In my creative nonfiction writing classes, I conduct workshops in which students read and provide feedback on their classmates’ first drafts of writing assignments. The writers then use the feedback they receive to plan and write revisions of their work.
In these workshops, I prompt my students to look for the “hot spot” in a piece of writing. Where in the writing does the energy level rise? Where does the intensity of the message increase? Where do they as readers get caught up in the story? If readers make writers aware of the hot spots, then writers can focus on them as they revise, making sure to take advantage of those high-energy points to make their message more engaging.
Readers become bored easily. Unless our writing is energized, we are likely to lose their attention. Energy gives our writing vitality. It creates for readers a sense of movement or progress as they read. It lends urgency to our message.
To increase energy in our creative nonfiction, we can consider three elements of our writing.
1. Our Subject
In crafting a memoir or a personal essay, we should set aside safe subjects and choose to write about what confounds, perplexes, fascinates, troubles, or confuses us. We should tackle the questions for which we have no concrete answers. Take on the topics that cause us some discomfort. Instead of writing about our proudest moments, for instance, those topics that produce a happy story, we might write about our most embarrassing, conflicted, or disappointing moments. A time when we felt that we were treated unfairly, or were overlooked or misunderstood. The tensions inherent in those subjects create energy in our writing.
2. Our Words
From the broad decision about our writing subject to a focus on the individual words we choose to convey our message, we should consider the level of energy we are creating in our writing. The more concise we are—the more we focus on conveying our message in as few words as possible—the more impact our words will have. The more precise we are—the more we focus on choosing exactly the right words to most clearly and accurately express our thoughts—the greater the impression we will make on our readers. We should opt for the concrete over the abstract; for truly descriptive over merely colorful language.
3. Leaps and Gaps
Readers like a sense of movement in what they read. They enjoy leaps from one time, place, or event to another. They feel engaged by narrative gaps that require them to fill in details for themselves. We should be careful not to over-tell our message. We don’t have to say everything. We should allow readers to participate in making meaning from our text by assuming, inferring, speculating, or imagining as they read. Instead of explaining the meanings of our experiences when we write memoirs or personal essays, we should allow readers to discover them.
If we think of the energy level of our writing as a continuum, from low to high, we might envision how our decisions about our subject, our word choices, and our determination to take leaps and leave gaps affect the energy of our writing.
| Increases Energy | Decreases Energy | Eliminates Energy | |
| Subject | The unanswerable question; the seemingly unsolvable problem; the ambiguous or conflicted | The challenge handily met; the obstacle neatly overcome; the experience that casts the writer in the best light | The topic devoid of conflict, question, or tension—the happy story |
| Word Choices | Concrete nouns and precise action verbs | Adjectives and adverbs | Abstract language |
| Leaps/Gaps | Movement from one intriguing tidbit of information to another | Movement from question to answer; problem to solution | Detailed explanations and announcements of the moral of the story |
What impact will our writing have on readers? Will we engage them and keep them reading to the end? One way to appeal to readers is by focusing on the potential to gain and maintain their attention.
We can energize our writing!
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