I've started reading Seth's Travels from Heaven Lake, which I'm definitely enjoying -- I'm trying to figure out why. I think part of it is just how much of him is in it; the tiny details of his being a restless and lazy traveller somehow make the rest of the book more lively. I'd like to include a fair bit of history in my book, along with travellogue -- I need to figure out how to make it readable. I have a first draft of the history section that I wrote for my nonfiction class at Utah and it's just so boring -- I find myself skimming over it, unable to bring myself to focus. If I can't focus on it, how can I expect a reader to?
Right now it's in a fairly straightforward essay format. I think I'm going to try reworking the material in a more mosaic shape, juxtaposing small sections, each with its own narrative drive. Dramatizing the stories of the ancient kings. Maybe that'll help.