
Resources for Writers
Getting Started in Non-Fiction

Writing Non-Fiction and Historical Crime: What I Learned by Dean Ruxton
I could have picked the archivist up and spun him around. The book was saved. An early lesson I learned while researching for When the Hangman Came to Galway was...

A Guide to Writing Your First Non-Fiction Book by Clare O’Dea
Since my first book, The Naked Swiss: A Nation Behind 10 Myths, was published last October, I’ve met several people who have mentioned to me their wish to write a...

5 Mistakes Beginner Writers Make by Alex Gazzola
We can all learn from our mistakes. But that learning is dependent on the recognition of errors we’ve made – and often we don’t see them. An obvious example is...

Finding a Remarkable Story by Charles Den Tex
‘You simply HAVE to hear this story.’ That’s how it started. The words were spoken by a good friend and film producer. He told the story and we hung on...

Writing Specialised Non Fiction by Lissa Oliver
If you are writing about a specialist subject it follows that you are a specialist in that subject. Your readers are certainly going to be aficionados and will quickly spot...

Writing on Trauma by Kathleen Ward
I have just launched my first book entitled A Violation Against Women. This book is the culmination of twenty years of distress and trauma following my experiences at Our Lady...

Journey Into the Light by Roisin Fitzpatrick
If there is one thing that I learned on the day after my 35th birthday, when I had my near death experience from a brain haemorrhage, it is that life...

The Team Approach to Writing Non Fiction by Susan Hayes
In our imagination, a writer is a solitary being, sitting in a room on their own, engrossed in their thoughts. This might be true for fiction writers, but if you...

Narrative Nonfiction: Making Facts Dance, Patricia Byrne
Five years ago I was reminded of a story that I had vaguely heard of growing up. It was about an ancestor, my great granduncle who served as a monk...

Setting Goals & Making Time with Sheila Kiely
So firstly a quick biography. I’m a working mother of six children and I’ve just had my cookbook ‘Gimme the Recipe’ published with Mercier Press. (I also write a food blog at www.gimmetherecipe.com.) I...