You Can't Make This Stuff Up

by Gutkind, Lee

• ISBN13: 9780738215549
• ISBN10: 0738215546
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-14
• Publisher: INGRAM

Summary

From rags-to-riches-to-rags tell-alls to personal health sagas to literary journalism everyone seems to want to try their hand at creative nonfiction. Now, Lee Gutkind, the go-to expert for all things creative nonfiction, taps into one of the fastest-growing genres with this new writing guide. Frank and to-the-point, with depth and clarity, Gutkind describes and illustrates each and every aspect of the genre, from defining a concept and establishing a writing process to the final product. Offering new ways of understanding genre and invaluable tools for writers to learn and experiment with, You Can't Make This Stuff Upallows writers of all skill levels to thoroughly expand and stylize their work.

Author Biography

Lee Gutkind, author and editor of nearly thirty books and founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction magazine, is the Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the Consortium for Science, Policy Outcomes at Arizona State University and a professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication. Gutkind has lectured to audiences around the world and has appeared on many national television shows, including Good Morning America and The Daily Show.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction: How to Read This Book	p. xv
What Is Creative Nonfiction?
The Birth of the Godfather	p. 3
The Definition Debate	p. 5
What Is It-Or Isn't It?	p. 6
Who Coined the Term "Creative Nonfiction"?	p. 7
The Fastest-Growing Genre	p. 9
Subgenres	p. 10
Crossing Genres	p. 11
Poetry Is (Often) Creative Nonfiction	p. 11
Flexibility, Freedom, and the Larger Truth	p. 12
Truth or…	p. 14
Hall of Fame of Fakers	p. 15
Truth and Fact	p. 18
Fact Checking	p. 20
Fact Checking Sedaris	p. 21
Have I Totally D'Agata-ed This?	p. 22
Credibility-and Correctness	p. 26
What About the BOTS?	p. 27
Interesting Reading	p. 29
Who Will Take Charge?	p. 31
The Creative Nonfiction Police	p. 32
The Objectivity Debate	p. 33
Composites	p. 34
Compression	p. 35
Manufacturing Dialogue	p. 36
Name Changing	p. 37
Libel, Defamation-and Writing About the Dead	p. 38
Interesting but Not So Amusing Fudging	p. 39
Share Your Work with Your Subjects	p. 40
Covering Yourself	p. 41
Final Thoughts About Ethical, Legal, and Moral Boundaries	p. 41
Schedules	p. 44
Slave to Routine	p. 45
Passion and Practice	p. 47
The Rope Test	p. 48
Fall Down Nine Times-Get Up Ten	p. 51
A Final Word About Schedules	p. 54
The Creative Nonfiction Pendulum: From Personal to Public	p. 55
The Personal: That Kiss That Caused the Craze	p. 55
The Memoir Craze	p. 57
Between Memoir and Autobiography	p. 58
Don't Get Tangled in Terminology	p. 59
The Public or "Big Ideaö	p. 61
The Universal Chord: When Personal and Public Come Together	p. 62
Widening the Pendulum's Swing	p. 65
The Creative Nonfiction Way of Life	p. 69
From Dream to Reality	p. 71
Single-Subject Books	p. 72
Through Immersion, a Writer Can See the Story As It Happens	p. 72
Futures or "Idea" Book	p. 76
Selecting Subjects to Write About	p. 78
Parachuting	p. 79
What Immersion Is Really About: People	p. 80
More About Immersion	p. 80
Literary Sports Note	p. 81
The Bitter Better End	p. 82
The Tribulations of the Writer at Work	p. 83
Anxiety	p. 83
Should You Be Part of the Action?	p. 85
Documenting the Immersion	p. 86
Shirt Boards and Fancy Duds	p. 88
It's the Story, Stupid	p. 89
Thomas and Linda and the Power of the Story	p. 90
The Story Behind the Story	p. 91
It's the Information, Stupid!	p. 94
And Finally, a Gentle Reminder	p. 96
The Writing and Revising and Writing and Revising Part: How to Do It
Introduction to Part II	p. 99
How to Read	p. 100
Reading Over Your Reader's Shoulder	p. 101
I Remember Mama	p. 102
Reading with a Writer's Eye	p. 104
The Building Blocks	p. 105
The Yellow (Or Highlighting) Test	p. 107
A Famous and Memorable Scene	p. 109
To Highlight or Not to Highlight: That is the Question	p. 114
Something Always Happens	p. 114
Endings	p. 119
Dialogue and Description	p. 122
Intimate Details	p. 124
A Famous Intimate Detail	p. 128
More Examples of Intimate or Specific Detail	p. 129
An Important Note About Interviewing	p. 130
Does Absence of the Writer Mean Absence of Detail-Or a Weakness in the Story?	p. 131
Inner Point of View	p. 135
The Creative Nonfiction Dance	p. 138
Reminder: Writing Is Revision	p. 139
Now Let's Dance	p. 140
"Difficult Decisionsö by Lee Gutkind	p. 140
Follow-up Commentary	p. 149
"Three Spheresö by Lauren Slater	p. 151
Highlighting "Three Spheres" and "Yellow Taxi"	p. 167
"Yellow Taxi," by Eve Joseph	p. 169
Reflection	p. 183
Dealing with the Dead	p. 185
Recreation or "Reconstruction"?	p. 186
How Did It Happen?	p. 200
The Shocking Truth About the New York Times	p. 201
The Narrative Line and the Hook	p. 204
"Fixing Nemo"	p. 206
Plunging the Reader into the Story	p. 215
Background Means What It Says: In the Back	p. 215
The Story Determines the Research Information-The Facts-You Gather and Provide	p. 216
Framing: The Second Part of Structure (After Scenes)	p. 218
As Part of the Frame, There's Something at Stake	p. 220
Altering Chronology	p. 220
Parallel Narratives	p. 222
Don't Make Promises You Can't Keep	p. 223
Main Point of Focus	p. 226
Frame Reflects Focus	p. 227
Stories (Scenes) Are Elastic	p. 227
First Lede/Real Lead: A Creative Nonfiction Experiment Precipitated by Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald	p. 230
Clarity and Question Marks	p. 232
The Drawer Phase	p. 234
Remember That Writing Is Revision	p. 234
Now That I Know Everything I Ever Wanted to Know About Creative Nonfiction, What Happens Next?	p. 236
MFA in the USA	p. 236
Publish or Perish	p. 241
Don't Worry, Be Happy-and Smart	p. 242
A Final Word: Read this Book Again	p. 245
Appendix: Then and Now: Great (And Not So Great) Moments in Creative Nonfiction, 1993-2010	p. 247
Bibliography	p. 255
Permissions	p. 260
Index	p. 261
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.