Why I Write Non-Fiction
Sara Parrot
Writing non-fiction is a way of connecting with the world and with others. The environment around us is not always what it seems. Writing about it reveals its intricacies and its mysteries. It does not always offer explanations or solutions, but it provides a place in which to explore.
Often I write to underline my experience. If something happens in my life, it sometimes does not feel real to me until I write it down, which entails investigating it, hammering the experience into letterforms, words, trains of thought. Each day, one is struck with so much sensorial detail. What matters? What sticks? What remains to be further seen? This is what compels me to write.
I write in a diary of sorts. I don’t write every day, though I try to, and I think my life is better when I am writing more. Writing makes my life richer, it brings the seemingly ordinary into a new light and gives it a new focus, color, or quality. Sometimes I think of the world around me projected in pale form onto a piece of paper and I trace that visual, but with words. For me, the words reveal something that the image does not. I guess that’s what makes me a writer rather than a visual artist.
Sometimes life doesn’t feel real until it’s written down, stamped into words that outline each experience, giving it greater form and richness. Non-fiction documents the world around us. Through it we can deepen the experiences that happen to us, and sometimes even add flourishes of fantasy. Photograph by Far Knot
Before I began to write more frequently and more professionally—including for Madrigalia—I had, of course, been sketching out my thoughts causally for years. Recently, after some of my travels, friends began to ask me for recommendations, and I found myself writing out whole paragraphs on the places I had visited, including the museums, restaurants, and shops. It was more than the simple list they were expecting!
However, after sharing these brief essays of sorts, my friends told me they loved the writing as much as the spots I had chosen—and they shared them with their other friends who felt the same way. Many felt they had been given not just good advice on where to go and what to see, but that the narrative had helped them really enjoy those experiences more deeply.
“Writing makes my life richer, it brings the seemingly ordinary into a new light and gives it a new focus, color, or quality. Sometimes I think of the world around me projected in pale form onto a piece of paper and I trace that visual, but with words.”
—Sara Parrot
Writing about travel is an art form to itself. It entails the good taste of choosing special places alongside the ability to explain those places well—enough to encourage others to try them and to understand why they are so unique. So I started to add this type of writing to my portfolio, publishing it here and on our Medium page, where I have a series titled M3, where I offer three experiences, such as three sites, three cafés, or three books related to a venue or a subject.
I continue to write my own non-fiction, too—and you’ll find some of that here—but venturing into my own form of travel writing has been a really rewarding new direction. I love to share my favorite places with other people looking for something delightful and maybe surprising. And I love to be able to celebrate the various merchants, artists, and others who put care into making wonderful destinations of all sorts. Writing can be so much more than just a personal expression. It can be generous and connecting, and I absolutely love to be a part of such giving through what is my passion.