Non-fiction, And The Money That's Waiting To Be Picked Up

( Originally Published 1944 )

Received by all men and by all rejected.

EVERY established writer knows that one of the great hazards of the tyro writer is his likelihood to write what is hard for him instead of what is easy for him.

Many times I have seen writers who could write fiction with an easy grace struggling frantically to write non-fiction.

Non-fiction has come up tremendously in public esteem during the past two decades. At one time it was the most unprofitable form of writing now it goes neck and neck with fiction in cash rewards.

The science of psychology and the science of endocrinology have made wonderful strides forward since the First World War. Somehow the Church has managed to keep the larger masses of people in ignorance of these sciences, since a full knowledge of them makes religion seem like sheer nonsense. I believe, however, that one of the first things a new writer should do is to go to the library and read at least one good late book on both these sciences.

There are those constituted mentally in such fashion that no matter how they strain, for years, fiction bewilders them and they cannot write it because they have not that type of mind, and never will have. Others, with orderly, pragmatic, systematic minds find at once that their feeling for fact makes non-fiction a cinch for them. There is hardly a magazine today, except the lowest of pulps, that fails to use some non-fiction; and I know of no book publisher who does not have non-fiction on his list.

It is my belief that the craving for fiction will be Iessened in the years immediately to come, and that the yen for non-fiction will increase.

I believe this is so because every sign seems to point to the fact that the United States American has discovered education. And totally like us we have not taken up education for what it ought to be a means to an end but as a fad. One of the things that has contributed to this is the prevalence of the so-called "Quiz Program," which is, of course, an outgrowth of the cross word puzzle.

Also for many years we Americans had little real curiosity about foreign lands. Now that we have discovered that they too are full of people who breathe, eat, and sleep in no way that differs fundamentally from our own way and that the so-called American Way is a term which lacks everything including definition, we are naturally getting more curious. The beautiful thing about non-fiction is that the author never needs to know what he is talking about.

Think of the many books tossed off about World War Two. Every one of them as they appeared was gibberish within six months. But that didn't matter. They sold!

Think of the thousands of articles written against Russia, on the theory that the entire country was settled by demons. Overnight the demons became arch-angels and thousands of more articles were written about that. These articles about the archangels, like those about the demons, were paid for! All you need to write non-fiction is a pragmatic mind, a theme, and a quotation from some source I have forgotten which goes: "If you're not sure, be extra positive about what you say." It used to be applied to newspapers but now it could be applied to everyone from Lewis Browne to Thomas E. Dewey.

To get a theme you proceed as follows: Go to a library and look up in the cross index files any off-hand idea of which you can think. Note how many books have been written on the subject, and then take, for your theme some idea that only a few books have been written on, say five or six thousand al-together. Next think up who it is going to annoy, and who it is going to please. It should annoy the sort of people who have access to publicity, and it should please the sort of people who have money enough to toss away some bucks on a new book. After that your way is clear. You get all the other books on the subject, borrow from them here and there, and put. together a new book. This is not plagiarism. Some years ago the Authors' League of America pointed out: "Copying one book is plagiarism; copying several books is research."

In order to give your book some real chance of solid success you must find out a new fact or two not in any of the other books. This is a darned nuisance, but it adds a great deal to the chances for success of your book. Failure to do this is likely to cause the waste of all the time you spent on the project. The same course is to be followed in the case of short non-fiction intended for magazine publication. To wit: Research founded upon former articles on the same subject plus a new fact or two.

Following this the only matter left is, again, that of style of writing; which, as has been pointed out, must come primarily from practice in writing and secondarily through adapting your own style to the manner or mode of stylistic approach of the magazine to which the article is to be sent, or the publisher to whom it is going to be addressed.

The great danger in all this is that again the writer may unnecessarily complicate matters. Established writers have seldom ever gone through courses on writing; they figure out their own method of procedure and go ahead always keeping in mind the eccentricities of the editor they are going to approach, and the necessity for actually learning to write; and by learning to write I mean, again, simply, practice. Not that practice will win the battle if you have not some flair for the project in the first place.