The best books to read if you want to write the best of non-fiction

I know that many doctors, scientists, psychologists, and professionals of all stripes want to give voice to their personal and professional experiences. But here’s the rub: writing is a craft, no different from being an equestrian or an electrician, a musician, an actor, or a teacher. Which means you have to learn the craft. Then keep working at it.

New writers used to be directed to Strunk & White’s paene to grammar and syntax, The Elements of Style. Good for proofreading but not creating. Writing well was becoming an endangered species. One day, a cranky Yankee journalist and university teacher with a very big heart was complaining to his wife about how so few knew how to write. She said, “…well, do something about it!”

He wrote, On Writing Well, The Classic Guide To Writing Nonfiction. Its principles (with many helpful examples) are clarity, simplicity, brevity, and humanity. There is no better map to writing well. On Writing Well has sold over 1.5 million copies. Because he nailed it. Thank you, Bill Zinsser. 

Yes, the same Stephen King: Carrie, The Shining, Misery, and dozens more. Fiction? Yes–his memoir is among the best books for writing nonfiction, not the best of nonfiction books.

Writers of every genre suffer the same troubles, like doubt, rejections, not enough days when the work “flows”, procrastination, alcohol, and drug abuse, having to bow and beg (until your success reverses the tables), and so on. In On Writing, Mr. King gives us his story: "the good, the bad, and the ugly", of writing. 

Start with chapter 25 of “CV”, right to the meat of King’s memoir. Be sure you read his “Tool Box” for writing. From the “fundamentals” (e.g., read and write a lot, vocabulary, sentences, paragraphs) to the “craft” (e.g., subject, story-telling; clarity {again !}; people, personalities, and characters).  

Enjoy!

To play better tennis, watch Roger Federer; to be funny, tune in Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, or Nancy Meyers; to deliver great mystery/suspense, read Lee Child; to write poetry that penetrates our hearts, read Mary Oliver or Maya Angelou. Our brains are wired for “mirroring” the neural activity that reflexively has us act like who we see or hear. 

Anne Lamott’s prose superbly (and seemingly) effortlessly paints word portraits of family, friends, circumstances, and (especially) herself that make us grin and laugh; feel mean, kindly or loving; chained or free; bemused or despondent. Wow! That’s literary range and brilliance. 

My mirroring neurons are ignited by Anne Lamott. Not that I achieve her level of literary excellence or poise. But that’s what my brain thinks it can, without my knowing it.

I loved this book because it demonstrates we can write about any subject we have a passion for: bowling, the bassoon, the Canary Islands, UFOs, opium, truffles, cats and dogs, evil and good, or cells!

Thomas starts his book by marveling about cells. Vivid imagination, not labor, carries him to subjects like insects, music, language, computers, and medicine. After all, they are interconnected, like we are. 

Which means I need only start with one subject* that stirs my wonder or worry and holds meaning for me. I don’t need to hunt for something to write about, it is right in front of my eyes. 

*BTW, the author of my book choice #1, Bill Zinsser, covered war, theatre, baseball, music, nonfiction writing, and memoirs. Note to self: One subject will do.

This book is like a rainbow. In this book of essays, one color of (nonfiction) prose builds upon another. Its layered literary colors, like a rainbow, form a spectrum of writing whose whole is far more than its parts. A rainbow can disappear in a blink., but not the written word. 

Inventing the Truth has 9 colors to its rainbow. They are the superb writings of Russell Baker, Jill Ker Conway, Annie Dillard, Frank McCourt, Toni Morrison, Alfred Kazin, Ian Frazier, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Eileen Simpson. Each essay illuminates a lesson from and about life. Their compilation is an incomparable bounty for every nonfiction writer.