Editor’s Choice — Top 10: The Secret Ingredient To Make You a Good Nonfiction Writer

Let’s have a look at our top 10 stories today

With so many new articles published every day, probably every one of your brilliant ideas has been done to death. Is it even possible to write original stories? And, if so, what is the one most important ingredient?

If you are like me, you cringe at how similar some of the newly published stories sound to your half-finished drafts.

So what is this deep, dark secret that makes writers like Seth Godin and Ryan Holiday create bestseller after bestseller? Would you be able to use the secret like them if you knew it?

The mysterious ingredient, like Kung Fu Panda’s secret, is: You.

“When I teach writing, I have a mantra: Be a first-rate version of yourself and not a second-rate version of another writer. Every writer has a dominant emotion, and if you can identify it and try to understand it, it becomes your subject matter, and it makes you different from everybody else”. ~ David Morell in Writer’s Digest

It is not enough to be brutally honest. You have to learn to enjoy your honest writing by accepting your version of reality. If you can respect who you are and what you stand for, you can start relishing your story.

Think about your first date, your first kiss, your first day at school, or your first bestselling book. As a writer, you must have dreamt how things would happen. When the reality surpassed your expectations — or could not get anywhere near your expectations — and perhaps that was the reason why you wanted to write about it. You always have a unique perspective if you are willing to see it.

“Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. There will always be people who are much better at doing this or doing that — but you are the only you.” ~Neil Gaiman

It doesn’t matter if someone else wrote a full story about your half-finished idea. Others would say how they saw what happened. Your teacher assigned the same topic to the class, yet every essay was different.

Every day brings you a new feeling. Sometimes you feel the sting of what somebody said two years ago. On other occasions, you cannot get rid of a killing sense of loneliness. One fine morning, you see how you always had all the love in the world. Then a sad afternoon brings you the depressing realization that you have failed to find true love.

“I write to fill the hole in my heart. At any given time, all of us have an empty spot, one that is calling for companionship, for example, or for justice, love, romance, or a belly laugh. When I sit down to write, I look to see what hole needs filling at that particular moment. Sometimes that can be painful — but it can’t be ignored. Flat or uninteresting writing often signals something deeper that is being covered up.” ~ Kathi Appelt

Forget that others are more creative than you. Ignore how smart they sound and disregard their apparent sense of confidence. Savor your awkward nonsense originality.

If you start writing right now, many will think your writing is smart and insightful. You have to write about how you see things happening around you.

Here is a list of our top 10 stories today — by writers who know the secret of writing good nonfiction:

10. If Writing Is Like Pulling Teeth, You’re Doing It Wrong

Dayton Parks is a wonderful writer. His work has been published in The Ascent, The Writing Cooperative, Illumination-curated, and Writers’ Blokke.

His writing style is frank, easy to read, and very engaging. He knows how to connect with his reader on an emotional level. Do check his other work.

Eventually, I’m going to be mad at my wife. The other day, I mentioned I was having trouble coming up with something to write about. She thought about it for a minute, then she said to me, “You’re a writing procrastinator.” I didn’t like it. I could tell by her expression that she knew she’d got my goat. Instead of letting it go, she poked me again and said, “Let’s talk about why you procrastinate about writing.”

In classic procrastinator form, I said to her, “Not now. Let’s talk later.”

9. 4 Skills You Must Have To Succeed In The Digital World

Aleksa Georg is a yoga teacher, traveler, and wildlife photographer who loves to write about adventures, spirituality, health, and mindfulness.

She is an excellent writer. Her writing style is fun to read, flowing, and pleasantly full of suspense. Don’t miss this masterpiece.

Three and a half years ago, my boyfriend and I embarked on a world trip. Nothing was planned, except our big dreams to travel the world.

Our story goes up like this:

He called me one day inviting me to meet up in Paris. We were apart for a while, but when I heard his voice there were no second thoughts. I bought my ticket train from Amsterdam to Paris in a heartbeat and ran out to catch up on the last train.

8. Three Reasons Why Every Writer Needs to Have a Writing Ritual

Jazz Parks wants you to check out his latest book, Self-Mastery: a Beginner’s Guide to Self-Development & Personal Productivity.

He is a superb writer. His writing style is simple, direct, and engaging. If you like this story, don’t forget to check his other work.

Like many of you, I aspire to one day make a full-time income from my writing. I dream of the luxuries: waking up in the morning without stressing about the potentially overcrowded freeways, the angry customers, the talkative customers, and the extreme forms of micromanagement.

Yet, to achieve my dreams of becoming a full-time writer, I’ll have to face the hard facts; paid writers are only paid because they write — a lot. So to one day achieve my dreams of becoming a full-time writer, I’ll have to develop a routine, or for a better choice of words, a writing ritual.

7. Dealing With Criticism

Brian Tubbs is a writer doing his best to help people on this road we call life.

He is a fine writer. His writing style is elegant, informative, and thought-provoking. Do check his other work.

The ability to hear criticism and process it in a healthy, positive, and constructive manner without suffering a loss to your self-esteem is a superpower. And that superpower can be yours.

Receiving criticism gracefully and processing it constructively is even more impressive when the person giving the criticism is doing so in a toxic, condescending, or mean-spirited tone.

6. The Art of Listening

Mitchell L. is a Ph.D. student in engineering by day, aspiring Medium writer by night. INFJ — Fascinated by the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator. It is his place for his inner voice.

Many years ago my mother told me a joke about this particular group of her friends and the gatherings that they would have once in a while — in the midst of their conversations, one of the husbands noted: “everybody is talking, but no one is listening”.

It was funny back then because to picture that scene is just too comical — everyone spending most of their time talking about themselves, with topics changing faster than you can say, Jack Robinson.

5. Apple TV+ Ted Lasso Is the Antidote We All Desperately Need

Dr Jeff Livingston is an ob-gyn, husband, father, and entrepreneur. He writes about Women’s Health, Parenting, and Self-improvement.

He is an accomplished writer. His writing style is frank, honest, and very engaging. Do check his other work. Don’t forget to follow him.

Sometimes we need a jolt to snap us out of a funk. It‘s been a long time since I smiled, laughed, or felt happy about something. Like many, my soul craved a defibrillating reboot. I discovered a shocking way to inject optimism back into my life through a TV show called Ted Lasso on Apple TV+.

4. 11 Quick & Easy Ways to Reduce Toxicity and Lower Stress

Crystal Jackson is a former therapist. Author of the Heart of Madison series & My Words are Whiskey.

She is an exceptional writer. Her writing style is elegant, honest, witty, insightful, and extremely engaging. She has around 9000 followers. Do check her other work.

We all know that people can be energy vampires, sucking the life force out of us with their neediness and propensity for drama, but sometimes objects have the same impact.

I would be lying if I said I’m one of those organized adults who have my sh*t together. Mostly, I’m just winging it. While that primarily works for me, I recently decided that my sense of overwhelm was starting to create added stress. I’ll never be that Pinterest-perfect mom or color-coded organizational adult, but I can take small steps to clear out negative energy in my life.

3. 7 Writing Lessons From the Best-Selling Fiction Authors of All Time

The Maverick Files is a thinker, finance professional, loving husband, a doting dad, and fitness enthusiast. MBA in Finance & Marketing and Comp.

He is an outstanding writer. His writing style is simple, honest, direct, and very engaging. Do check his other work.

A simple look at the top ten best-selling fiction authors of all time reveals names that are all quite obviously legends in the literary world. From the timeless plays and poetry of William Shakespeare to the fantasy fiction of J.K. Rowling, these authors cater to all kinds of audiences.

While most of us can only dream about getting the success these writers achieved, what we can do is take a leaf out of their wealth of knowledge and writing styles, and strive to adopt them in our own work.

2. We Tried The White Countryside But Racism Made Us Come Back

Rebecca Stevens A. writes about racism. “But there are so many other things I would like to write about instead. Help me dismantle racism so that I can get to that.”

She is a global nomad-Sierra Leone-Switzerland-Canada-Sociologist-Philosopher-Writer-Swimmer-Paraglider-Dog lover-Passionate-Kind-Impatient Optimist-Pro-Democracy-Brave.

She is an extraordinary writer. Follow her. Read her. Wait for her next story.

My husband is white and I am black. When I got pregnant, we decided to move to the countryside. We wanted a house with a garden and rent out there was much cheaper. We found a beautiful farmhouse right out of a Town & Country magazine, about 20 kilometers outside Geneva, Switzerland. It wasn’t far from where the singer and the Genesis band drummer Phil Collins lived.

1. “Anti-Racism” Is Becoming Troublingly Racist

At number one, it is Steve QJ. He writes about meditation, content creation, and personal development.

He is an excellent writer. His analysis is easy to read and very engaging. Don’t miss this one. It is one of his viral pieces.

You’re not supposed to talk about how frustrating it is to watch children screw things up. You’re supposed to be patient when it takes them seventeen minutes to tie their shoelaces. You’re supposed to applaud their migraine-inducing attempts to play the violin. You’re supposed to give your undivided attention as they tell stories that somehow lack a beginning, a middle and an end.

But worst of all is when a child wants to “help” you with something. You know that accepting their help will quadruple the time, energy and resources required to get anything done.

This post is part of the Top 10 Series — you can meet 500+ top writers with these links:

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Final Thoughts

If your story was selected in the Top 10, please share another one of your stories with a brief introduction and a short convincing review — in the comments. (Please write the review in the third person and start it with your name.)

I must have missed something today. I cannot read every story on Illumination and Illumination-Curated. I try — and fail daily — to read all of the masterpieces.

I am inviting you to join our private Facebook group for Illumination writers. Also please follow my publication — positive minds.

If you find any mistake, typo, or other error, please leave a private note for correction. Thanks.

To be included as a top 10 writer, read these curation guidelines carefully.

You can read my curated stories here.