Sometimes, when I talk about nonfiction, it may seem as if I think that writing nonfiction requires no imagination, but that is not my intent. As someone who has written numerous nonfiction articles and one book in this genre, I know that it does take some imagination, just not as much as it does when you write a fiction story from scratch.
One day, many years ago, I received a call from a man who liked a letter to the editor that I wrote and was published in the local paper. It was a letter condemning a war that I viewed as being senseless and unnecessary. We talked at length on the subject during which time I found out that the caller was 99 years old and had been working in Democratic politics for over 75 years. This made me realize that I was talking to a man who most likely had voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt—three times. Upon inquiry, he told me this was a fact. I was floored and I told him that I was interested in writing an article about a man like him who had been involved in party politics for such a long time. I wanted to write a "living history" piece about it. The man was very humble with his response but agreed to meet with me and discuss the idea. So we made a date for me to go over to his house; when I arrived and met William “Bill” LeCrone Hammaker, my original story idea went into the shredder.
The reason for this was due to the fact that I found out that Bill had a greater interest in another subject than that of politics; he was far more interested in the promotion of peace in our world. So much so, that was the longest active member in the history of a group called the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) which you can read more about on their website: http://forusa.org/
Among his contemporaries in this group was the late Martin Luther King. After our interview, I went home, read over all the notes I had taken, then let my imagination kick in. I didn't change the facts one iota, but I did come up with a catchy title for Bill that stayed with him until his death three years later at the age of 102. I dubbed him "The Professor of Peace". He loved the title and the recognition it brought to his work. You can read about this remarkable man in the article which I eventually wrote on the Raving Dove website http://ravingdove.org/johndarlingwinter08-09.html
It was lucky that I was writing this freelance. Had I been assigned to do this story by a magazine or newspaper, I might have had to stick to the original storyline but instead, I was able to use my imagination to write the story with a different angle to it and bring some satisfaction to Bill and his family.
When writing nonfiction, you should ask venerable questions, Who? What? When? Where? and How? After getting the answers, they have to be presented in a way that will hold an editor's and an audience's interest and that is where your imagination comes into play.
Today, I remember a time when the why question came to my mind as clearly the day it happened several years ago. I was driving in my car going around a corner in front of a now-defunct Montgomery Ward store in my town when a song on the radio ended and the DJ announced that the band who performed the song was called The Goo Goo Dolls. I thought, "Why would anyone want a band name like that?" So I set out looking for the answer. Around 150 band names later, I found what I was looking for and I also had a large database of band name origins. So I decided to add a few more and wrote this book, You’re the Who?: A guide to classic band name origins + rock connections!, which you can find here http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0073YIU30
The only "problem" with writing nonfiction is that you have to stick to the facts whereas with fiction if a fact does not exist, you can just make it up. It takes a lot of self-control to keep from embellishing a nonfiction story to make it more interesting so it will produce a sale, but with the right amount of skill and some imagination, you'll find that embellishment is not needed.