Narrative Non-Fiction: the writing and researching processes

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Zeroni

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I have a passion for nonfiction writing and researching, sometimes I go overboard researching because I enjoy it so much, at the moment I'm on sexual assault, domestic violence and childhood trauma.

I'd like to write a creative nonfiction novel on Aileen Wuornos younger years, of surviving her brutal childhood, she lived such a traumatised life, her coping mechanism was to face the world head on.

“I think this anger developed inside her. And she was working as a prostitute. I think she had a lot of awful encounters on the roads. And I think this anger just spilled out from inside her. And finally exploded. Into incredible violence. That was her way of surviving. I think Aileen really believed that she had killed in self-defense. I think someone who’s deeply psychotic can’t really tell the difference between something that is life threatening and something that is a minor disagreement, that you could say something that she didn’t agree with. She would get into a screaming black temper about it. And I think that’s what had caused these things to happen. And at the same time, when she wasn’t in those extreme moods, there was an incredible humanity to her.” – Nick Broomfield

I've written about my own trauma and sex critical theory in My First Per-Zine. I also have a call out for feminist writings on the activist experience on my blog, looking for experiences on how abuse and marginalisation might have inflected someone’s journey into anarchism/ liberation politics.

"
I’m on the lookout for radical folk who want to write personal stories that meander about general issues they’ve come up against surviving, growing, learning how to make change happen, for themselves and their adopted community.

I’m looking for both positive and negative stories, if you have stories of trauma it would be great to read as one important part of a larger journey, which might have even kick started something positive for you, like finding a supportive community, personal resilience, post traumatic growth. But at the same time I don’t want to discourage writers from submitting experiences that lead them to a realistic appreciation of sadness, or the limits of experience open to you being born into a narrative of kyriarchy.
"

But now I want to ask for people’s advice on using narrative to connect the facts of a story together, I have a wealth of sources included letters, diaries, journals, depositions, court case records, newspaper accounts.

The main source I’d like to work from are Aileen Wuornos prison letters, I've churned a stack of letters into a timeline of memories, that I'd like to include as quotes, but I need to get permission from the recipient of the letters first.

I haven't decided whether it would be better to stick to a single natural timeline, or to intersperse it with prison days, and the experiences of guilt she felt when she remembered the murders or times she had premonitions of how she would likely end up in prison.

If anyone has any suggestions about what they found interesting when researching a person’s life, in order to write their own nonfiction novels, I'd love to read, there are so many interesting quirks about Aileen’s character that I enjoy. The way she likes patterns and is constantly dreaming about her place in time, how the past connects to the future, there are also darker realities like her use of fantasy as a defence mechanism, and alcoholic escapism in her death drive.

There are a few simple recurring ideas throughout the letters; I imagine this has to do with her being on death row. When someone is motionless, simply reciting stories at the end of their life with no agency to think about how they could plan to go about situations differently, it is somewhat calming and freeing, because the anxiety is diminished, you can transcend the emotion of a situation. But at the same time I was left feeling like her character had no recourse to learn anymore. I found this really difficult to imagine constructing a timeline of her evolution in prison looking back, apart from simply beginning to end.

Anyway look forward to reading other people’s processes of researching and writing.

Notes from 'Life on the road'


  • 1 - "Next letter dear buddy will be on some of the things Rose + I did . . . I havent much time left to leave these truths behind for someone to know. As you and I know., No body knows me, / at all! . . . So Ill share memories with you, therefore at least my childhood friend does, here even in writing OK. I love ya gal. Catch ya in the next Kite. - P.S. You may want to keep these letters seperate from others, since they’ll contain true life events. Okee do Kee."
  • 2 – childhood bullies, in love with sightseeing and abuse.
"In my teens, beginning around 13. Carl Maddox, Seduced me first into sexual activity. And from there I began to explore it with others. But there were also momments of unwillingness of where you could very well call it coercioned sex . . . These area’s of sexual encounters I assuredly constituted (as) rape, but shoved these events into a closet of my own, unknown to anyone. I was entrapped on many occassions by Clawson, Royal Oak, Uttica, Rochester, Sterling heights, and some troy boys in this ordeal to face. Around 13 to 14 / I was gang raped twice . . . Looking back I can only see that I was because I hung out with the guys. But . . . ! That does not mean I was asking for it . . . Normally we were partying getting drunk stoned or both when this would happen . . . Finding a boy friend from Royal Oak. . . . Bobby Rowland . . . I then thought . . . with him by my side would protect me from any further such events like rape. But wrong I was. The gang rapes where both during the time I was with Bobby parties outside of Detroit. So needless to say . . . I was now very experienced in the field of sexual assaults. This is why I feel a new Nation wide Law for Women of Self-defense should highly be considered. And every women, even adulesent, should learn Self defense, Also carry guns and know how to use them., when reaching a certain age. Like 21 . . ."

  • 16? - Detroit – Busking to meet hippies and get drugs, attracting the attention of cops, “Well, suddenly up pulls a plain wrapper (regular Vehicle) with 4 white coats chargeing out and grabbing “Sara” . . “ finding out her childhood friend was a runaway from the loony bin her parents had put her in.
  • 16 – 1972 – Peter’s Shelter – Rape threat at gun point - Lexington Kentucky
  • 16 and 3 weeks – rapes and abuse
  • 16 –Michigan to West Palm beach, Denver headin south on I-25, Sprucewood.” some 30 miles up in the mountains from Sedelia Colorado – first hitch, picked up by cop who pretended to take her to motel, taken to abandoned house with a matress where she could squat, came back with other officers and gangraped, Stayed in West Palm 5 months with a guy named cat, when cat left to head out back to his ex in Albequerque New Mexico, she headed out West and wound up for the Summer in Sedala Colorado, liven up in the mountains of xxxxx with Sam and Rose Stone. Sam accepted her as a run away and offered to stay with him + his wife and 9 year old boy named Peter. ‘At first I was like, no . . . I need to check out the states and sightsee. Then on second thought I agreed.’ She ‘started to fall in love with the creator and his creations’. Learnt a lot ’by these mountainous gypsies who loved cribbage (card game) and Hootnanning at night, (singing in a group and jamming out with all types of instruments). Rose would walk me through the Wilds and teach me of land animals and shootin. Shootin from a 357 mag. as well as a 15 shot winchester and even cross-bow 80 lb pull . . . There were times that Rose would take me to the only bar up there around for . . . miles., to shoot some pool . . . there I was a 16 year ol’ Kid with a non-registered gun strapped with raw hide around my leg from the bottom of the holster, shuckin balls around the pool table like Annie Oakly . . . Loved it! . . . I was then handed a key to a storage shed, and camp site combined, for 10 dollars a month. (Electrical bill). (One light bulb/inside.) located just down a revine from their cabin . .
  • 16 – 1972 – Bakersfield California – picked up by Hells Angels, hitting it off over past suffering, pool and drinks. Crazy Joe T. Rip. Frenchy. Foot. stayed 3 days, since everybody else used nicknames, went by Apple a name acquired in Detroit.
  • 16 ½ - Living around celebrities in Palmsprings / Seeing news of celebrities on death bed, message to Dawn to feel good about her death when it comes.
  • 17 – 1973 – Finds dismembered woman’s body, couldn’t get police or truck driver to care to check.
  • 17 – 1973 –Louiville Kentucky to Jeffersonville Indiana and back– ‘carrying always that motto to try anything’ went out on dates with customers at the topless bar, near death escape with murderer, lost job and staying with the gal, moved in with a chick who ran the Outlaws, but kicked out again when she realized she wasn’t going to be able to find a job for a while and help her with any rent with her face all black and blue. . . hitchhiking back a couple pulled picked her up thinking she was a guy who had been in a bar fight. Then when they found out she was female, gave her a place to stay for a good 3 weeks before her face came back somewhat enough to hitchhike in, then back out all over the roads of America.”
  • 20 – 1976 – Atlantis condo, Ormond Beach, Daytona - Marriage to Lewie – reflecting how if anyone she knew found out how rich this guy was people would say she should’ve held on. How he was sexually perverted, controling, how she refuse and beat him near to killing him, put gun to his 22 rifle to his forehead, and demanded a devorce within 24 hours. Staying 2 Weeks till the divorce came through. Laughing about the article in the newspaper that says he picked her up from a nightclub he sang at. Imagining if it was true how she would have gone into Christian Rock.
  • 22 to 24 – telling dawn not to blame herself because her family didn’t have the means to help her, the blame is solely on the abusers. Drunk suicide attempt when a guy broke up with her because his mom told him to.
  • 23 – 1979 – Tara Technologies Corp Belfab, Daytona Beach – found a steady job £7.50 an hour, highest paying job that year.
  • 29 – 1985 – Smart alex bar - “Toni, my first Lezzy encounter, girl I was liven with, after a year together”, Beating up a homophobe, getting cheered on and backed up by other bikers.
  • ? – Fort Lauderdale going from Ohio to Troy, Michigan – Driving without a licence, jumping bail, getting freaked and flooring it past cops.
  • ? – getting kicked in the goolies for trying to get her friends purse back, near miss for her lebido, “she also was Maxs sister. The guy I shot myself over. So/She found it lying in a ditch along side the road”, learning how to avoid getting robbed
  • ? – Lauderdale - Staying with celebrities
  • K - Keith Dies, Loris house, funeral, scattering ashes, radio omen
  • K – Keith Hospital / Dawn visiting / Barry tortured Keith, family violence
  • K – Keith’s Illness and Hospital – Last visit, keith disapproves of hooking, aileen trys to make plans to come back and support keith
  • Z – Cop stories, a cop who was a regular customer of hers showing her a tape of 4 cops in uniform and their wives and a dog having an orgy.
  • Z – Daytona Beach – Jobs; “Topless Bartender at a juke named Sam’s” for 2 weeks, 1 day as a stripper, the discreetness of hitchhiking hooking
  • Z – drinking every day, hangover cures
  • Z – reflecting on The good old days, entertainment at home, living like tv characters, winning pool bets, becoming an alcoholic
  • Z – the beach – natural looking hooking
  • Z - the Keys “under the bridge of US 1 and near the Ocean 80(s) motel resort”- sunbathing, treasure hunting and time travel
 

L. Y.

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Hello Zeroni. It's never a good idea to start a new thread after your previous one has been locked.
 

Zeroni

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Hey L.Y. and anyone who posted on the old thread, I'd prefer if you messaged me so this thread doesn't turn into a flame war aswell.
 

Lillith1991

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Hey L.Y. and anyone who posted on the old thread, I'd prefer if you messaged me so this thread doesn't turn into a flame war aswell.

The last thread was locked not because of the "flame war," but because it was reported as going against the site rules. As one of the supposed flamers, I would advise you to keep this as a passion project and put it up somewhere like the RPF section of Archive of Our Own or some other fan-fiction site. The concerns from the previous thread still apply, and it's genuinely best to avoid them by letting somewhere like the organization that runs AO3 handle any legal issues.

If you love research and narrative non-fiction or realist fiction, there's no reason to not write something similar that won't end with you in legal trouble.
 
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L. Y.

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Hey L.Y. and anyone who posted on the old thread, I'd prefer if you messaged me so this thread doesn't turn into a flame war aswell.
Not looking to start anything. You're new here, so I decided to pass on a little advice.

That said, much of what was said in the old thread pertains to your questions here. The advice was posted out of concern, and by members who are very knowledgeable about our craft.

It is always a good idea to assume good intentions.
 

Zeroni

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I'll just post this once and and then I'd really like this thread to be dedicated to writing good nonfiction, in my case biography, if your concerned with my sources at all, can we have the conversation over at 'on sources'

I got locked out of a thread over on the fiction board, about using my nonfiction research to practice writing fiction.

It didn't go down very well I think because it looked too simmilar to 'real person fiction' / 'fan fiction'.

I'd like to use this new thread strictly for talking about researching facts for use in the narrative nonfiction writing process, how to collect and organise quotes and sources (yes and use them with permission).

The discussion in the last forum was around me basing to much of any future writing on one source. I just want to let people know I'm not trying to get anything published, publicized or platformed anywhere, that I don't have permission for, not me or any trail of where I talk about writing ideas will be of any concern or connected in any legal manner.

please respect the subject of this thread, if you want to comment on copyright law, plagiourising or getting permission, go to on sources and I'll keep up to date with the discussion, or just message me privately.
 

Lillith1991

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I'll just post this once and and then I'd really like this thread to be dedicated to writing good nonfiction, in my case biography, if your concerned with my sources at all, can we have the conversation over at 'on sources'

I got locked out of a thread over on the fiction board, about using my nonfiction research to practice writing fiction.

It didn't go down very well I think because it looked too simmilar to 'real person fiction' / 'fan fiction'.

I'd like to use this new thread strictly for talking about researching facts for use in the narrative nonfiction writing process, how to collect and organise quotes and sources (yes and use them with permission).

The discussion in the last forum was around me basing to much of any future writing on one source. I just want to let people know I'm not trying to get anything published, publicized or platformed anywhere, that I don't have permission for, not me or any trail of where I talk about writing ideas will be of any concern or connected in any legal manner.

please respect the subject of this thread, if you want to comment on copyright law, plagiourising or getting permission, go to on sources and I'll keep up to date with the discussion, or just message me privately.

Dude, just a heads up. But your mischaracterizing what people were bothered by in the other thread, and trying to control this one as if AW is some board where the mods do nothing isn't going to do you many favors with other members. It won't garner sympathy, especially since one of those people raising concerns in the old thread was a mod with 30 years in the publishing industry and a well-respected member of AW.

But moving on...

Narrative non-fiction like memoirs, biographies, autobiographies etc. are not referred to as novels. They take some things such as structure from novels, but they're not ones themselves and calling it such may put off readers who know the difference.

I'm also unsure what the notes, which take up a sizable and frankly frustrating portion of your post, are for. We, as in the people reading the thread, probably don't need them unless we ask. They don't mesh well with what you're telling us you want to do and distract from the point of the thread. Are you really planning to write about her early years or just her life as a whole? What you're leading up to is a big thing in narrative non-fic and dictates how something is structured.
 
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Zeroni

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If i get permission to do so I'm planning to wright a creative narrative nonfiction book length piece, that I will release as zine series which will be an ode to a young abused woman who later became a serial killer. It'll cover the theory, philosophy and politics of how anyone born into the same situation, would have produced the same results. It'll talk about the culture she grew up in and the movement that fought for her rights. Plus it will be a personal look at her coping mechanisms, her humanity and inhumanity. The notes I made after reading her own words, are a timeline of the years that are most important for me to talk about.

In the 2 days that I've been reading and posting to this forum, I've seen so many people post about the writing industry, as if it's this influential group everyone should pay homage to or fear their reputation being tarnished forever. You should know by now, I don't give one about the supposed 'authorities' on an issue or any subject, I am only interested in an equal exchange of ideas.
 

Lillith1991

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If i get permission to do so I'm planning to wright a creative narrative nonfiction book length piece, that I will release as zine series which will be an ode to a young abused woman who later became a serial killer. It'll cover the theory, philosophy and politics of how anyone born into the same situation, would have produced the same results. It'll talk about the culture she grew up in and the movement that fought for her rights. Plus it will be a personal look at her coping mechanisms, her humanity and inhumanity. The notes I made after reading her own words, are a timeline of the years that are most important for me to talk about.

In the 2 days that I've been reading and posting to this forum, I've seen so many people post about the writing industry, as if it's this influential group everyone should pay homage to or fear their reputation being tarnished forever. You should know by now, I don't give one about the supposed 'authorities' on an issue or any subject, I am only interested in an equal exchange of ideas.


No. I should not know. Nor do I feel you're truly interested in the free and equal exchange of ideas with people. Sneering at the industry and people who respect the boundaries of the laws governing it do you no favors as a newbie to the forum. This is a diverse place, and we've all agreed to the rules of the forum so that it may be a place where we can talk about writing with each other without constant fear of being shouted down and someone telling us we're "flaming" them because we disagree with their views or what they wish to do is against legal and site rules.

Nor did you answer my question. Is this project about her whole life or the lead up to her crimes, the early years as you put it? Pick one and stick with it because your readers are not going to appreciate the waffling and posting it somewhere, should you manage to get permission to do so, will be next to pointless. No one want's to read something that lacks a throughline or where the throughline is different than what the writer promised them.
 
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Zeroni

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I'm not interested in this line your taking, I don't agree with your assesment, if you have a personal issue with me write me a message.
 

Lillith1991

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I'm not interested in this line your taking, I don't agree with your assesment, if you have a personal issue with me write me a message.

No. I will not write you a message.

It is a fact that readers do not deal well with being or feeling tricked. If you tell them the book will be about Aileen's early years, a M/M Romance, a Horror novel etc., they want what they were promised. So picking the topic and sticking to it will be crucial should you actually want people to read said work. You don't have to like it, I don't have to like it, the pope doesn't have to like it. But we are all bound by the same unspoken rules when writing narrative non-fiction and fiction, and not keeping to your throughline and delivering something else breaks the rule to not confuse the reader. Everything else leads back to this. Don't confuse the reader. Do not trick them. Do not break the clear and implicit promise you made them.
 

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I haven't read the other thread. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems this is the crux of what you're after here:

"...But now I want to ask for people’s advice on using narrative to connect the facts of a story together..."

I haven't done a book like this but I have read a lot of "true crime" books and it sounds like you want to do something like that, showing her crimes, punishments, and including her life experiences that led up to all of that and contributed to it. But in this case your deeper message would be how society wronged her from an early age and more or less created the whole tragedy(?)

My quick google search of her shows her to be rather unique and therefore definitely a worthy subject. There have been a couple of documentaries done on her already so if you haven't seen/read those yet, that might be a good place to start. You can check out how they laid it out and from what perspective, plus perhaps get ideas as to who they had to get permission from. Maybe more importantly, before you invest more effort into this project, you could double-check to make sure your idea is different enough from what's already been done to bother proceeding with, or if you should perhaps start over with a different person of interest.

Other "true crime" books might give you further ideas on how to arrange the contents.

I'd think a logical way to begin might be to lay out all of your documents in chronological order, then fill in your narrative around them as the "story" unfolds and naturally progresses. After that, you might want to switch it around some, maybe putting the high interest ending first or whatever, as well as possibly cutting out some of the less important or redundant parts and adding in more of your spin on it where it seems called for (and checking similar books for more ideas). And consider including the original documents where they add interest. Good luck with it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aileen_Wuornos
 
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Zeroni

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You seem to be repeating yourself, I'm sorry your confused by my idea, I'm really not asking to have a piece of work critiqued, I asked for other peoples experiences of researching and writing nonfiction so that we can discuss and compare 'the why' we chose our processes and methodologies, not force an opinion on the other person, I don't know where your going with this as I don't want to engage you in an arguement yet you seem intent on picking one.
 

Zeroni

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Thanks so much, I transcribed Nick broomfields documentary, it was so good, his way of scripting the movie was first to talk about the legal system in america and then the sadness of putting an insane woman to death, but I have made notes and thought about why he scripted the movie the way he did, he said in an interview it wasn't until someone showed him how to edit his film properly that he started getting breaks in tv, so I definitly want to draw inspiration from his documentaries as well as his films
 

Lillith1991

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You seem to be repeating yourself, I'm sorry your confused by my idea, I'm really not asking to have a piece of work critiqued, I asked for other peoples experiences of researching and writing nonfiction so that we can discuss and compare 'the why' we chose our processes and methodologies, not force an opinion on the other person, I don't know where your going with this as I don't want to engage you in an arguement yet you seem intent on picking one.

Let's get one thing straight. I'm not arguing with you and I do not have anything against you. I do, however, not deal well with people denying facts such as the need to not confuse or lie to readers being paramount to a successful project. This is a fact of writing and not at all subjective or an opinion.

You've also stated multiple times that you want to write about Aileen's early years and then gone on to describe a project far out of the scope of what you wish to do. If you are going for the type of project fruitbat describes, drop the early years angle and make the premise comprohensive. Readers won't feel like you're lying to them if you do that, and you'll get better word mouth as a result. Word of mouth, particularlly good words, are what you want with this type of project.

That said, I'm done with this topic.
 

Zeroni

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Cool when I start writing publicity, I'll let you know.
 

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Zeroni, when a thread gets locked here it is not good to start another identical thread to discuss the same things.

I've locked this thread to give the room mods a chance to arrive and assess.
 
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