ChunkyC said:
Do you consciously use fiction writing techniques when writing your columns / articles, etc.?
As one who writes both fiction and non-fiction, I know I use storytelling techniques when putting together my movie review column, but I was wondering if any of you who write non-fiction exclusively make use of fiction techniques?
Good question.
Off the top of my head, I'd have to say that much depends on which fiction techniques you're referring to, and the length of the piece you have to write. And I am conscious of how I will write or present it within the confines of the structure.
For a lengthy piece eg. 2000 words or more, purely technique-wise, you can use narrative non-fiction to introduce 'air', 'colour' and 'texture'. (Rightly or wrongly, and for the sake of brevity of post, I am relying on the readers' intuitive understanding of these ideas).This is perhaps the ideal situation - not all editors or stories will allow it. More commonly, for
non-fiction that requires considerable detail, and the relay of information, the standard form is of course the inverted pyramid.
For good leads/ledes - opening sentences - I find that The Economist writers are good, as is the magazine's overall style and 'voice'. If you're interested to read some of the finest combination of fiction and
non-fiction writing, get yourself some back issues of the International Herald Tribune, before it was taken over by its US partner, around
2-3 years ago. The IHT is still good, but is losing its edge in order to become 'contemporary'. The 'old' IHT material might seem a bit fusty by contemporary US non-fiction/journalism standards, but some of the writing was just superb.
Non-fiction work does have its own methods, and in many ways, these are hard to deviate from eg. the inverted pyramid. Say what you will about it, but it is a logical structure for presentation of the story.
This said, you have within larger feature work the option, where appropriate, of utilising the 'flashback' for example. There is also the use of fiction's exposition to convey the sense of emotion of the characters in the piece, or how the writer has been affected by the events being written about. I believe that there is a growing contemporary acceptance in non-fiction/ journalism of the writer's own, direct voice to come through the writing. Taken to extremes, the journalist's voice envelopes and permeates the piece; perhaps the journalist's voice IS the piece.
To answer your question directly, no, I do not exclusively use fiction techniques, as many are either not suitable for
non-fiction, or must be utilised within non-fiction's requirements for brevity and relay of fact.