Tag: Writing
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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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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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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 