HCO 122 Creative Nonfiction Reviewer
Form and Types of CNF:
1. Biographical Narratives
 Full-length biography
 Profile
2. Autobiographical Narratives
 Full-length autobiography
 Memoir / Micromemoir
 Diary / Journal
01. BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVES
Biography – derived from the word bios (life), graphein/graphia
(writing).
 John Dryden (1683) “history of particular men’s lives”.
 The story of someone’s life written by another person.
 Tells about the lives of well-known, important people.
 Effective biographies paint a complete picture of the
person.
 The accurate presentation of the life history from birth
to death of an individual.
* Mga nasusulatan ng biography: celebrities, politicians, national
heroes, entrepreneurs, national artists. (They are well-known/public
figures & all of them have contributions).
Profile – recreates the subject.
 Shorter than a full-length biography.
 Concentrates on a single aspect of the featured
person’s life.
 For the most part focuses on the circumstances and
events that made the featured person important
and/or famous.
02. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVES
Autobiography – derived from the words autos (self), bio (life),
graphein/graphia (writing).
 An account of one’s own life.
 One should also exercise discernment in choosing the
details that a writer wishes to include, not only
memorable but are also worth sharing with the
readers.
 To what extent an autobiography can be faithful to
actual or factual events in the narrator’s life?
 Autobiography is the attempt of the author "to
recapture the self" through consciousness, and that
"this coming-toknowledge of the self constitutes both
of the desire that initiates the autobiographical act and
the goal toward which autobiography directs itself.
 “Autobiography is usually honest but it’s never
truthful.” – Rober A. Heinsley, Friday
Memoir – informal form of autobiographical narratives.
 Does not need to be arranged or structured in a
strictly chronological order.
 Fragmentary or dispersed (montage of small-scale
narratives).
 Recollections of one who has been part of or has
witnessed significant events.
Micro-Memoir – At its most basic, a micro-memoir is written in
sentences, drawn from personal experience, and strives to create a
world in as few words as possible.
 One thing the micro-memoir is particularly suited for is
an exploration of a moment, particularly a moment
that seems small or unimportant, but, when viewed
from the right perspective, with the right attention,
reveals itself to be central to identity.
 Consider memories that you retain without
understanding why.
Diaries and Journals – writing and recording personal experiences,
thoughts, and feelings.
Diaries – quotodian
 Rundown of the author’s routine activities and
transactions.
 Rawest and unedited form.
 Most honest attempt of an author to capture daily
reality.
Journal – more intimate
 Daily activities
 Personal details regarding the impressions and
opinions of the journal writer concerning certain
intriguing incidents or issues that have come up and
how specific persons have affected him or her during
the course of the day.
 Very expressive
 A receptacle of the author’s innermost thoughts and
feelings.
03. PERSONAL AND INFORMAL ESSAYS
Essays – an analytic, interpretative, or critical literary composition
usually much shorter and less systematic and formal.
 Usually deals with its subject from a limited and often
personal point of view.
 Literary, personal familiar or informal (tone).
 Reaction to a personal experience, to entertain,
explain.
 Non-literary, documented, or formal (tone).
 Objective, unbiased, to inform the reader.
Personal Essay – relatively independent piece of writing derived
from reflections or experiences.
HCO 122 Creative Nonfiction Reviewer
 Based on your perceptions and contains no
references to sources, it is called an undocumented
essay.

Descriptive Essay – relies heavily on descriptions and imagery.

 Represent the appearance or essence of an

event/experience.
 Sensory details

Reflective Essay – a reflection on how you’ve changed or how an

event changed you.

 Reflect on your own experience and outline how you

have changed as a person.
 Analyze the significance of past events through
serious thoughts or consideration from the vantage 05. THE WRITING PROCESS
point of the present.
 Memory Writing – complex combination of skills which is best taught by
breaking down the process. The writing process involves a series of
Literary Reportage – form of CNF that presents verifiable data and steps to follow in producing a finished piece of writing. Generally, the
well-researched information. writing process encompasses a project’s throughline in its entirety:
from brainstorming and planning to revisions and eventual
 Responsible journalism and imaginative literature. publishing.
 To make the nonfiction story shimmer ‘like a novel’.
 Examples: Jack London - The Story of An Eyewitness, The Writing Process:
Nick Joaquin / Quijano de Manila - Reportage on
✎ Drafting ✎ Prewriting ✎ Publishing ✎ Revising ✎ Editing
Crime: Thirteen Horror Happening That Hit the
Headlin
✎ Prewriting ✎ Revising ✎ Publishing ✎ Drafting ✎ Editing

Prewriting (Planning Stage) – involves exploring a subject,

04. EMERGING FORMS OF CREATIVE NONFICTION
Testimonio – generally defined as a first-person narration of socially
significant experiences in which the narrative voice is that of a typical
or extraordinary witness or protagonist who metonymically represents
others who have lined through similar situations and who have rarely
given written expressions to them.
 The objective of the testimonio is to bring to light a
wrong, a point of view, or an urgent call for action.
 Example: Testimonies of the Victims (Comfort
Women)
Travel Writing – a travelogue is the, in its most basic form, a spoken
or written account of an individual’s experiences traveling, which
usually appears in the past tense, in the first person, and with some
verisimilititude.
Nature Writing – form of cnc in which the natural environment (or a
narrator’s encounter with the natural environment) serves as the
dominant subject.
narrowing your focus to a specific topic, researching the topic,
gathering details, and organizing them.
 Topic – what you will write about. Everything you
have known, seen, dreamed, experienced,
remembered, heard, and read can be a source of your
writing topic.
- Creative writers draw on their experiences to spark
their imaginations and make their vision come alive for
their readers.
 Author’s Purpose – common purposes include to
entertain, to instruct, to persuade, or to describe. An
author may have more than one purpose for writing a
particular selectio, but one purpose if often the most
important.
 Audience – influences your choice of topic, language,
sentence length, punctuation, and allusions. It can
even influence your choices of form, such as novels,
articles, or poetry.

Food Writing – most food writing is about eating; the challenge is to

express yourself without resorting to cliché or an endless string of
adjectives.

 Doreen Fernandez’s 1994 essay collection helped the

Philippines and the world see the value of Filipino
cuisine.
HCO 122 Creative Nonfiction Reviewer
Drafting – creating a first written version or draft (beginning, middle,
and ending). During this step, you work steadily to connect your
ideas to form the first version of your writing.

 Remember: No one gets to see your rough draft but

you, so don’t hold back. Don’t edit yourself or criticize
your choices.

Revising – when revising, you change what you need to better satisfy
your purpose and audience. Revising is the essence of writing. Most
professional writers rewrite their sentences, rewrite their sentences,
and then rewrite them again.

Editing – once you have completed the large-scale improvements

and made a clean copy of your revised writing, it is time to edit your
work. It involved fine-tuning your words, sentences, correctness, and
design of the piece.

Publishing – brings your work to the public so that others can learn
from it, respond to it, and build upon it. In addition to traditional
publications, online options allow you to share your ideas across the
globe.