Yesterday, we talked about how much fun it is to be an open-minded historical nonfiction writer.
And it is fun. So much so!
Being open-minded – not stupid. Not valueless. Truly open-minded – means discovering new ways of thinking, acting, being and living.
Some of that might be wrong, admittedly. Some of it might be right. And some of it might just be someone else’s individual way of doing things that we don’t have to adopt ourselves.
But regardless, it’s still a journey into a whole new world.
Today, Innovative Editing stands by that assessment. 100%. It also stands 100% by this next assessment of being an open-minded historical nonfiction writer…
Being open-minded – not stupid. Not valueless. But truly open-minded – means adding truth to the national and global dialogue. And as they say, the truth shall set you free.
Doesn’t freedom sound good?
Hopefully, your answer is yes.
Historical nonfiction is, in fact, nonfiction.
We all have our opinions about what history looked like and why. But historical nonfiction should never be about your opinions. It should be about the truth, or at least as close to the truth as we can reasonably get.
When truly studied, history can help us better handle our present and strengthen our future. When truly manipulated, history can shut our eyes to our fellow man’s suffering, justify bigotry and promote an us-against-them mentality that never ends well.
Again, this is not a call to foolishly accept every single way of thinking out there. Some ways of thinking are extremely dangerous, after all.
It’s not a challenge to let go of all your values, throwing them up into the air and streaking ethically naked outside for all to see. Values are far too important to have. Without them, societies crumble.
It’s just a call to be a truly open-minded historical nonfiction writer. This means acknowledging that you don’t know everything, which means you’re going to be wrong about somethings sometimes.
There’s no way I can write anything more about this charge without getting into politics. Which is just going to start fights. And that’s not something I aim to do here at Innovative Editing.
At least not very often.
So we’ll just leave it right there under my preferred 500 word count.
It’s actually killing me a bit to make this post a mere 485 words. But oh well. There are worse things in life.
Certainly, that would include lying to ourselves or others. Particularly when those lies lead to justifying bitterness and chaos.
Even the most open-minded historical nonfiction writers are bound to slip up. As we’ve discussed in plenty of previous posts, there’s no way to be completely accurate when we only have so much time and resources in front of us.
It’s just that an open-minded historical nonfiction writer is going to try hard to write and publish the big picture. That way, they’re promoting truth and freedom. Not educational bondage.