CREATIVE

NONFICTION
 What is

CREATIVE
NONFICTION?
CREATIVE
NONFICTION
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Merges the
boundaries
between
literary art
and research
nonfiction
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Uses literary
styles and
techniques
to create
factually
accurate
narratives
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Presents real
people and
events in a
compelling,
vivid and
dramatic
manner
CREATIVE NONFICTION

“True Stories
Well Told”
Lee Gutkind (2017), the editor and
founder of the online magazine Creative
Nonfiction
LEE GUTKIND
In Some Ways, Creative Nonfiction
Is Like Jazz – It’s A Rich Mix Of
Flavors, Ideas, And Techniques,
Some Of Which Are Newly Invented
And Others As Old As Writing
Itself.
THE WORD CREATIVE REFERS TO THE USE
OF LITERARY CRAFT. THE GOAL IS TO MAKE
NONFICTION STORIES READ LIKE FICTION
SO THAT YOUR READERS ARE AS
ENTHRALLED BY FACT AS THEY ARE BY
FANTASY.
However, The Word “Creative” Has Been
Criticized In This Context Because
Some People Think That Being Creative
Means That You Pretend Or Exaggerate
Or Make Up Facts And Embellish
Details.
But According To Lee Gutkind, It Is Possible To Be
Honest And Straightforward And Brilliant And
Creative At The Same Time.
“Creative” Doesn’t Mean Inventing What Didn’t
Happen Or Reporting And Describing Something
That Was Not There. It Doesn’t Mean That The
Writer Has A License To Lie. Bcoz The Cardinal
Rule Is Clear And Cannot Be Violated.
 Creative Nonfiction
Should:
1. Include Accurate And
Well-researched
Information
2. Hold The Interest Of
The Reader
3. Use Literary Styles And
Techniques While
Remaining Grounded In
Fact.
• According to Annie Dillard,
creative nonfiction writing is first
about the formation of a text, the
creation of a piece of art, just like
any painting or musical
composition. Your life and the life
of the world is your raw material.
Your subjects might be any part of
this world.
ANNIE DILLARD IS AN AMERICAN AUTHOR, BEST KNOWN FOR
HER NARRATIVE PROSE IN BOTH FICTION AND NON-FICTION.
SHE HAS PUBLISHED WORKS OF POETRY, ESSAYS, PROSE,
AND LITERARY CRITICISM, AS WELL AS TWO NOVELS AND
ONE MEMOIR.
 THE FIVE “R”S OF CREATIVE
NONFICTION
• five essential elements
• 1. creative nonfiction has a “REAL LIFE” aspect
• 2. creative nonfiction is based on the writer engaging in
personal “REFLECTION” about what he/she is writing about
• 3. creative nonfiction requires complete RESEARCH
• 4. creative nonfiction is READING
• 5. creative nonfiction is wRiting
1. CNF Presents real people and events in a compelling, vivid and dramatic manner.
TRUE

2. CNF Uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives.
TRUE

3. CNF should include ERRONEOUS And FUZZY Information. FALSE

4. creative nonfiction has a “REAL LIFE” aspect. true

5. He is an American writer, speaker, and literary innovator, founder of the literary

magazine Creative Nonfiction, the first and the largest literary journal to publish
narrative/creative nonfiction exclusively. Lee Gutkind

6-10. What are the five “R”s of creative nonfiction according to Lee Gutkind
 CREATIVE NONFICTION IS THE
LITERATURE OF FACT
• The following is a list of the most common literary devices that writers
incorporate into their nonfiction writing:
• 1. CHARACTERS 10. MOTIF
• 2. DETAIL 11. NARRATIVE
• 3. DIALOGUE 12. ORDER
• 4. DICTION 13. PLOT AND PLOT STRUCTURE
• 5. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE 14. POINT OF VIEW
• 6. FLASHBACK 15. SETTING, SCENE AND ATMOSPHERE
• 7. FLASH FORWARD 16. STYLE
• 8. FORESHADOWING 17. SYMBOL
• 9. IMAGERY 18. THEME
19. TONE
 CHARACTER/S
• CHARACTERS are REAL PEOPLE. The
author describes physical descriptions,
personality traits and detailed histories
to give the characters depth and
relatability.
• The nonfiction piece often requires a
main character. If a writer is creating
his/her memoir, then the writer is the
central character.
 DETAIL

•DETAILS provide pieces

of information. Writers of
biography and
autobiography use details
to give the actual facts
about a person’s life.
 DIALOGUE

•Dialogue is a literary and

theatrical form consisting
of a written or spoken
conversational exchange
between two or more
people.
 DICTION
•Diction is the writer’s choice
of words.
•The author chooses each
word carefully so that both
its meaning and sound
contribute to the tone and
feeling of the literary work.
 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
•Figurative language does not
mean exactly what it says, but
instead forces the reader to make
a leap in order to comprehend an
author’s point. Usually involves
comparison between two things.
 FLASHBACK
• Flashback or analepsis is a literary
device in which an earlier or past
event is inserted into the present
or the normal chronological order
of a narrative.
• Often used to recount events that
happened before the story’s
primary sequence of events or to
fill in crucial backstory.
 FLASHBACK EXAMPLE
•A woman is about to get married.
As she puts on her veil, she
remembers her fiancé three years
before, swearing he would make
her his wife someday. A tear
comes to her eye and she
prepares to walk down the aisle.
 FLASH FORWARD
• Flash forward or prolepsis is a
literary device in which the plot
goes ahead of time i.e. a scene that
interrupts and takes the narrative
forward in time from the current
time in a story.
 FORESHADOWING
• Foreshadowing is a literary device
in which an author hints certain
plot developments that perhaps
will come to be later in the story. It
is the presentation of material in a
work in such a way that later
events are prepared for. The
purpose of foreshadowing is to
prepare the reader for action to
 IMAGERY
• IMAGERY refers to the “pictures” which
we perceive with our mind’s eyes, ears,
nose, tongue, skin, and through which
we experience the “duplicate world”
created by poetic language. Imagery
evokes the meaning and truth of human
experiences not in abstract terms, as in
philosophy, but in more perceptible
and tangible forms.
 MOTIF
• Motif is any element, subject, idea, or
concept that is constantly present
through the entire body of literature.
Using a motif refers to the repetition of
a specific theme dominating the
literary work.
 NARRATIVE
• Authors can choose to tell a history
from start to finish or jump from one
time to another to create parallels to
other characters or events. The author
carefully chooses a narrative to
enhance any dramatization. In most
nonfiction, the story told focuses on a
central conflict or theme that defines
the purpose of the work.
 ORDER
• ORDER is the arrangement of events in
a work of literature. It is the structure of
something, in the way it is put together,
it’s the way things are organized. The
way you organize information impacts
how your audience receives it.
 ORDER
• The six informational structures below
will help you organize your information
in a clear, easy-to-follow manner.
• 1. importance – use order of
importance to rank details from least to
most, or from most to least. Transitional
words and phrases signal shifts in
thought and are used to guide your
audience through blocks of
information.
 ORDER
• The six informational structures below
will help you organize your information
in a clear, easy-to-follow manner.
• 2. chronological – use chronological
order (time order) to arrange details in
a story or process in the order in which
they happened. Examples of
Chronological order transitions: first,
next, then, before, later, second, finally,
last.
 ORDER
• The six informational structures below
will help you organize your information in
a clear, easy-to-follow manner.
• 3. Problem-solution – use problem-
solution order to explain a problem,
outline a solution, or argue for or against
a solution. Examples of problem-solution
terms: at risk, a major problem, one
symptom, should be saved, must not
happen, to fix this, the best solution, please
support.
 ORDER
• The six informational structures below
will help you organize your information in
a clear, easy-to-follow manner.
• 4. CAUSE-EFFECT - USE CAUSE-EFFECT
organization to show the relationship
between events or conditions. You may
focus on one cause and their one effect,
or many causes and many effects.
Examples of cause-effect transitions: as a
result, because, consequently, since,
therefore, then, due to the fact that.
 ORDER
• The six informational structures below
will help you organize your information in
a clear, easy-to-follow manner.
• 5. comparison-contrast
Use comparison-contrast organization to
show similarities and differences between
two things.
Examples of comparison-contrast terms:
also, both, but, by contrast, even though, like,
likewise, however, similarly.
 ORDER
• The six informational structures below
will help you organize your information in
a clear, easy-to-follow manner.
• 6. classification – use classification to
break a subject into subgroups or
categories. Examples of classification
terms: another kind of, the first subgroup, a
second category, a third variety, a final type,
the most popular, a less popular, a common
type, a rare kind of.
 PLOT AND PLOT STRUCTURE
• PLOT refers to the series or sequence of
events that give a story its meaning and
effect.
 POINT OF VIEW
• Refers to the perspective from which a
story is told. When a character in the story
is telling the story, it is first person point
of view. When the story is told by a
narrator outside of the story, it is called
the third person point of view.
• Memoirs and autobiographies are told in
1st person POV.
• Instruction manuals, how-to-guides and
self-help books are usually written in the
2nd person.
 POINT OF VIEW
• Most biographies are told in the 3rd person
by someone who is relating the information
he has gathered about the story.
• The narrator of a story can have an
omniscient POV. Omniscient means “all
knowing”. If the narrator has an omniscient
POV, then he knows what is going on in the
minds of all of the characters at all times. The
reader gets to know what every character is
thinking and feeling.
 SETTING, SCENE AND
ATMOSPHERE
• The writer creates scenes that are action-oriented
and contain vivid descriptions.
• Setting is the story’s time and place. The elements
making up a setting are: the geographical location,
its topography, scenery, and such physical
arrangements as the location of the windows and
doors in a room; the occupations and daily manner
of living of the characters; the time or period in
which the action takes place, for example, period in
history or season of the year; and the general
environment of the characters, for example
religious, mental, moral, social, and emotional
conditions.
 STYLE
• Refers to the language conventions used to
construct the story. A writer can manipulate
diction, sentence structure, phrasing,
dialogue, and other aspects of language to
create style.
• It is the manner of expression of a particular
writer, produced by choice of words,
grammatical structures, use of literary
devices, and all the possible parts of
language style. Style is the way a writer uses
words to create literature.
 SYMBOL
• It is a literary device that contains several
layers of meaning, often concealed at first
sight, and is representative of several other
aspects/concepts/traits than those that are
visible in the literal translation alone. It is
using an object or action that means
something more than its literal meaning.
Some symbols are universal, like water for
cleansing, but others are more culturally
based.
 SYMBOL
• In some African societies, for example, a
black cat is seen as good luck. Writers use
pre-existing cultural associations as well as
meanings drawn from the context of the
story to create multiple levels of meaning.
• Symbol comes from the Greek word
symbolom. It is a word or an object that stands
for another word or object. The object or word
can be seen with the eye or not visible.
 THEME
• It is the meaning or concept we are left with after
reading a piece of writing. It can be a revelation of
human character or it may be stated briefly or at
great length. It develops from the interplay of
character and plot. A theme is the central and
unifying concept of the story. It must adhere to the
following requirements:
• 1. It must account for all the major details of the story.
• 2. It must not be contradicted by any detail of the story.
• 3. It must not rely on supposed facts—facts not actually
stated or clearly implied by the story.
 TONE
• It is the writer’s attitude toward his or her subject
matter. For example, the tone of a biography can be
admiring or critical, fawning or hostile. Many
biographers start with a reverential attitude toward
their subject, become antagonistic as the work bogs
down, and end on a worshipful tone.
• If the author is listing reasons and answering likely
objections in advance, the tone is argumentative or
persuasive. If the writer goes on and on about the
snowy, picture-perfect holidays of childhood, nostalgia
is a good bet.