Research and Narrative Nonfiction with Omar Mouallem
WGA, CAA and CNFC Members: $25, Nonmembers: $35
Students:$10
Literary nonfiction. Creative nonfiction. Long-form journalism. The genre goes by many names, but the goal is the same: writing a strong narrative with compelling characters and a unique voice, without sacrificing the truth. How’s this achieved? With patience, pointed questions, and an ear for detail.
This one-hour presentation for writers, memoirists and journalists will breakdown simple techniques for researching the narrative nonfiction story, including:
- Distilling multiple and contradicting memories into one point-of-view
- Opening up interview subjects to be honest and vulnerable with you—including family and friends
- Dealing with remembered—but unrecorded—dialogue
- Gathering the sensory details that animate nonfiction
- Outlining long features, memoirs and nonfiction books.
Omar Mouallem is a writer and journalist whose stories have appeared in NewYorker.com, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and WIRED. A 28-time Alberta Magazine Awards-nominee, he’s won multiple writing and journalism honours, including two gold National Magazine Awards. Omar coauthored the national bestseller Inside the Inferno: A Firefighter’s Story of the Brotherhood that Saved Fort McMurray, ghostwrote two other memoirs, and is working on his debut solo book for Simon & Schuster Publishing. He tweets at @omar_aok.