Writing a book about what you know = authenticity

By Dennis Mellersh

Finding ideas from the experiences of successful writers can be an effective means of finding out what’s involved in the process of learning how to write a book.

One Canadian writer who wrote a lot of great books and enjoyed significant sales is Pierre Berton. You could profit by reading his book, The Joy of Writing, published by Doubleday Canada.

One of the ways Berton explains what it is like to be a professional book writer is by showing the stages of how a manuscript is edited as well as showing some examples of the research he did for his books, which were primarily non-fiction.

One of the key chapters and one which should benefit the beginning book writer is titled, Writing What You Know. In keeping with the importance Berton attaches to this concept, this is a lengthy chapter.

One of the geographic areas that Berton was familiar with, because he lived there for some time, was the Klondike. This gave him an understanding of life in this section of Canada, and as a result, he was able to write Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, 1886-1889 with authenticity.

Pierre Berton comments in The Joy of Writing that he had a great interest in the subject of the Klondike; he was familiar with the area; and so he had a “feel” for the subject matter.