Vicki Nemeth’s Reviews > Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction > Status Update
Vicki Nemeth
is on page 108 of 167
The chapter, "Montage Writing," is about how the montage style leaves a lot of negative space to ask more of the reader. Montage pieces rely so much on reader input, every reader gets a different story. I recognize a memoir I'm currently reading as montage-style, so this chapter got me to think about how that book is more an interchange between the author and I than a story. Now I'm conscious I might be affecting it.
— Jan 28, 2025 10:22AM
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Vicki’s Previous Updates
Vicki Nemeth
is on page 161 of 167
The body text ends with a consideration of the journalist's power over the record of a subject's testimony. Journalists can quote parts and fit them into contexts that make the subject feel betrayed that the journalist's use of the interview didn't arrive at the intentions they'd had in giving it. The main reason I highlight this chapter is because of the legacy usage of, "freedom of speech," to actually mean that.
— Feb 07, 2025 12:54PM
Vicki Nemeth
is on page 155 of 167
"The Vagaries of Memory" explains how memoirists can use the imperfections of their memories to knit stronger themes through their stories.
— Feb 06, 2025 12:28PM
Vicki Nemeth
is on page 144 of 167
"Subjectivity," provides an excellent explanation of the pros/cons of including oneself in the story vs staying detached and more traditionally journalistic, in different degrees.
— Feb 05, 2025 01:06PM
Vicki Nemeth
is on page 141 of 167
Practical writing and editing advice in the chapter, "Scenes." When you write in scenes, you're engaging the reader with a story instead of just telling them stuff. This chapter instructs you literally on how to measure how scene-weighted your draft is. (Hint for printless people to keep using this advice: use character highlighting colour.)
— Feb 04, 2025 08:23AM
Vicki Nemeth
is on page 139 of 167
Who made it cool to claim that introspective writing is narcissistic? American culture is less individualistic and more totalistic than it claims to be: when there is no community then you're dependent on your family even when they're your oppressors. It shows in the controlled thought patterns that American Psych passes for problem solving. No wonder "The Roots of Memoir"s example works are classical confessionals.
— Feb 03, 2025 10:45AM
Vicki Nemeth
is on page 132 of 167
"Quotation Marks" is a reminder that, "Schindler's List," was a book. And considering how the movie is unique in its acknowledgement of mafia and black market crap in a eugenicist system (at least compared to the North American historical lexicon), any honest person hoping to actually fight the problem should read the book. More directly, the chapter addresses how leaving inaccurate dialogue unquoted can be effective
— Feb 01, 2025 04:41AM
Vicki Nemeth
is on page 102 of 167
My education in South Central Ontario, Canada, neglected to tell me that, before Japan elicited the aftermath of nuclear bombings, some Americans believed that a nuke would be such a quick instakill as to be a compassionate weapon. That is what the amazing "Metaphor" exhibited in this chapter is meant to address, right? I'm impressed that either it or its suggested example book is worth reading.
— Jan 27, 2025 02:54PM
Vicki Nemeth
is on page 88 of 167
"Influencing Readers" is well-structured chapter on how Hunter S. Thompson's classic gonzo journalism can be used to write persuasively.
— Jan 25, 2025 10:38PM
Vicki Nemeth
is on page 78 of 167
The chapter, "History into Nonfiction Narrative," is cumbersome to read. It wasn't worth modeling a purpler prose to make fun of the kinds of writing history professors were notorious for in the midcentury. When the chapter gets into the progress exchange between more readable writers picking up history and academics writing readably, it doesn't help me understand where the balance goes. It's just pontificating.
— Jan 19, 2025 04:35PM
Vicki Nemeth
is on page 58 of 167
Great value from the chapter, "Facts," which gave me more insight than my previous readings on the topic, into the artistic value of research, specificity, and even worldbuilding in the case of fantastic genres.
Read the next chapter, "Fact Checking," in minor key. This book, having been published in 2008, lauds the vital role fact checkers play in magazines and papers. At least it reveals what a good pub should do.
— Jan 14, 2025 01:32PM
Read the next chapter, "Fact Checking," in minor key. This book, having been published in 2008, lauds the vital role fact checkers play in magazines and papers. At least it reveals what a good pub should do.
