Category: Writing and Editing
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The Boundaries of Creative Non-Fiction
When I first started writing my biography of the nineteenth-century Quaker minister Murray Shipley, I wanted to review some of the historical biographies and non-fiction that we have on our bookshelves, specifically from a craft perspective. When writing about past events, how much can an author dramatize without straying too far afield? The answer to…
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Can You Trust Your Sources?
While I was researching my biography of the nineteenth-century Quaker minister Murray Shipley, I came across a newspaper article that described his wedding: Married in this city yesterday, at the Quaker Meeting House, on Fifth street; Mr. Henry Shipley of this city, to Miss Hannah D. Taylor of Neport. Well, the meetinghouse was indeed on…
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Great Expectations
When I first learned that the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library had digitized the daily account of the first superintendent of The Children’s Home, I got very excited. I just happened to be in the process of writing the chapter on The Children’s Home for Murray Shipley’s biography. (He is generally credited with being…
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What Makes the Cut?
One of the reasons that I decided to write a biography of Murray Shipley was because of the breadth of his life experiences. When you think about Levi Coffin, you associate him primarily with abolition—his work in the Underground Railroad and Western Freedmen’s Aid Society. Murray, on the other hand, took part in almost every…
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The Write Way Forward
For my husband’s birthday, I got him a subscription to MasterClass online courses. It was a two-for-one deal, so I was able to set up an account for myself as well and take various classes on writing. Recently, I watched a series of lectures by James Patterson, who among other things talked about the value…
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Judging a Book by Its Cover
Apparently, the old maxim is wrong: you can judge a book by its cover, or at least get a feel for its content. A good book cover designer considers the significance of the color palette, typeface, photos or graphics, and positioning of the design elements. A good cover does more than communicate the book’s title;…
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The Power of Vocabulary
When is a General not a General? This is not a riddle, but rather a serious question. I recently completed the chapter on the Civil War in my biography of Murray Shipley, and one of my faithful draft readers is a former high school history teacher who keeps abreast of trends among contemporary historians. In…
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The Best Kind of Editing
When I was in high school, I took an excellent advanced composition class. We diagrammed sentences and explored the intricacies of grammar. I got good grades and thought I knew my stuff. After my son was born, I wanted to do some freelance editing from home. I offered my services to a publisher who asked…
Sabrina Darnowsky 