Inside The Cover
Book Reviews
Review by Patricia
Ferguson, PsyD
Follow The Story: How to Write Successful Nonfiction
By James B. Stewart
Simon & Schuster
1998
370 pages
Writing-related
Writers who have written one or maybe two books have written most of the books I have read about writing. Stewart, however, really is an expert. Not only has he actually written a book, of course, but also he wrote for the American Journal for several years prior to becoming the editor of Page One of the Wall Street Journal. When Stewart began his job as the editor at the Wall Street Journal, he realized that editors were actually rewriting poorly-written material because the writers had not learned how to write a good story. So he created a class and began teaching them how to write. The things that he taught them are in this book.
I asked to read this book because in my own e-mail conversations with Evan Marshall, who wrote
The Marshall Plan, among other books about writing, I asked him about books about nonfiction. He referred me to this book by Stewart. Although Stewart is actually teaching journalists (reporters) how to write rather than focusing on the novel or other nonfiction writing, his teachings do apply to everyone’s writing. But they are especially useful for nonfiction writers. For instance, he talks about how to get sources to talk, and when you need to resort to using the Freedom of Information Act to get transcripts.
Stewart begins the book talking about how writers get ideas, and how to make them more interesting from the first sentence of the article. He says that nearly every good idea begins with a question. From there he goes on to talk about all the different types of approaches to the idea. For example, he talks about narrative stories, point of view, investigative journalism, the trend, the explanation, and the profile. “Trend” is simply what others are
doing: is it in style to do it? He says that trends, explanations, and profiles are the three easiest types of stories for beginning writers.
From there he talks about proposals, gathering information, and leads. He talks about topics that are necessary for all writing, such as transitions, structure, description, dialogue and anecdotes. He concludes with a chapter on humor and pathos, and one on endings. His appendixes are examples of good writing—three articles all written by him.
Stewart’s purpose is to teach good writing to students or journalists who should already know it but don’t. It wouldn’t hurt anyone who writes or even who edits to read this book, though, because this is a really good book about writing. It reminds the reader of the things about writing that perhaps they once knew but don’t remember. After all, even someone who writes every day can use some help from the masters.
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Patricia Ferguson is a freelance writer/editor/publisher, as well as a
licensed clinical psychologist. She is a co-founder and editor-in-chief of Apolloslyre,
an online magazine for and about writers of all genres. She is an editorial
reviewer for The Writer's Room, and a book reviewer for several venues,
including, among others, Absolute Write and Metapsychology Online. She is
currently working on a book of memoirs. She and her husband and son live in
northern California.
