Beyond the Writers' Workshop: New Ways to Write Creative Nonfiction

Many books about writing nonfiction are actually spiritual-quest road maps. They might call themselves writing guides, but they have more to do with self-help than writing. While those books certainly have their place, it is bracing to come across one that's more stringent about words on the page. In Beyond the Writers' Workshop, Carol Bly rails against what she sees as a state of cultural deprivation in the United States. She calls on all writers and their teachers to remove "as many of the influences and instruments or conventions that cause 'dumbing down' as we can." Elementary-school teaching, says Bly (who also wrote The Passionate, Accurate Story), is so focused on making sure the children have fun that they don't have a chance to take themselves seriously; MFA students get stuck "writing decorative humbug"; and older-adult writers are predisposed to penning affectionate, empty memoirs.

Bly's aim is to help writers deepen their writing. She argues for formality, both in the writing and in the classroom: it makes the writing more potent and acts as "a weapon against smirking." She is a strong believer in empathic questioning; has chapters on stage-development philosophy and neuroscience; and recommends that writers sharpen their prose by "scouring off wormy style," questioning any "shopworn observation," and recalling "peculiar details that no one else could fake." The 15 writing exercises at the back of the book will likely send writers digging inward. And though Bly criticizes the dispassionate "museumgoer" mentality, she claims that it is good for a writer to be a generalist. "The more material you have to work with," she says, "the more likely you are to produce fresh, unexpected connections." --Jane Steinberg