Writing a Non-fiction Book: Capture Real-life Experiences
Breaking It Down
A course by Duncan Barrett , Writer and Editor
About the video: Breaking It Down
Overview
“Now, I´ll show you how to assess the results of your first interview, and get a rough idea of the shape of your subject’s story, so that you can decide what to focus on next. ”
In this video lesson Duncan Barrett addresses the topic: Breaking It Down, which is part of the Domestika online course: Writing a Non-fiction Book: Capture Real-life Experiences. Turn a true story into an engaging page-turner by exploring interview methods, writing techniques, and character development for non-fiction writing.
Partial transcription of the video
“ Breaking It Down I've typed up my notes from the interview here, and now in this lesson, I'll go through and make a beat sheet. Each beat is a dramatic moment so that I've got an overview of the overall story and individual units that make it up. Both my notes and the beat sheet that I draw up will be available as Additional Resources so you can have a look at those if you like. I'll start drawing up a list of the beats in Marta's story based on the notes I took from the interview. I'll also put next to each beat a little arrow, indicating whether something is a positive or negative exper...”
This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.
Course summary for: Writing a Non-fiction Book: Capture Real-life Experiences
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Category
Writing -
Areas
Communication, Creative Writing, Narrative, Non-Fiction Writing, Storytelling, Writing
Duncan Barrett
A course by Duncan Barrett
Writer and Editor Duncan Barrett grew up as an avid reader and a lover of history. After studying English literature at university he went to drama school and decided to pursue a career as an actor, while working in publishing on the side. In 2009 Duncan found a WW1 memoir in the Imperial War Museum archive that he turned into a published book, The Reluctant Tommy.
The insight he gained in writing an impactful book-length story sparked a chain of events that led him to become an author of narrative non-fiction specializing in biography and memoir. His work includes the series’ The Sugar Girls and GI Brides which he wrote with his partner and which appeared in the The Sunday Times and The New York Times bestsellers’ lists. Duncan is also known for his solo titles such as Men of Letters, which was nominated for the People's Book Prize, Hitler's British Isles, and Ronnie Le Drew's showbiz memoir Unzipped. He also writes features for The Guardian.
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- 1,628 students
- 16 lessons (3h 39m)
- 22 additional resources (12 files)
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- Audio: English
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- Level: Beginner
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