Benthel Asia School of Technology Inc.

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-PRINCIPLE, ELEMENTS, TECHNIQUES, & DEVICES of CREATIVE NONFICTION-

INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE NONFICTION

A writer like a carpenter uses the basic principles in writing to wield a perfect composition.
These writing tools help shape the storyline. Brian Kitely (2005) in the 3 A.M. Epiphany
recollects that while listening toWilliam Gass who believes that each sentence teaches the next
sentence.This means that “each sentence educates the next sentence, and each paragraph
educates the next paragraph.” To achieve perfection is to craft sentence until the subsequent one
comes along.

I. Using Elements of Creative Nonfiction

(a.)Plot- pertains to the arrangement of events in a story governed by the cause and effect
relationship. It is the design or motif of the story of how it will progress or a narration of
what happens in the past. It is thereby necessary to have a conflict or problem, otherwise,
without it, there is no story worth reading (Woods, 2013).

The Freytag`s pyramid conceptualized by Gustav Freytag in 1863 used to picture what
happens in the telling of the tale. It involves exposition, rising action, climax, falling
action, and denoument.
Exposition- is the beginning information given by the writer in the story. It provides the
background knowledge so readers may understand the story like the characters and the setting.

Inciting Moment- tales place when the readers comprehend the problem of the story.

Dramatic Question- is a response from the inciting moment.

Rising Action- mirrors the essential inner conflict that will wrestle to a complication and then
head start to another conflict. In short, it is the complication of the plot.

Crisis Situation- is the time where the readers understand how the writer`s experience will
enable him or her to be successful or a failure from such ordeal.

Climax- is the highest level of the storyline since it represents the turning point that marks a
change of the main character. This is where the main part of the story takes place.

Falling Action- is the reversal of the story that depicts the moment of final suspense.

Denouement- is the time when falling action and the concluding scene of the narrative takes
place. Since conflicts are resolved, there is balance among the characters as the readers undergo
a cathartic effect the release of tension and anxiety (Freytag`s Pyramid,2011)

Plot devices are ways of propelling the storyline to move forward. It serves to motivate the
characters, creating urgency or resolving complicated situations. This however can be compared
with moving a story forward using a dramatic method by making it happen since the characters
are capable of doing “well-developed reasons.

Plot Outline- is a narrative of a story that can be transformed into a film. It consists of a page
with longer and detailed synopsis summarized into one or two paragraphs.

(b.) Conflict- are problems, issues, or situation that character needs to resolve through time.
Conflict is often expressed through the actions and dialogues of the character(s).

Types of Conflict

1. One Character Against Another- Conflict shows one character having who is against
another character.

2. A Character or a Group Against Society Conflict- demonstrates a character who is against

society`s values, ideas, norms, culture, and values.

3. A Character Against Nature Conflict- reflects a character who is wrestling with natural
disasters or calamities.
4. Character Against Himself or Herself Conflict- illustrates the inner struggles and emotions
of the character (Woods, 2013)

(c.) Theme- pertains to the idea that philospohers deeply think or it is a simply the subject of
the story.
(d.) Characters- are portrayal of people or animals in a narrative wherein their attitudes can
be manifested in direct (explicit) or indirect (implicit) characterization.

Types of Characterization

1. Direct (Expicit) Characterization- informs the reader of what the character is like
which can be deciphered through the narrator, or through how the characters behave, act,
or speak.
2. Indirect (Implicit) Characterization- allows the readers to infer about character`s
thoughts, actions, conversations, physical appearance, idiosyncrasies, and workmanship
or team play with other characters.
(e.) Narrative Point of View describes the stand of the narrator of the storyteller. The
narrator is the eye of the story, expressing the story through first-person, second-person,
third-person, and alternating person
1. First-Person Point of View can be seen through the narrator who is the character in his
or her own story and this can be illustrated in the pronoun “I” or very seldom using the
“we” when referring to a group. Although the “I persona” is unable to see the future but
can provide an inner monologue (stream of consciousness) to the readers. Likewise, the
first-person point of view discusses the past and the present situations.
2. Second-Person Point of View is a narrator that uses the “pronoun you” telling the story
of another person or the narrator himself/herself. Some storytellers use the second-person than
the first person to alienate themselves in the story and is most employed in persuasive writing
and advertising.
3. Third-Person Point of View where every character is significance to by the storytellers
as “she”, “he”, “it”, or “they”. The narrator never uses “I” or “we” (first-person) or “you”
(second-person) This type of narration provides the author enough flexibility because the
narrator is not involved in the story but merely as an observer. Besides, this is the most
common narrative mode in literature.
4. Alternating Person is used in novels when authors experiment different point of view
even if it suggested that they established a single point of view. In this type, it combines
first and a third person storytelling.
(f.) Narrative Voice illustrates how the story is told through stream of consciousness,
character voice, unreliable narrator, epistolary voice, third person naratives include
(1)subjective, (2)objective, (3)omniscient, (4)free indirect, and (5)alternating.

1. Stream-of Consciousness is employed in the first-person point of view by trying to

reproduce the inner thoughts of the narrative character so it may provide an explanation
or foreshadow a situation.
2. Character Voice is employed in the first-and-third-person viewpoints wherein the
storytellers portrays how the character view humanity and the world.
3. Unreliable voice involves the use of uncertain or doubtful narrator who provides the
reader`s skepticism, a level of suspicious, or anonymity as to the validity of the
information. “Psychosis” seems to build-up” in the narrator`s way of conveying the story.
On the other hand, a naïve narrator (such as a child narrator) is ignorant and immature as
to what really happened from within.
4. Epistolary Voice employs fictitious letters and other credentials to put across the story`s
plot. It may also engage in multiple person narratives and result to no narrator but a
writer who compiles documents into one.
5. Third-Person Voices are narratives using the third-person view.
a. Subjective Voice is when the narrator conveys feelings, opinions, thoughts to one or
more characters. It is at times called, “over the shoulder” assessment where the
narrator depicts the events as per observation and writes the information of which the
character knows about. The story progresses as the viewpoint of the character is
narrating it.
b. Objective Voice tells a story in the absence of portraying the thoughts, opinions, and
feelings of the character instead provides an objective point of view. This will provide
neutral grounds in presenting the information since it does not interpret actions or
thoughts rendered by the characters. The third-person narration is preferred.
c. Omniscient Voice- is the most narrative style of telling a story since the narrator is
“godlike” seeing and knowing what will happen and thus takes a subjective style. For
instance, the third-person omniscient narrator can be unreliable as it judges, provides
opinions on the characters.
d. Free Indirect Speech is a technique of presenting the character`s voice without
inhibitions using the third-person narration.
e. Alternating Voice employs third-person limited and third-person omniscient method
of presenting the character. The writer moves back and fourth between storyline.
f. Narrative Time determines the timeline of the story whether it may have happened
before, during, or after the narration.
g. Angle of the Story depicts the theme, concepts, or point of what the story will talk
about. In short, angle is the controlling idea that provides elements of surprise to the
readers. Angles can be opposite to the ending of the essay, it can be comparisons, or
opposing point of views.
h. Setting (Scene) is where the story happens such as the location historical period, or
social situations. The setting can be spotted through the dialogues or physical
description by the narrator. Meanwhile the atmosphere is the emotional sensitivity or
mood the reader gets from the story.
i. Symbols in literary writing is usually applied in poetry and each symbols signifies a
meaning. When an author introduces a particular mood or emotion, the writer uses
symbolism, hinting it rather than saying it literally. Some of the common symbols
are:
 Black-evil or death
Broken mirror-separation
Dark-Death, Shadows
Day-beginning good, opportunities
Dove-peace
Fire-danger, anger,passion, love, pain or death
Ladder-connection between heaven and earth
Light-good, power
Night-end of road,peace or tranquility, death or darkness
Red rose-love and romance
Water-baptism, purification (Parker, 2013; Literary Devices)

Symbolism is employed by writers to make the literary piece interesting and the ability
of not giving the literal sense of the ideas or things.

j. Dialogue is a literary style where two or more characters are involved in a conversion
for particular subject and topic. It is through the dialogues that the main theme, ideas,
or unfolding of the events can be pictured by the readers.

There are two types of dialogues:

1. Inner Dialogue- (Stream of Consciousness) takes place when the characters speak to
themselves and in this process, their personalities and attitudes are revealed.
2. Outer Dialogue- is the conversation between two or more characters in the story

Others Literary Devices

1. Hyperbole is a term for overstatement or exaggeration.
2. Understatement is exactly the opposite of hyperbole, when the writer tries to play
down the significance, magnitude or intensity of a situation or event.
3. Incongruity is a circumstance when something is out of proportion or strange
situations knit together.
4. Irony is a position when there is “gap between what is said and what is meant”
(Woods, 2013)