Non-fictional stories - Topics

How much of a biography is reconstructed guesswork? What do you do when the timeline of a true story does not add up? Can you write a fair biography of someone you personally dislike? Why is narrative nonfiction harder to fact-check than straight reporting? How much reconstruction can long-form nonfiction admit before it becomes invention? How do you verify a true story that only one person remembers? How is a piece of reportage different from the news article it grew out of? Should nonfiction ever use a composite character? How do you tell a true story about a source whose details would identify them? What does narrative nonfiction owe the people it profiles? How do you tell a true story about a place without turning its people into specimens? Why does fiction sometimes explain a real event better than reporting does? Why is nonfiction about poverty so often written by outsiders? How does a true story handle two witnesses who describe the same minute in opposite ways? How do biographers handle a subject who refuses to cooperate? Why does a true story need scenes that a news report would cut? How do you write about a true event when the official record is sealed? When does immersive reporting for nonfiction cross the line into participation? What makes a nonfiction story read like a novel without inventing anything? How do you write nonfiction about a community you only lived in for a year? How do you write a personal narrative about your own privilege without lecturing the reader? Why do editors ask for a personal essay when they mean a confession? How do you structure a nonfiction story around a system rather than a person? What happens to a nonfiction book when its main subject withdraws? How do you write nonfiction about an institution that refuses to grant interviews? Why do personal narratives about illness get read as advice? Why do addiction memoirs dominate the bestseller lists? How do you write a true story about a crime without harming the victim again? Why do nonfiction stories about disasters follow a handful of survivors? When do you need a lawyer before publishing a true story? How does a memoir about a former employer handle legal risk? Why do nonfiction editors keep asking for scenes that no reporter witnessed?