What is Creative Nonfiction?
It's Not "Just the Facts" for Writers of This Expanding Genre
Sep 30, 2009
Creative nonfiction, a sub-genre within non-fiction, has become a fast growing and marketable genre with the successful rise of memoir writing. But how does creative nonfiction differ from standard non-fiction? And is creative nonfiction still writing based upon the truth for writers?
How Does Creative Nonfiction Differ From Nonfiction?
Most readers encounter non-fiction on a daily basis via traditional journalistic outlets, such as newspapers. In essence, non-fiction is any writing which uses real-world facts as its material, and non-fiction's focus is to clearly present such facts. Traditional journalism, technical textbooks, and academic works of any subject are good examples of non-fiction in its standard form.
Creative nonfiction, in contrast, places its focus on literary constructions and storytelling elements. Like a novelist, creative nonfiction writers (when writing narrative nonfiction) are focused on creating compelling, artful narratives within which to convey real-world facts and events. The focus for a creative nonfiction writer is on storytelling, and the personal essay, memoir, and feature writing are all examples of creative nonfiction. (See "Types of Creative Nonfiction" below for more.)
A good way to compare non-fiction and creative nonfiction is to compare traditional journalism (non-fiction) with what many call new journalism (creative nonfiction). Below are two examples on Hurricane Katrina:
For an example of traditional non-fiction, it's instructive to look at a New York Times article entitled "Powerful Storm Threatens Havoc Along Gulf Coast" from August 29, 2005. The article begins:
Hurricane Katrina, one of the most powerful storms ever to threaten the United States, bore down on the Gulf Coast on Sunday, sending hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the approach of its 160-mile-an-hour winds and prompting a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, a city perilously below sea level.
Notice how the focus is on presenting facts and clearly establishing for the reader exactly what is being treated. The hook is the topic. In contrast, a new journalism (creative nonfiction) piece on Hurricane Katrina, which is focused more on storytelling than dry facts, begins much differently. This comes from a piece entitled "Porch Duty" from The New Yorker:
From the front porch of his rather grand house on South Carrollton Avenue—which had suddenly become Pontchartrain lakefront, even if the lake here was a foot deep and toxic—the world looked pretty damned stupid to H. J. (Pepper) Bosworth, Jr., last Thursday.
Here Hurricane Katrina is being presented not from above, but within the life of one individual and through his story. This narrative construction and focus---looking at the world through the eyes of an individual character---mirrors fiction writing to some degree, and is a classic hallmark of creative nonfiction and creative writing within the genre.
Is Creative Nonfiction True?
The short answer is: yes. Creative nonfiction, just like non-fiction, must be based upon the truth. However, creative nonfiction writers are focused on crafting tight, interesting stories, and will sometimes use narrative techniques which may seem to some as stretching the truth. An examples of this is when creative nonfiction writers compose composite characters out of multiple, real-world people, either to protect the identities of people or to improve the narrative.
For example, a memoir writer might be composing a story of her addiction to morphine, and her treatment by various doctors. The writer may feel that the story would be tedious and boring if she detailed every encounter with every doctor, and so may create one doctor out of the multiple ones she encountered. As long as the author writes a disclaimer in the beginning of the book that such a technique has been used, this is considered legitimate in creative nonfiction.
Another example of a narrative technique a creative nonfiction writers can use is when she compresses time. For example, a memoir writer may be writing the story of her childhood, and decides to place events closer together in the chronology of her narrative than actually occurred in real life. Again, as long as the author informs the reader that this is sometimes done for narrative efficiency, it is considered within the real of creative nonfiction.
Types of Creative Nonfiction (and Nonfiction Books) for Writers
One of the most popular forms of creative nonfiction is memoir writing. A memoir differs from an autobiography in that it tells a story from the writer's life, as opposed to the story of the writer's entire life. Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is a fantastic example of memoir.
The personal essay is another popular form of creative nonfiction, and is simply memoir writing scaled down in essay form. Most personal essays are published in magazines or essay collections, and David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day is a great contemporary example.
New journalism is yet another example of creative nonfiction, and while much of it appears in magazines, new journalism has become very successful in book-form as well. Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild is a brilliant contemporary example.
Creative nonfiction also encompasses the lyric essay, a form of essay writing in which creative nonfiction and poetry meld together. Lyric essays look like prose on the page, but often feel very much like poetry, focusing on images and emotions. Claudia Rankine's Don't Let Me Be Lonely is a good and accessible example of lyric essay.
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