One Piece of Advice From 36 Nonfiction Authors in 2023
Some writers may think of nonfiction as limiting, because everything has to be real or true. However, I think nonfiction is a very versatile genre of writing, because it has so many sub-genres. Just in this list, there are memoirs, essay collections, history, journalism, how-to, self-help, and more.
(6 Types of Creative Nonfiction for Writers to Try.)
Here I’ve collected one piece of advice from 36 nonfiction authors who were featured in our author spotlight series in 2023. Be sure to click the author names if you’d like to read their full author spotlights from earlier this year.
“I’m still fairly new at this, so I don’t know if I’m qualified to give much advice, but I will share a piece of wisdom from the incomparable James Baldwin. He sat for a Paris Review interview in 1984, which contains many gems, but my favorite is when he’s asked to give advice to young writers. He replies: ‘Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance.’ In my experience, that sentiment is exactly right. Endurance almost always wins the day—so, keep going.” –Lena Andrews, author of Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II (Mariner Books)
“Don’t give up. I teach creative writing to people of all ages and backgrounds, and this is the first thing that I say when I’m asked for advice. Don’t give up. The writers whose books you love, whose books fill your shelves and nightstands, who you have memorized, made beloved, quoted, and shared, are the ones who didn’t give up. Work to build resilience into your practice, and just keep writing. I also recommend that writers see their craft as being many-faceted. Too often we see actual composition as the only component in the writing life. I teach that writing includes reading, community, outreach, and revision as well.” –Megan Baxter, author of Twenty Square Feet of Skin (Mad Creek Books/The Ohio State Press)
“Stay curious, keep reading, keep writing.” –Douglas Brunt, author of The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel (Atria Books)
“Listen to your editors. They are a tremendous resource, and they are on your side.” –Leah Redmond Chang, author of Young Queens: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
“Write for you first. You can’t edit zero words, so write regardless of the quality. The book comes together in the editing. It’s OK to take breaks and do other things. You can always come back to the writing. Choose your wellness first.” –Kleaver Cruz, author of The Black Joy Project: A Literary and Visual Love Letter to How We Thrive (Mariner Books)
“Ironically, even though I teach, I don’t really often give general advice because the writing process is so unique for everyone. There are two things I do offer as advice to myself all the time, however. The first is something the actor James Cagney once said when he was asked about the secret to acting. ‘Plant your feet, look the other person in the eye and tell the truth.’ I think that’s essentially what writing is all about as well. The other piece of advice is that people always say, ‘Write the thing that’s in you to write.’ I’ve come to think you should write the thing that you need to read. That way, even if there’s no audience, you have created something that is likely to help you yourself. Paradoxically, operating that way also gets you outside of yourself because you end up writing something that is somehow beyond what you already know and feel and think. That’s no small thing.” –Richard Deming, author of The Exquisite Loneliness (Viking)
“Each lens is unique, built upon a lifetime of influences. Trust your vision. Especially when people have differing ideas for your book/proposal/essay/etc., recognize that they are under influences of their own. Hold tight, hold firm on your idea and how you want it to live in the world. Someone telling you to change something, consider something else, has their own motivations and lens through which they view the world. Your book, your work, is YOUR view and you shouldn’t concern yourself with a suggestion that’s under the influence of, say, (gasp!) a trend or worse yet an algorithm.” –Jessica Elefante, author of Raising Hell, Living Well: Freedom from Influence in a World Where Everyone Wants Something from You (including me) (Ballantine Books)
“Write. Every day. I enrolled in an academic ‘boot camp’ one summer as I was writing the book, and I was required to write at least a half hour a day. I ended up writing about two-thirds of the book that summer. My best time was early morning, right after I woke up and during that first cup of coffee (or three!). But you should find the time that works best for your own biorhythms.” –Thomas C. Gannon, author of Birding While Indian: A Mixed-Blood Memoir (Mad Creek Books/The Ohio State University Press)
“If I could share one piece of advice with other writers, it would be to trust yourself and pace yourself. I guess that’s two pieces, but still! Writing a book, as the cliche goes, is very much a marathon and not a sprint. It happens over a long time, and any day you produce work, even if it’s a little, contributes to your process. It’s easy to say even though it’s difficult to experience in the moment. The same goes for trusting yourself. You have to remember you’re here doing this work for a reason–for me, that was making sure the stories got told–and that you wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t something you could do. So go slowly, and know you can do it. I pasted a Toni Morrison quote on my bookshelf that helped me a lot: ‘It’s not possible to constantly hold onto crisis. You have to have the love and you have to have the magic. That’s also life.’ Maybe the only way a book can really enter the world is with love and magic, and that love and magic comes from ourselves. Trusting yourself and being kind to yourself (with pacing and otherwise) is part of that.” –Elyssa Maxx Goodman, author of Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City (Hanover Square Press)
“Writing is not a talent or a gift. It is a skill that can be learned, strengthened, and expanded by studying, refining, and practicing the craft.” –Michael Harriot, author of Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America (HarperCollins)
“Don’t quit.” –Santi Elijah Holley, author of An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created (Mariner Books)
“Do not let others discourage you and do not get discouraged. Writing a book is a big undertaking, but if you have a compelling story to tell and you do it well, there will be an audience for it—and remember that you are doing something to add to the sum total of the world’s culture. It’s creative people that make the world a better place. Above all, enjoy the process of writing and revision, because you have to experience that for yourself no matter what. Just writing a book is a major accomplishment.” –Richard Hurowitz, author of In the Garden of the Righteous: The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives to Save Jews During the Holocaust (HarperCollins)
“Rejections are hard and more frequent than acceptances. It’s important to sit with rejection, but not let it dictate your writing practice or the trajectory of your career. I forgot that a lot when I was submitting my manuscript and other writing. It almost broke me.” –Christine Imperial, author of Mistaken for an Empire: A Memoir in Tongues (Mad Creek Books/The Ohio State University Press)
“Find the ritual that works for you and use that. Keep finding the ritual that works for you. It may change from project to project. Make experimenting as well as reading a part of this ritual.” –Bettina Judd, author of Feelin: Creative Practice, Pleasure, and Black Feminist Thought (Northwestern University Press)
“Many writers, I think, are shy when it comes to marketing new ideas or projects. If you have a solid idea for a book, don’t stress about whether or not it’s ‘ripe’ or ‘ready’ or fully developed. Start talking it up, pitching it, and spreading it around and you’ll find that much of what’s missing will start to naturally fall into place.” –Sheila Liming, author of Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time (Melville House)
“Life is often a self-fulfilling prophecy, so it is much better to be an optimist. Also, follow the evidence, not the number of likes you get on social media.” –Avi Loeb, author of Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars (HarperCollins)
“Write the sentence. Walk away for a week. Then write it again.” –Wesley Lowery, author of American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress (Mariner Books)
“The words that come directly to hand—based on what we’ve read, what we’ve heard, what sounds good or impressive on one level—might not be the right ones for you: the ones which say what only you can say, in the way only you can say it. Writing, for me, involves listening hard for the quiet little voice inside us, which we’ve been taught to ignore, which has sometimes even given up speaking at all. It’s the voice we had when we were a child, which sees things in a totally new and beautiful way, but which got laughed at or shamed into silence. Listen for that voice. Don’t be satisfied with writing which comes from anywhere else.” –Noreen Masud, author of A Flat Place (Melville House)
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“Do not give up and take those much-needed breaks away from the pen and your thoughts. Be kind and take care of yourself. Personally, I found that working on the book through the night worked for me when all was quiet and undisturbed.” –Jennifer McAdam, author of Devil’s Coin: My Battle to Take Down the Notorious OneCoin Cryptoqueen (William Morrow)
“When it comes to subject-matter, everyone loves someone who tells all the secrets. And when it comes to writing-style, no-one ever said ‘It’s too funny.'” –Caitlin Moran, author of What About Men? (HarperCollins)
“One of the most freeing parts of this process is when my editor told me to lean into the weird. I think this is a good lesson for everyone, if we think of weird as the things that make our work idiosyncratic and unique and wild. The part of our writing we might be unsure about, the part that’s a little rough and wild, the part that people in our workshop might think should be edited out of the story. And yeah, sometimes that’s true, but other times it’s the rest of the story that’s yearning to break out and join that part in the wildness.” –Jami Nakamura Lin, author of The Night Parade (Mariner Books)
“To see themselves as a vessel through which a creative, generative force wants to express itself, and to surrender fully to that while holding tight to their authenticity.” –Anita Nowak, author of Purposeful Empathy: Tapping Our Hidden Superpower for Personal, Organizational, and Social Change (Broadleaf Books)
“Write from what burns inside of you. That is what will sustain you through the arduous process of crafting a book from start to finish. It’s one thing to write what you know or care about. It’s another thing to write what burns you up.” –Bradley Onishi, author of Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism – And What Comes Next (Broadleaf Books)
“Stay open to new ideas! I had a different book idea I had been throwing around for years, that never seemed to get off the launchpad. Writing a book about crying wasn’t even on the horizon! But after it was suggested to me, the more I thought about it the more I realized my passion. I’m not publishing the book I thought would be my first, but it feels like the book I was meant to write.” –Benjamin Perry, author of Cry, Baby: Why Our Tears Matter (Broadleaf Books)
“Read more than you write.” –Eli Rallo, author of I Didn’t Know I Needed This (HarperCollins)
“I’d share the reminder that writing well is less about what we’ve seen, where we’ve traveled, or our education. It’s more about our emotions and feelings and how we express and infuse them into our work. I want to assure everyone that if they’ve felt deeply, they’ve lived deeply—they have the tools to be a writer!” –Ruta Sepetys, author of You: The Story: A Writer’s Guide to Craft Through Memory (Viking Books)
“Writing a book takes faith in yourself, and perhaps more importantly, in the story you have to tell. Shine that faith on your story like a lighthouse on safe harbor, and it will help you navigate storms of shame, doubt, criticism, and apathy that can happen along the way.” –Jen Soriano, author of Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing (Amistad)
“If you believe in yourself and have a goal, don’t ever let up until you accomplish it. You may go mad and get frustrated, but we can achieve impossible things when we are insanely driven. But you have to be relentless and resilient.” –Raj Tawney, author of Colorful Palate: A Flavorful Journey Through a Mixed American Experience (Empire State Editions/Fordham University Press)
“Write courageously. Embrace the emotions inside you that you’re afraid are unworthy of being seen and give them life on the page. Write from the fierce belief that your words are worthy and worth reading. Write as though there was a reader out there, somewhere, waiting for the book that no one but you is capable of writing. Write for that reader and no one else.” –Kai Cheng Thom, author of Falling Back in Love With Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls (The Dial Press)
“I’m surprised by how many writers tell me they don’t read that much, or don’t read in their fields. That feels basic to me. But beyond that, I find it so helpful to read what confounds you, what feels beyond your grasp as a writer, what inspires you but exists far outside your chosen field. Read the thing you could never write because it will help you to write the thing you can’t yet conceive of.” –R. Eric Thomas, author of Congratulations, the Best Is Over! (Ballantine)
“Do not be discouraged. I am 57, and this is my first book; it really is never too late. And I always prefer to read my work aloud before submitting it. It’s like listening to music; one can very quickly ascertain where the rhythms are clunky, and when they flow well.” –Rachelle Unreich, author of A Brilliant Life (HarperCollins)
“As I am new to this genre, I am just learning myself and I have been fortunate to have friends who have been writing books for adults for many years and were there along the way. But if I have to give some advice to other writers, it would be to be easy on yourself in the process. Let the mistakes happen, let yourself permeate the pages, and remember that there is room for your story and your voice. Let it flow.” –Susan Verde, author of Say One Kind Thing: Lessons in Acceptance, Love, and Letting Go (Abrams Image)
“Never be ashamed to ask for help and always be open to feedback. I have learned so much during this process by placing my ego aside, welcoming change, and being honest when I don’t know something.” –Hadley Vlahos, author of The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life’s Final Moments (Ballantine)
“Throw a lot at the wall and see what sticks. The perfect sentence might not make it, but something will. When I’m compulsive and perfectionistic, I become exacting and think that I can’t get a word wrong or make a single mistake. That’s when I write very little. When I let myself actually enjoy the creativity of the process, it’s exhilarating. So let yourself enjoy writing and reading and discovering.” –Charlotte Fox Weber, author of Tell Me What You Want (Atria)
“It’s perfectly all right not to write every day, let alone a set word count. I tend to write in streaks, because my nonfiction books tend to be research-intensive and requires a great deal of attention. Thinking and ruminating time is critical. Then it’s time to write…” –Sarah Weinman, author of Evidence of Things Seen: True Crime in an Era of Reckoning (Ecco)
“Allow yourself to experiment. Allow yourself to play. Understand that overcoming your fear of your own literary insufficiency, is part of the writing process. Work hard, but don’t rush. The book will take as long as it takes. If you feel stymied. Take writing courses—but only from teachers who know their stuff and are kind. Hang out with other writers when it works for you, but allow yourself to (temporarily) withdraw if that is what you need. Learn to trust yourself and your own story. Oh and this: Having an agent is great (I am infinitely grateful to Eleanor Jackson), but your agent cannot save your life. By which I mean, you have to find your story by yourself. No one else can do this work for you.” –Michaele Weissman, author of The Rye Bread Marriage (Algonquin Books)
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While there’s no shortage of writing advice, it’s often scattered around—a piece of advice here, words of wisdom there. And in the moments when you most need writing advice, what you find might not resonate with you or speak to the issue you’re dealing with. In A Year of Writing Advice, the editors of Writer’s Digest have gathered thoughts, musings, and yes, advice from 365 authors in dozens of genres to help you on your writing journey.