METM25 presentation

Using fiction craft techniques to engage the nonfiction reader

Andrew Hodges, Edinburgh, Scotland

This presentation is about the application of fiction craft techniques to nonfiction genres of writing beyond narrative nonfiction. Wherever vignettes, stories, or extended descriptions are deployed, there are opportunities to include various craft techniques to engage the reader. This is important if we understand nonfiction and fiction as two different kinds of learning – learning through information and learning through imagination – that complement each other and can be brought together to create a more compelling and relatable text for readers. The insights presented will draw heavily from my experience as a developmental and line editor of fiction and cultural anthropology, and as an author and translator of ethnographies and novels.

First, I will discuss academic and nonfiction genres that could particularly benefit from such techniques, and emphasize situations in which they are less appropriate, contrasting a nonfiction “reporting” or “told” style with a more immersive and “shown” style, common in much commercial fiction. I will then give a brief overview of key topics in fiction craft relevant to nonfiction: showing and telling, conveying emotions, sensory imagery, words, narrative distance, use of setting (including the weather), use of dialogue versus reported speech, and “objective” description versus description clearly situated within a perspective. The presentation will include some interactive exercises in which participants will transform sentences from a reported “told” style to a more immersive “shown” style. Participants will discuss these examples in pairs before feeding back to the group.

This presentation is for language professionals working in academic or nonfiction genres looking to gain fresh insight into fiction craft techniques, develop their sense of when these can be applied to nonfiction texts, and apply simple techniques to their own writing, editing, or translation projects. It is not for experienced fiction editors or literary translators, who will already be familiar with these techniques.
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About the presenter

Dr Andrew Hodges (he/they) is a cultural anthropologist turned developmental and stylistic editor. They specialize in cultural anthropology and love working on projects with a social justice element. They also have expertise in fiction developmental editing, which they apply to ethnographic writing, where appropriate.