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Sunday, September 30, 2007

C Is for Color

For a while, I've been sorting out what the ABC's of narrative nonfiction might be. Two reasons for this: Lately I've been writing abecederian poems (the first line begins with A, the second with B, and so on), and, in a classic case of running before I can walk, I think the collection of content organized along these lines would make an excellent book.

A few letters of the alphabet are hard to think of anything for, and several letters offer so many options that it's hard to choose among them. (Or do I have to choose? A "Dictionary of Narrative Nonfiction" would let me include several entries under a letter. )

Here's my initial thinking:


A - Arc, Attitude
B - Book vs. article
C - Craft / Color (setting) / Contract with reader
D - Dialogue
E - Exposition / Exploration / Endings / Editing
F - Frame / Fear / Fiction
G - "Going Long"
H - History / Help
I - Information / Immersion / Interviews
J - Writer's Journal / Judgment / Jokes--structure of
K - Knots / Knowing
L - Language
M - Meaning / Memoir
N - News Hooks / No-nos /Notebooks
O - Organizing
P - Poetry / Permission
Q - Quiet (as in, contemplation)
R - Reading / Resolution / Research
S - Scene / "So What?" / Shape /
T - Truth / Theme / Tangents / Transcribing / Time
U - Understatement / Universal
V - Viewpoint
W - Writing
X - Extraordinary
vs. ordinary (subjects to write about)
Y - Yielding (When to)
Z - "Zeroing in on" / Zapped (the project goes belly-up)

Any ideas or suggestions?


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