Welcome to a new interview in my series on creativity in non-fiction writing, and today we’re talking to Bill Hughes, who I first encountered via a mutual friend on Facebook and who has been hugely encouraging about my own writing, specifically my research project. He’s even promised to explain some remote bits of literary theory to me one of these days. Bill’s achieved something not many people do, going back to studying after another career and gaining a PhD. But as well as academic writing, he started off working on fiction and he’s very interested in poetry, so covers both aspects of writing in which we’re interested here. Let’s find out what Bill thinks about creativity in non-fiction writing, and whether he agrees with most of the other contributors to this series …

Hello, Bill, and welcome to this occasional interview series. First, please tell us a bit about yourself and your books

I’m an IT developer who has recently gained a PhD in English Literature. I’m now publishing academic research and aiming to get a research post. I am working on the proposal for the monograph based on my research, Conversation, Discourse, and the Dialogue in the Formation of the English Novel: The Commerce of Light. I have, however, had other academic articles published (or awaiting publication) in books and journals. I’m also co-editor of and contributor to ‘Open Graves, Open Minds’: Representations of Vampires and the Undead from the Enlightenment to the Present Day, ed. by Sam George and Bill Hughes (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013). And recently I’ve rediscovered writing poetry; I’m preparing a collection and aiming to have it published.

How did you start writing, and which came first, fiction or non-fiction?

I wrote imaginative fiction even as a child. I always wanted to be a writer—I read a lot, was good with words; I was also often praised by teachers for my writing, so that helped for me. Our house always had books—a strange mixture of classics and pulp fiction, and I read them all indiscriminately. My mum—who was a tremendous influence on my life—made up stories for us and was a lover of Dickens, so I absorbed that early on. Later, I wrote (as many bookish teenagers do) introspective, pretentious poetry in my teens and at university.

As an IT developer for the past 30 years, I’ve done a fair amount of technical writing. Programmers notoriously hate doing this; I get laughed at for saying how much I love it.

Then, about 20 years ago, I did an MA in Cultural Studies, but taking most of my modules from Literature (my first degree had been in Philosophy and Literature). This led me to doing a part-time PhD in eighteenth-century English literature, which I was awarded in 2010. Since then, I‘ve been pursuing that research and writing conference papers and journal articles. But I also got sidetracked into research on contemporary vampire fiction and paranormal romance, which I’m also writing and publishing on. I’m joint editor of a collection of articles on this and of a special issue of the academic journal Gothic Studies. From my work in this area, I’ve recently been appointed to the editorial board of a new journal, Monstrum, for research into monsters and monstrosity in culture and will be co-editing the inaugural issue.

Did you always want to write fiction as well, or was this a relatively late development?

Yes, always. I’ve had grand ideas for novels several times. But I’ve always been both lazy and over-ambitious so the epics that I planned never got written. However, a bad accident, illness, and various sad things in the past year or so have led me to write a very long, sustained, ambitious (and possibly unreadable) piece of poetry.

I recently blogged about finding that writing non-fiction was still “creative”. Do you agree, or is only fiction writing truly creative?

Of course there’s a sense in which all writing is creative. You’re adding something to the repository of human artefacts  that wasn’t there before. But—and this will probably not please everyone—I think there’s a danger in trivialising the word by applying it too uncritically. As with any word, it loses meaning if you allow it to be all-embracing. So my technical writing isn’t really creative, though I’m exercising choices there over structure and vocabulary (sometimes in a manner inappropriately baroque and literary for my readership!). But it’s assembly rather than creation, I’d say.

Academic writing—in literary studies, at least—has more of creativity about it. It’s an individual exploration of the language that you’re analysing, and a bringing forth of new ideas and perspectives into the world. And yet, it’s parasitic upon an original in a way; I’d rather say that it has an element of creativity rather than calling it creative writing. (Although Oscar Wilde’s idea of the critic as artist and recent notions of intertextuality can unsettle that distinction somewhat.) But I’d reserve the term ‘creative writing’ for fiction, poetry, and drama.

I’ve heard it said that memoir should be considered as “creative non-fiction” – do you agree with that description? How do you think writing memoir differ from writing fiction on the one hand and non-fiction on the other?

I’m strangely uninterested in biography or memoir as genres—I rarely read it, for some reason. So I’m not sure that I can answer these questions in much depth. I would think, though, that despite the craft of shaping that inevitably takes place and the skill in using language involved, the more literal and accurate biography or memoir is, the less you could call it ‘creative’. But good biographers may give you an insight—or the illusion of insight—into their subject’s characters; is that creativity? I don’t really know, and it raises many philosophical questions. And the best memoirs are probably outrageously, creatively dishonest! And I would say that imaginative fiction, if it uses material from memoir at all, is the most creative when it distances itself from the original, transforming it to the point of its becoming irrelevant. (That’s why detailed biographical criticism rarely sheds much light on texts as literature.)

If you use your own life in your fiction, was writing a memoir different from doing that?

I’ll be able to speak with more authority on this when I’ve actually written one of my many half-conceived novels!

Have you got anything else you want to add about creativity and writing (with particular regard to non-fiction)?

I should qualify what I’ve said above by reference to, say, writing philosophy, or even original scientific writing. Something is being created here. But I would still argue that this shouldn’t be confused with aesthetic creativity; perhaps ‘discovery’ is better than ‘creation’ here.

Tell us where we can find your books!
You can find our edited collection on vampire fiction at:
http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9780719089411
Details of most of my other publications are on my Academia web page (a few are still awaiting publication).

I loved this detailed and very thoughtful pondering on the subject, and actually it crystallised what I was thinking – that true non-fiction writing such as my own is, indeed, creative, but not creative in quite the same way as true fiction. Maybe memoir does fall in between the two a little more, as does the original scientific writing and philosophy that Bill mentions. I like the ideas of ‘discovery’ and ‘synthesis’ and am glad that we have found different viewpoints in the series as a whole.

You can read new interviews in the series, either by subscribing to this blog (see the links in the top right if you’re viewing on a PC or on the drop-down menu if you’re reading on a phone or tablet) or clicking on the “non-fiction creativity” tag at the top of this post, which will give you access to all the interviews published so far, as well. Happy reading!

My own books are all firmly in the non-fiction area, but I do involve aspects of my own life and experience to make them more accessible and welcoming. Take a look by exploring the links on this page, or by visiting the books pages.

Welcome to a new interview in my series on creativity in non-fiction writing, and today we’re meeting writer Alastair Henry, who was inspired by his post-retirement travels to write an autobiography and co-write a book about his volunteering adventures to help others to make the right choices and to inspire them to go out into the world and help other people. Here, Alastair shares his story and we have a bonus section on the special and interesting way that he now takes his own books on the road!

Hello, Alistair, and thank you for taking part in this series. So, tell me a bit about yourself and your books.

I followed the London Life Insurance “Freedom 55’ plan and retired at the age of 57. But, disillusioned with the passivity of it all, I returned to the workforce with a small First Nations band in a remote community in the NWT. Cultural differences and a challenging environment ignited fresh perspectives, inspired a new way of being and fueled my aspirations for the future. I went in to Lutsel K’e as a hard core businessman and came out two years later as an advocate for marginalized people. Although my autobiography “Awakening in the Northwest Territories” spans sixty years, the core of the story takes place in the N.W.T.

Motivated about helping others less fortunate, I went to Bangladesh for two years as a volunteer when I came out of the north, and two years later met Candas. We met one day by chance, fell in love, and with a shared passion to improve the lives of others, set off on a new path of adventure in travel and volunteering. We shed our material possessions and exchanged our comfortable Canadian lifestyle to live a simpler life in Kingston, Jamaica; Georgetown, Guyana; and the Eco-Lodges in the Rupununi Rain Forest, while volunteering with local non-governmental organizations. On our time off, we explored Tobago and Antigua on roads less traveled. We co-wrote “Go For It – Volunteering Adventures on Roads Less Traveled” as a way to share our experiences and learnings in the hope they inspire other Boomers to “GO FOR IT.”

How did you start writing, and which came first, fiction or non-fiction?

When I went to the N.W.T., my daughter gave me a journal and these words: “Write in this, dad because I want to know what it’s like to live up there.” I did write, initially out of a sense of obligation, but then I got into the habit of writing every night for the next two years. When I left the north, I immediately went to Costa Rica for a month to enter the journals into Word and then worked away at converting the journals into more of a story. I titled my finished ms. “White Man On The Land,” and gave it to my children. Other people read and enjoyed it, but commented that it begged the questions of who was this man who went to Lutsel K’e and what did he do after he left the north. I continued to write and rewrite, and went back sixty years to tell the story because everything in life is interconnected. I felt I had to start at the beginning to fully realize and reveal who I was. In 2013, eight years after I first wrote my diaries, I published my autobiography.

Did I always want to write? No. Had my daughter not given me a journal I probably would have not become an author.

I recently blogged about finding that writing non-fiction was still “creative”. Do you agree, or is only fiction writing truly creative?

I believe writing a memoir can be just as creative as writing fiction if you approach it that way. The only difference is you are using facts from your memory rather than creations from your imagination. The rest of the writing is about how you tell the story and that’s the truly creative aspect of writing. In many ways, one has to be even more creative, because you can’t fabricate people and settings to enhance your story – you must find ways to describe your recollections that will be enjoyable to readers.

I was amazed at how much detail there were in my memories when I stopped, dwelt and delved into my cranial archives. I wandered around in my memories using all of my senses – What did I smell? What did I feel? Who else was there? Was it rainy or sunny? What was the backstory to that memory, etc., etc.?

It was cathartic. Life is a journey from birth to death and everything in it is interconnected. For every effect there is a cause, but most of us don’t think too earnestly about this. Reflecting and thinking about our past reveals the causes, effects and outcomes that shaped our lives. In my case, my childhood was most impacted by two factors: my parent’s strict Victorian code of behaviour for children and a heavy religious schooling that resulted in me being shy, insecure and confused by the time I was a teenager. And when I reflected upon my time in the north with the Dene, I saw that I had metamorphosed from a cold-hearted businessman to a warm-hearted advocate for people’s rights.

Had I not embarked upon writing my memoir I would not have the mental clarity and the understanding of myself that I have today. And nor would my children have an account of their father’s life that they can hand down to successive generations.

Tell us about the special way you get to travel, meet people and sell your books!

In addition to online sales that come about through my involvement in social media, I present an audio/visual package – book readings accompanied by relevant photos and a sound track – to various groups throughout S.W. Ontario, such as Seniors Centers, Retirement Residences, Service Clubs, as well as Home Shows –they make a refreshing change from Tupperware and Mary Kay parties!

I’m most fortunate in that I have many photos that correspond to my writings which have enabled me to put together these A/V presentations for both books. Because the settings and reading excerpts are so different from everyday life in Canada, the presentations are received with much interest and enjoyment and lively discussions always follow.

This is now what we do in our retirement. We have become entertainers and no longer view ourselves as authors reading from a book. We did over 90 presentations in 2014 and plan to do more in 2015, including a six-week road trip from our home in Ontario to Newfoundland, stopping along the way  here and there for two or three days to do some readings. It’s a wonderful activity for us because we so enjoy meeting people –our future readers – and learning about their story.

Thank you for all those thoughts and your view of creativity in non-fiction, as well as the info on how you enjoy promoting your books to the full. Finally, please tell us where we can find you and your books!

My books are both available on Amazon, via my author page or their individual pages:

“Awakening in the North”

“Go for It”

You can read new interviews in the series, either by subscribing to this blog (see the links in the top right if you’re viewing on a PC or on the drop-down menu if you’re reading on a phone or tablet) or clicking on the “non-fiction creativity” tag at the top of this post, which will give you access to all the interviews published so far, as well. Happy reading!

My own books are all firmly in the non-fiction area, but I do involve aspects of my own life and experience to make them more accessible and welcoming. Take a look by exploring the links on this page, or by visiting the books pages.

Welcome to a new interview in my series on creativity in non-fiction writing. First of all, an apology for the delay in posting this series of interviews, if you’ve subscribed and/or are reading these in real time. I was very busy with work, then on holiday, then horribly ill with flu, and all of my blogs went on the back burner while I recovered and caught up with work. But we’re back now – hooray! – and here’s a chat with Marguerite “Markie” Madden on the tricky topic of non-fiction and creativity. She’s written fiction, non-fiction AND memoir, so is ideally placed to enter the discussion with knowledge and experience from all sides!

Hello, Marguerite, and welcome to the interview series! First of all, please tell us a bit about yourself and your books.

Hello, Liz! I’m married, and the mother of two teenagers as well as 3 rescue dogs and a horse. I was born in Midland Texas, but I grew up in Flushing, Michigan. Now I’m currently living out in the middle of nowhere, a small farm town called Fisk in Missouri. I’m also a cancer survivor, just last year, leukemia specifically.

How did you start writing, and which came first, fiction or non-fiction?

I began writing in grade school. I think I was in 4th grade, anyway, the teacher would come around and make a squiggle on our notebook, and the assignment was to finish the squiggle into a drawing and write a story about it. I wrote my first “complete” book starting in high school, and it became my first published novel, Once Upon a Western Way. Fiction came first for me, and the non-fiction was fairly recent.

Did you always want to write a memoir or was this a relatively late development?

I never really planned to write a memoir, that was a recent development after my battle with cancer. The small act of a friend request on Facebook while I was sick ended up getting me published in print (read My Butterfly Cancer for that story!) and the rest is, as they say, that!

I recently blogged about finding that writing non-fiction was still “creative”. Do you agree, or is only fiction writing truly creative?

Non-fiction is certainly creative, not that you’re making up a story (usually) because it’s really happened to you, or you’ve put in a lot of work on research, but writing non-fiction can come across as either dry and boring, or interesting, depending on HOW it’s written. Take my horse care guide, Keeping a Backyard Horse, for example. It’s told from the point of view of my horse, which I think engages the reader a bit more while they learn the facts of horse husbandry.

I’ve heard it said that memoir should be considered as “creative non-fiction” – do you agree with that description? How do you think writing memoir differs from writing fiction on the one hand and non-fiction on the other?

In my opinion, a memoir is just non-fiction; if you were to classify a memoir as creative fiction, why not any non-fiction? As I said earlier, the way any non-fiction is written IS creative (or should be, anyway), so I don’t really think there’s much difference!

If you use your own life in your fiction, was writing a memoir different from doing that?

Yes, a memoir was a little different to write, as opposed to my Once Upon a Western Way. The main character is, of course, me, to an extent, and her better half is my best friend from growing up. But in a fiction, I can make the characters do and be anything I want them to, where in my memoir, I had to tell the story of my life as it was, rather than embellishing it for creativity’s sake. Oddly enough, my memoir is currently my best-seller, whereas I expected that my novel would be.

Have you got anything else you want to add about creativity and writing (with particular regard to non-fiction)?

Non-fiction (with the exception of a memoir) must be researched carefully, or be about something which you already have a good working knowledge of. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t be creative in the way you write non-fiction. Just look at it this way: which would you prefer to read, a non-fiction full of boring and overwhelming details, or one that’s easy to read and engaging? If you can find a way to make math fun, for example, you’ll come across to your readers in a better way.

Thank you so much for your insights. Finally, please tell us where we can find your books!

All my books can be found in print on Amazon (my author page), at Barnes and Noble, and at the CreateSpace website, and digitally for the Kindle (at the moment, they’re Kindle exclusive, but will soon be available on Smashwords for Nook and iBooks as well). I’ve also seen them on Wordery.com and many other online retailers. My Butterfly Cancer on Amazon. Once Upon a Western Way on Amazon. Keeping a Backyard Horse on Amazon. My Smashwords page. My Facebook page. My blog and my website.

You can read new interviews in the series, either by subscribing to this blog (see the links in the top right if you’re viewing on a PC or on the drop-down menu if you’re reading on a phone or tablet) or clicking on the “non-fiction creativity” tag at the top of this post, which will give you access to all the interviews published so far, as well. Happy reading!

My own books are all firmly in the non-fiction area, but I do involve aspects of my own life and experience to make them more accessible and welcoming. Take a look by exploring the links on this page, or by visiting the books pages.