Writing for Story: Craft Secrets of Dramatic Nonfiction

Jon Franklin, an undisputed master of the great American nonfiction short story, shares the secrets of his success. This lively, easy-to-follow guide combines readability and excitement with the best of expository prose and illuminates the techniques that beginning journalists will find to be immensely helpful.

One of Ludwig Mi?s van der Rohe's favorite aphorisms was that "God is in the details." Jon Franklin would beg to differ. A pretty turn of phrase is no use at all, says he, if you don't have a firm structure on which to hang it. Franklin pioneered the field of creative nonfiction by applying fiction's classical complication-resolution form to standard nonfiction (specifically to news stories, most of which, he states, are generally "endings without beginnings attached"). Instead of focusing on style, grammar, and word use, as do many books on writing, Writing for Story provides a rigorous lesson in building a nonfiction story (short or long) that has structural integrity. Franklin advocates starting with an outline, writing the climax first, and engaging in other grueling tasks that seem like hard work because they are.