Nonfiction Can Feel Cold. Here’s How to Warm It Up and Connect With Readers
Whether you’ve picked a memoir, article, study, or other format, nonfiction can seem dry or cold — and not in the “I’m chill” kind of way. That’s because the emphasis typically is on data, analysis or delivering information, not engaging through emotional and narrative techniques.
Small tricks, however, can warm a nonfiction manuscript up significantly. Watching nuances in your language, carefully interweaving personal experiences, and starting a draft by speaking all can narrow the gap between a nonfiction author and readers.
For details, watch the video below.
For me, the use of pronouns was difficult to learn. I’d worked in environments that insisted drafts use “you” to establish authority. I wasn’t allowed to say “I,” “we,” or “us,” unless they were in a direct quote. Then, when I submitted manuscripts to other publishers, they told me the writing had an “outsider looking in feel,” and the work got a polite pass. I finally realized that breaking the rule I’d learned would allow me to create a better sense of universality and inclusion, and that I could save “you” direct questions or directions for the reader. Because most of a manuscript usually isn’t questions or directions, this leaves the majority of the writing with a gentler, more empathetic tone.
Personal experiences were puzzling for me, too. I had plenty of experiences. But I couldn’t get past the feeling that what had felt important to me wasn’t particularly important to others. On top of that, my life admittedly has been outside the norm in a lot of ways — I tend not to follow trends, and I have a pretty low tolerance for popular activities and hobbies. So, I got paralyzed and didn’t know what experience would be relatable enough. Then I realized that, even though I could tap “universal” experiences most people have had, I could use any experience as long as I helped the reader tap the feeling underneath it — descriptions of what I felt in my body or took in through my senses opened the door.
Lastly, a LinkedIn video from communication expert Vinh Giang helped me realize how different my speech and formal drafts could be. The goal became to get the tone of my speech and the tone of my writing to meet somewhere in the middle. I tried his recommendation to record something I wanted to write about and then use that to start a draft. Now, with a lot of practice, I don’t need to record so much. I can type my initial thoughts with few to no edits, trusting my initial instincts about how to say something. Then I go back to clean it up a bit.
Other strategies, such as the traditional fiction technique of show-don’t-tell, can heat up nonfiction even further. But the options outlined in the video above had the biggest impact for me.
Let me know on LinkedIn what your favorite strategy is to make nonfiction seem warmer!