Writers on Writing is our regular conversation with a writer or industry professional about the writing craft, industry insights, and their own practice. This week, we spoke to Anna Spargo-Ryan about the particularities of creative non-fiction and the benefits and challenges of receiving feedback on writing that is deeply personal.
Creative non-fiction is sometimes described as a new or emerging genre. Do you agree with those descriptors?
It’s interesting that it’s still described this way – we’re almost 25 years on from Vivian Gornick’s definitive book about it, and a good 60 years post the popularisation of narrative nonfiction and gonzo journalism. The genre itself isn’t new. I think what we’re now doing with it is where the really exciting and novel (excuse the pun) stuff is happening. It can be experimental. It can be multimodal. It can be beautiful. It’s maturing as a genre but it’s always evolving.
You haven’t always written creative non-fiction. What inspired you to write your memoir A Kind of Magic?
I have always written creative nonfiction, but usually in disguise. I started with online journals in the 90s and did not stop, even when I was actively humiliating myself.
As a person who lives with complex mental illness, writing about my experiences have been a lifeline for me. Shifting from more private stories to revealing my deepest secrets to the public has been a different beast, though. Writing the personal for publication can expose the very hardest things you’ve ever done to a sort of indifferent, judgemental audience, and they will tell you about it. People sent emails to diagnose me, threaten me, tell me I was a psychopath, all sorts of things.
The silver lining is that writing so much about my brain helped me develop a clear picture of what I was trying to say. That made my story more defensible. I knew why I was writing the book and for whom, and that was my inspiration. I was motivated to share my story with people who I thought might benefit from knowing they didn’t have to be terrified and alone (just terrified!). That’s a crucial facet of nonfiction, in my opinion: a clear sense of how you hope to (even slightly) alter the world by putting it out there.
How did you first feel receiving feedback on creative non-fiction, especially feedback on your writing about personal topics? What is your advice for writers receiving feedback for the first time?
I felt horrified and invigorated. I’ve always told my students (in the minutes before giving them feedback) that constructive criticism is a gift. If you can see it for what it is – someone spending their valuable time reading, considering and understanding your work – you will come to see it as a rare jewel. It’s not meant to be negative. It’s not meant to be prescriptive. Great editors spark conversations about what writing is trying to do, and the author’s job is to ingest that dialogue and use it to understand what the writing could be.
A writer who thinks their work is above critique or that they have nothing left to learn is doing themselves an extraordinary disservice.
What common mistakes are you looking for while offering feedback on creative non-fiction manuscripts?
You’ll have to find out the details when you enrol! But in short, I’m looking for: a great hook (why your story?), a clear narrative spine (what’s the point you’re trying to make?), and universal significance (how will you change the world?).
Anna Spargo-Ryan is a Melbourne writer whose latest book A Kind of Magic, a memoir about life with complex mental illness, was shortlisted in the Queensland Literary Awards. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing and has been teaching writing for over 10 years. She is also the author of two novels, was the inaugural winner of the Horne Prize, and was the former Nonfiction Editor at Island.
Join Online Feedback: Creative Non-fiction with Anna Spargo-Ryan from Monday 7 September.
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