When journalists become authors: a few cautionary tips – Nieman Storyboard - A project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard

When journalists become authors: a few cautionary tips – Nieman Storyboard - A project of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard: "When journalists become authors: a few cautionary tips


by Peter Ginna | December 15, 2011


There’s long-form narrative, and then there’s book-length narrative. Both are “long,” but a story that’s 300 pages long is a different proposition, for both writer and reader, from one that’s 3,000 words.


Writers embarking on their first book-length project respond to the challenge in different ways. Some panic, staring blankly at their screen as fine beads of sweat form on their foreheads. Some luxuriate in the expanse of real estate and begin wandering to and fro around their subject, leaving no random thought unexpressed. Some try to take a 3,000-word piece and inflate it to 300 pages.


In a few decades as a book editor I have published journalists, historians and novelists. In this post I’ll identify some problems that I see often in manuscripts or outlines of book-length nonfiction."


'via Blog this' http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/2011/12/15/peter-ginna-bloomsbury-journalists-book-length-narrative/comment-page-1/#comment-13056

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