Ode and Command to Non-Fiction writers

Like thick sirloin dripping blood, flopping all over a plate like a struggling poisson, bring juicy bits of lives to life; render the absurd focused and elevate what deserves to be absurd to its rightful status; piece together pictures of lives cut short, lived large, and lived wrong; don't ever forget to judge with style when judgment in more obvious ways is less funny or less apt; make us read your sentence over again, for pleasure, not from confusion; make us tell friends and lovers your story less vividly than you did, because you inspired us to try; make us laugh with disbelief, please; refuse to be boring people and live boring lives and your writing will never be boring; write when you think your thoughts are too interesting to keep bottled up, even if they have no hope of getting published; write for pleasure, not because you have to.