November 25, 2024
I’ve written before that Medium is often a fountain of ridiculous advice from self-styled experts. While I can pass off most of their “how-to-do-its” with a grin and a grimace, some of what they say just can't go without comment. Like this gem:
Non-fiction writers don’t need developmental editors.
Seriously?
I’ll spare you a detailed definition of what developmental editors do, but it really boils down to one thing.
They shape stories. They’re detectives in search of clues to a great read. They look at characters, structure, plot, and content, and help the writer assemble it all into a compelling narrative.
In the absence of that, what do you have? A bunch of episodes tacked on to each other, one following another, that extend the story without telling the story.
I once edited a non-fiction book that was a terrific account, but when it landed on my desk it was just fact after fact, incident after incident, situation after situation. The elements weren’t woven together (a hallmark of great storytelling). They simply sat there. Even worse, they didn’t have a point.
Collectively, that’s a killer. Worse, it’s boring. So I used what the author gave me as a blueprint, and we developed a dramatic narrative that was worthy of the story's drama -- full of ups and downs, wins and losses, and heroes and villains.
My argument here is that non-fiction can’t be left to stand on its own. I don’t care how interesting or important it might be. These stories have to be developed in a way that keeps readers reading. Facts alone don’t cut it.
Just read the A-listers – Michael Lewis, David Grann, and Erik Larson, for example. They didn’t crank out dry, fact-based, by-the-book tales of the national pastime (Moneyball), a shipwreck (The Wager), or a hurricane (Issac’s Storm).
They produced narrative non-fiction that was good as any novel, and better than most.
My guess is that to some non-fiction writers, that comes naturally. But for most of us, it doesn’t. That’s why developmental editors are essential. With apologies to Dragnet's Joe Friday (for the uninitiated, he's the guy at the top), they know it’s not just the facts. It’s the story.
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