would see the older section of the city with minarets and ruins of a Turkish fort. Interiors--small, run-down apartments, internet cafes, bars--are convincing. But Macedonia is largely rural and mountainous, and those views are missing in this graphic novel which takes place in cities.
The other book in "Macedonia" is an attempt to show how a political arrangement called the Ohrid Agreement decentralized the national bureaucracies and transferred some power to minorities, primarily Albanians, and thereby avoided armed conflict. The main character, Heather, an American student, goes to Macedonia to research how peace, rather than war, can be intentionally implemented. She talks to a lot of people and records her reflections in a portable recorder. Unfortunately, this is where the graphic novel falters. There are a lot of rectangles of people talking. It seems as if one is reading a play without any clever or insightful lines performed under a strobe light. The text can be dense and the visuals unexciting. While the presentation may make some readers struggle, however, the dialog captures the simultaneous doubts and expectations of the Macedonians as they shift from belief in the future Ohrid holds to discomfort about the present adjustments which the Ohrid Agreement demands.
/ 2006-03-07
/ 2003-11-28
/ 2008-01-09
