examples of non creative writing

Examples of Creative Nonfiction: What It Is & How to Write It

When most people think of creative writing, they picture fiction books – but there are plenty of examples of creative nonfiction. In fact, creative nonfiction is one of the most interesting genres to read and write. So what is creative nonfiction exactly? 

More and more people are discovering the joy of getting immersed in content based on true life that has all the quality and craft of a well-written novel. If you are interested in writing creative nonfiction, it’s important to understand different examples of creative nonfiction as a genre. 

If you’ve ever gotten lost in memoirs so descriptive that you felt you’d walked in the shoes of those people, those are perfect examples of creative nonfiction – and you understand exactly why this genre is so popular.

But is creative nonfiction a viable form of writing to pursue? What is creative nonfiction best used to convey? And what are some popular creative nonfiction examples?

Today we will discuss all about this genre, including plenty of examples of creative nonfiction books – so you’ll know exactly how to write it. 

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What is Creative Nonfiction?

Creative nonfiction is defined as true events written about with the techniques and style traditionally found in creative writing . We can understand what creative nonfiction is by contrasting it with plain-old nonfiction. 

Think about news or a history textbook, for example. These nonfiction pieces tend to be written in very matter-of-fact, declarative language. While informative, this type of nonfiction often lacks the flair and pleasure that keep people hooked on fictional novels.

Imagine there are two retellings of a true crime story – one in a newspaper and the other in the script for a podcast. Which is more likely to grip you? The dry, factual language, or the evocative, emotionally impactful creative writing?

Podcasts are often great examples of creative nonfiction – but of course, creative nonfiction can be used in books too. In fact, there are many types of creative nonfiction writing. Let’s take a look!

Types of creative nonfiction

Creative nonfiction comes in many different forms and flavors. Just as there are myriad types of creative writing, there are almost as many types of creative nonfiction.

Some of the most popular types include:

Literary nonfiction

Literary nonfiction refers to any form of factual writing that employs the literary elements that are more commonly found in fiction. If you’re writing about a true event (but using elements such as metaphor and theme) you might well be writing literary nonfiction.

Writing a life story doesn’t have to be a dry, chronological depiction of your years on Earth. You can use memoirs to creatively tell about events or ongoing themes in your life.

If you’re unsure of what kind of creative nonfiction to write, why not consider a creative memoir? After all, no one else can tell your life story like you. 

Nature writing

The beauty of the natural world is an ongoing source of creative inspiration for many people, from photographers to documentary makers. But it’s also a great focus for a creative nonfiction writer. Evoking the majesty and wonder of our environment is an endless source of material for creative nonfiction. 

Travel writing

If you’ve ever read a great travel article or book, you’ll almost feel as if you’ve been on the journey yourself. There’s something special about travel writing that conveys not only the literal journey, but the personal journey that takes place.

Writers with a passion for exploring the world should consider travel writing as their form of creative nonfiction. 

For types of writing that leave a lasting impact on the world, look no further than speeches. From a preacher’s sermon, to ‘I have a dream’, speeches move hearts and minds like almost nothing else. The difference between an effective speech and one that falls on deaf ears is little more than the creative skill with which it is written. 

Biographies

Noteworthy figures from history and contemporary times alike are great sources for creative nonfiction. Think about the difference between reading about someone’s life on Wikipedia and reading about it in a critically-acclaimed biography.

Which is the better way of honoring that person’s legacy and achievements? Which is more fun to read? If there’s someone whose life story is one you’d love to tell, creative nonfiction might be the best way to do it. 

So now that you have an idea of what creative nonfiction is, and some different ways you can write it, let’s take a look at some popular examples of creative nonfiction books and speeches.

Examples of Creative Nonfiction

Here are our favorite examples of creative nonfiction:

1. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

No list of examples of creative nonfiction would be complete without In Cold Blood . This landmark work of literary nonfiction by Truman Capote helped to establish the literary nonfiction genre in its modern form, and paved the way for the contemporary true crime boom.  

2. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast is undeniably one of the best creative memoirs ever written. It beautifully reflects on Hemingway’s time in Paris – and whisks you away into the cobblestone streets.  

3. World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

If you’re looking for examples of creative nonfiction nature writing, no one does it quite like Aimee Nezhukumatathil. World of Wonders  is a beautiful series of essays that poetically depicts the varied natural landscapes she enjoyed over the years. 

4. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson is one of the most beloved travel writers of our time. And A Walk in the Woods is perhaps Bryson in his peak form. This much-loved travel book uses creativity to explore the Appalachian Trail and convey Bryson’s opinions on America in his humorous trademark style.

5. The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

 While most of our examples of creative nonfiction are books, we would be remiss not to include at least one speech. The Gettysburg Address is one of the most impactful speeches in American history, and an inspiring example for creative nonfiction writers.

6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Few have a way with words like Maya Angelou. Her triumphant book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , shows the power of literature to transcend one’s circumstances at any time. It is one of the best examples of creative nonfiction that truly sucks you in.

7. Hiroshima by John Hershey

Hiroshima is a powerful retelling of the events during (and following) the infamous atomic bomb. This journalistic masterpiece is told through the memories of survivors – and will stay with you long after you’ve finished the final page.

8. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

If you haven’t read the book, you’ve probably seen the film. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is one of the most popular travel memoirs in history. This romp of creative nonfiction teaches us how to truly unmake and rebuild ourselves through the lens of travel.

9. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Never has language learning brought tears of laughter like Me Talk Pretty One Day . David Sedaris comically divulges his (often failed) attempts to learn French with a decidedly sadistic teacher, and all the other mishaps he encounters in his fated move from New York to Paris.

10. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Many of us had complicated childhoods, but few of us experienced the hardships of Jeannette Walls. In The Glass Castle , she gives us a transparent look at the betrayals and torments of her youth and how she overcame them with grace – weaving her trauma until it reads like a whimsical fairytale.

Now that you’ve seen plenty of creative nonfiction examples, it’s time to learn how to write your own creative nonfiction masterpiece.

Tips for Writing Creative Nonfiction

Writing creative nonfiction has a lot in common with other types of writing. (You won’t be reinventing the wheel here.) The better you are at writing in general, the easier you’ll find your creative nonfiction project. But there are some nuances to be aware of.

Writing a successful creative nonfiction piece requires you to:

Choose a form

Before you commit to a creative nonfiction project, get clear on exactly what it is you want to write. That way, you can get familiar with the conventions of the style of writing and draw inspiration from some of its classics.

Try and find a balance between a type of creative nonfiction you find personally appealing and one you have the skill set to be effective at. 

Gather the facts

Like all forms of nonfiction, your creative project will require a great deal of research and preparation. If you’re writing about an event, try and gather as many sources of information as possible – so you can imbue your writing with a rich level of detail.

If it’s a piece about your life, jot down personal recollections and gather photos from your past. 

Plan your writing

Unlike a fictional novel, which tends to follow a fairly well-established structure, works of creative nonfiction have a less clear shape. To avoid the risk of meandering or getting weighed down by less significant sections, structure your project ahead of writing it.

You can either apply the classic fiction structures to a nonfictional event or take inspiration from the pacing of other examples of creative nonfiction you admire. 

You may also want to come up with a working title to inspire your writing. Using a free book title generator is a quick and easy way to do this and move on to the actual writing of your book.

Draft in your intended style

Unless you have a track record of writing creative nonfiction, the first time doing so can feel a little uncomfortable. You might second-guess your writing more than you usually would due to the novelty of applying creative techniques to real events. Because of this, it’s essential to get your first draft down as quickly as possible.

Rewrite and refine

After you finish your first draft, only then should you read back through it and critique your work. Perhaps you haven’t used enough source material. Or maybe you’ve overdone a certain creative technique. Whatever you happen to notice, take as long as you need to refine and rework it until your writing feels just right.

Ready to Wow the World With Your Story?

You know have the knowledge and inspiring examples of creative nonfiction you need to write a successful work in this genre. Whether you choose to write a riveting travel book, a tear-jerking memoir, or a biography that makes readers laugh out loud, creative nonfiction will give you the power to convey true events like never before.  

Who knows? Maybe your book will be on the next list of top creative nonfiction examples!

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What is creative nonfiction? Despite its slightly enigmatic name, no literary genre has grown quite as quickly as creative nonfiction in recent decades. Literary nonfiction is now well-established as a powerful means of storytelling, and bookstores now reserve large amounts of space for nonfiction, when it often used to occupy a single bookshelf.

Like any literary genre, creative nonfiction has a long history; also like other genres, defining contemporary CNF for the modern writer can be nuanced. If you’re interested in writing true-to-life stories but you’re not sure where to begin, let’s start by dissecting the creative nonfiction genre and what it means to write a modern literary essay.

What Creative Nonfiction Is

Creative nonfiction employs the creative writing techniques of literature, such as poetry and fiction, to retell a true story.

How do we define creative nonfiction? What makes it “creative,” as opposed to just “factual writing”? These are great questions to ask when entering the genre, and they require answers which could become literary essays themselves.

In short, creative nonfiction (CNF) is a form of storytelling that employs the creative writing techniques of literature, such as poetry and fiction, to retell a true story. Creative nonfiction writers don’t just share pithy anecdotes, they use craft and technique to situate the reader into their own personal lives. Fictional elements, such as character development and narrative arcs, are employed to create a cohesive story, but so are poetic elements like conceit and juxtaposition.

The CNF genre is wildly experimental, and contemporary nonfiction writers are pushing the bounds of literature by finding new ways to tell their stories. While a CNF writer might retell a personal narrative, they might also focus their gaze on history, politics, or they might use creative writing elements to write an expository essay. There are very few limits to what creative nonfiction can be, which is what makes defining the genre so difficult—but writing it so exciting.

Different Forms of Creative Nonfiction

From the autobiographies of Mark Twain and Benvenuto Cellini, to the more experimental styles of modern writers like Karl Ove Knausgård, creative nonfiction has a long history and takes a wide variety of forms. Common iterations of the creative nonfiction genre include the following:

Also known as biography or autobiography, the memoir form is probably the most recognizable form of creative nonfiction. Memoirs are collections of memories, either surrounding a single narrative thread or multiple interrelated ideas. The memoir is usually published as a book or extended piece of fiction, and many memoirs take years to write and perfect. Memoirs often take on a similar writing style as the personal essay does, though it must be personable and interesting enough to encourage the reader through the entire book.

Personal Essay

Personal essays are stories about personal experiences told using literary techniques.

When someone hears the word “essay,” they instinctively think about those five paragraph book essays everyone wrote in high school. In creative nonfiction, the personal essay is much more vibrant and dynamic. Personal essays are stories about personal experiences, and while some personal essays can be standalone stories about a single event, many essays braid true stories with extended metaphors and other narratives.

Personal essays are often intimate, emotionally charged spaces. Consider the opening two paragraphs from Beth Ann Fennelly’s personal essay “ I Survived the Blizzard of ’79. ”

We didn’t question. Or complain. It wouldn’t have occurred to us, and it wouldn’t have helped. I was eight. Julie was ten.

We didn’t know yet that this blizzard would earn itself a moniker that would be silk-screened on T-shirts. We would own such a shirt, which extended its tenure in our house as a rag for polishing silver.

The word “essay” comes from the French “essayer,” which means “to try” or “attempt.” The personal essay is more than just an autobiographical narrative—it’s an attempt to tell your own history with literary techniques.

Lyric Essay

The lyric essay contains similar subject matter as the personal essay, but is much more experimental in form.

The lyric essay contains similar subject matter as the personal essay, with one key distinction: lyric essays are much more experimental in form. Poetry and creative nonfiction merge in the lyric essay, challenging the conventional prose format of paragraphs and linear sentences.

The lyric essay stands out for its unique writing style and sentence structure. Consider these lines from “ Life Code ” by J. A. Knight:

The dream goes like this: blue room of water. God light from above. Child’s fist, foot, curve, face, the arc of an eye, the symmetry of circles… and then an opening of this body—which surprised her—a movement so clean and assured and then the push towards the light like a frog or a fish.

What we get is language driven by emotion, choosing an internal logic rather than a universally accepted one.

Lyric essays are amazing spaces to break barriers in language. For example, the lyricist might write a few paragraphs about their story, then examine a key emotion in the form of a villanelle or a ghazal . They might decide to write their entire essay in a string of couplets or a series of sonnets, then interrupt those stanzas with moments of insight or analysis. In the lyric essay, language dictates form. The successful lyricist lets the words arrange themselves in whatever format best tells the story, allowing for experimental new forms of storytelling.

Literary Journalism

Much more ambiguously defined is the idea of literary journalism. The idea is simple: report on real life events using literary conventions and styles. But how do you do this effectively, in a way that the audience pays attention and takes the story seriously?

You can best find examples of literary journalism in more “prestigious” news journals, such as The New Yorker , The Atlantic , Salon , and occasionally The New York Times . Think pieces about real world events, as well as expository journalism, might use braiding and extended metaphors to make readers feel more connected to the story. Other forms of nonfiction, such as the academic essay or more technical writing, might also fall under literary journalism, provided those pieces still use the elements of creative nonfiction.

Consider this recently published article from The Atlantic : The Uncanny Tale of Shimmel Zohar by Lawrence Weschler. It employs a style that’s breezy yet personable—including its opening line.

So I first heard about Shimmel Zohar from Gravity Goldberg—yeah, I know, but she insists it’s her real name (explaining that her father was a physicist)—who is the director of public programs and visitor experience at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, in San Francisco.

How to Write Creative Nonfiction: Common Elements and Techniques

What separates a general news update from a well-written piece of literary journalism? What’s the difference between essay writing in high school and the personal essay? When nonfiction writers put out creative work, they are most successful when they utilize the following elements.

Just like fiction, nonfiction relies on effective narration. Telling the story with an effective plot, writing from a certain point of view, and using the narrative to flesh out the story’s big idea are all key craft elements. How you structure your story can have a huge impact on how the reader perceives the work, as well as the insights you draw from the story itself.

Consider the first lines of the story “ To the Miami University Payroll Lady ” by Frenci Nguyen:

You might not remember me, but I’m the dark-haired, Texas-born, Asian-American graduate student who visited the Payroll Office the other day to complete direct deposit and tax forms.

Because the story is written in second person, with the reader experiencing the story as the payroll lady, the story’s narration feels much more personal and important, forcing the reader to evaluate their own personal biases and beliefs.

Observation

Telling the story involves more than just simple plot elements, it also involves situating the reader in the key details. Setting the scene requires attention to all five senses, and interpersonal dialogue is much more effective when the narrator observes changes in vocal pitch, certain facial expressions, and movements in body language. Essentially, let the reader experience the tiny details – we access each other best through minutiae.

The story “ In Transit ” by Erica Plouffe Lazure is a perfect example of storytelling through observation. Every detail of this flash piece is carefully noted to tell a story without direct action, using observations about group behavior to find hope in a crisis. We get observation when the narrator notes the following:

Here at the St. Thomas airport in mid-March, we feel the urgency of the transition, the awareness of how we position our bodies, where we place our luggage, how we consider for the first time the numbers of people whose belongings are placed on the same steel table, the same conveyor belt, the same glowing radioactive scan, whose IDs are touched by the same gloved hand[.]

What’s especially powerful about this story is that it is written in a single sentence, allowing the reader to be just as overwhelmed by observation and context as the narrator is.

We’ve used this word a lot, but what is braiding? Braiding is a technique most often used in creative nonfiction where the writer intertwines multiple narratives, or “threads.” Not all essays use braiding, but the longer a story is, the more it benefits the writer to intertwine their story with an extended metaphor or another idea to draw insight from.

“ The Crush ” by Zsofia McMullin demonstrates braiding wonderfully. Some paragraphs are written in first person, while others are written in second person.

The following example from “The Crush” demonstrates braiding:

Your hair is still wet when you slip into the booth across from me and throw your wallet and glasses and phone on the table, and I marvel at how everything about you is streamlined, compact, organized. I am always overflowing — flesh and wants and a purse stuffed with snacks and toy soldiers and tissues.

The author threads these narratives together by having both people interact in a diner, yet the reader still perceives a distance between the two threads because of the separation of “I” and “you” pronouns. When these threads meet, briefly, we know they will never meet again.

Speaking of insight, creative nonfiction writers must draw novel conclusions from the stories they write. When the narrator pauses in the story to delve into their emotions, explain complex ideas, or draw strength and meaning from tough situations, they’re finding insight in the essay.

Often, creative writers experience insight as they write it, drawing conclusions they hadn’t yet considered as they tell their story, which makes creative nonfiction much more genuine and raw.

The story “ Me Llamo Theresa ” by Theresa Okokun does a fantastic job of finding insight. The story is about the history of our own names and the generations that stand before them, and as the writer explores her disconnect with her own name, she recognizes a similar disconnect in her mother, as well as the need to connect with her name because of her father.

The narrator offers insight when she remarks:

I began to experience a particular type of identity crisis that so many immigrants and children of immigrants go through — where we are called one name at school or at work, but another name at home, and in our hearts.

How to Write Creative Nonfiction: the 5 R’s

CNF pioneer Lee Gutkind developed a very system called the “5 R’s” of creative nonfiction writing. Together, the 5 R’s form a general framework for any creative writing project. They are:

• Write about r eal life: Creative nonfiction tackles real people, events, and places—things that actually happened or are happening.
• Conduct extensive r esearch: Learn as much as you can about your subject matter, to deepen and enrich your ability to relay the subject matter. (Are you writing about your tenth birthday? What were the newspaper headlines that day?)
• (W) r ite a narrative: Use storytelling elements originally from fiction, such as Freytag’s Pyramid , to structure your CNF piece’s narrative as a story with literary impact rather than just a recounting.
• Include personal r eflection: Share your unique voice and perspective on the narrative you are retelling.
• Learn by r eading: The best way to learn to write creative nonfiction well is to read it being written well. Read as much CNF as you can, and observe closely how the author’s choices impact you as a reader.

You can read more about the 5 R’s in this helpful summary article .

How to Write Creative Nonfiction: Give it a Try!

Whatever form you choose, whatever story you tell, and whatever techniques you write with, the more important aspect of creative nonfiction is this: be honest. That may seem redundant, but often, writers mistakenly create narratives that aren’t true, or they use details and symbols that didn’t exist in the story. Trust us – real life is best read when it’s honest, and readers can tell when details in the story feel fabricated or inflated. Write with honesty, and the right words will follow!

Ready to start writing your creative nonfiction piece? If you need extra guidance or want to write alongside our community, take a look at the upcoming nonfiction classes at Writers.com. Now, go and write the next bestselling memoir!

Sean Glatch

Thank you so much for including these samples from Hippocampus Magazine essays/contributors; it was so wonderful to see these pieces reflected on from the craft perspective! – Donna from Hippocampus

Absolutely, Donna! I’m a longtime fan of Hippocampus and am always astounded by the writing you publish. We’re always happy to showcase stunning work 🙂

I like how it is written about him”…When he’s not writing, which is often, he thinks he should be writing.”

[…] Source: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/a-complete-guide-to-writing-creative-nonfiction#5-creative-nonfiction-writing-promptshttps://writers.com/what-is-creative-nonfiction […]

So impressive

Thank you. I’ve been researching a number of figures from the 1800’s and have come across a large number of ‘biographies’ of figures. These include quoted conversations which I knew to be figments of the author and yet some works are lauded as ‘histories’.

excellent guidelines inspiring me to write CNF thank you

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50 Creative Nonfiction Prompts Guaranteed to Inspire

But not to worry. I present one whole hefty list of prompts just for creative nonfiction writers.

One small note before you dive in: don’t be afraid to mix and match the prompts. Each suggestion was meant to highlight a specific line of inspiration. There is absolutely no reason that two or three of these can’t be explored within one piece.

In fact, just use my tiny suggestions as springboards. Good luck!

1. Explore a scene or story from your memory by reimagining it from an alternate perspective. Write the event from the point of view of a passing bystander, another person close to the event, a pet, or even an inanimate object. When choosing your narrator, pay attention to how objective they would have been, what they would have paid attention to, and what sort of background knowledge they would have had about the scene.

2. Tell the nonfiction story that you don’t want your mother to read. You know the one. Don’t censor yourself.

3. Recall a moment in which you felt a strong spiritual or unidentifiable energy. Describe the scene in vivid detail, with special attention to the senses. Connect that scene to your relationship with your own religious beliefs or lack thereof. Examine how you incorporated that experience into your worldview.

4. Create a timeline of events depicting your life by using newspaper headlines. Try to focus on events that didn’t involve you directly, but connect them to the pivotal events in your life.

5. Tell the story of one of your family holiday gatherings. Identify any of your family’s common trademarks, such as your one aunt that seems to tell the same joke at every Christmas, or your two uncles that always hide from the rest of the family by doing the dishes. Explore how you are linked within this family dynamic, and how these little quirks evolved and changed over the years.

6. Tell the story of a location. Possibly one that is very close to your heart that you already know well, or a new one that inspires your curiosity. Pay particular attention to your own connection to the location, however small or large that connection may be.

7. Choose a location that you’ve come to know as an adult. Compare how you interact with this setting now to how you interacted with similar settings when you were a child. How has your perspective changed?

8. Describe a time in which you expected or wanted to feel a religious or spiritual moment, but couldn’t. What were you hoping would happen? How do you choose to interpret that?

9. Recall a key lesson that parents or family members tried to impart onto you as a child. For example: “live with a healthy mind and healthy body,” or “put others before yourself.” Revisit that lesson as an adult and connect it to how you have come to interpret it as you grew up or in your adult life. Feel free to pick a less serious lesson and have a little bit of fun with it.

10. Revisit a special birthday from when you were younger. Describe specific details, with emphasis upon the senses. Now that you have years of context, how do you feel about what your parents and family did or did not do for you? What does that event mean to you now?

11. Choose an event in your life that someone else remembers differently. Describe both memories and debate the differences. Who do you think is right? Why do you think you remember it differently?

12. Choose a strong emotion and think of two memories associated with it. What are the links between those two memories?

13. Think of a lesson you learned recently and apply it to a memory. How would your behavior have changed if you had applied the lesson back then?

14. Choose a commonplace or otherwise unremarkable memory and describe it in the most dramatic and absurd way possible. For inspiration, I’m leaving you with some quotes from Douglas Adams. “The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.” “He leant tensely against the corridor wall and frowned like a man trying to unbend a corkscrew by telekinesis.” “It was a deep, hollow malevolent voice which sounded like molten tar glurping out of a drum with evil on its mind.”

15. Have you seen those bizarre Illuminati videos in which some automated voice tries to prove that Arch Duke Ferdinand is actually alive and has a monopoly on the world’s dairy farms? For this prompt, think of people in your life who have believed in crazy conspiracy theories, and write about the time they first shared them with you. Think of how your beliefs might seem naïve to them, and explore the tension between the competing versions of history.

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

16. What do you want more than anything in your life? Write about the burning hot core of your desire, and how that desire has changed over your life.

17. Recall what stressed you out most as a child. Was it the creaking stairs leading to the basement? Or being lost at the store? Explore your current relationship to that stressor. Did you ever move past that fear or anxiety? How do you interact with it now?

18. What relationship in your life has caused the most pain? Write the key scene in that relationship, when everything was at stake.

19. Write about a road trip you took, and about where all your fellow travelers ended up in life versus where you ended up. Are you glad you didn’t end up where they did, or are you jealous?

20. How has your identity changed over the course of your life? Write a scene from your teenage years that epitomizes the type of person you were, and then write a scene from recent life that shows how you’ve changed.

21. What event in your life has angered you the most? Write the scene where it happened, and tell us what you would do if it happened again.

22. What single experience most shaped who you are? Describe the experience in a single, vivid scene.

23. Who was your first friend to die? Write about how you learned of their death, and how you and their other friends mourned them.

24. Choose a happy or comfortable memory and write it in a way that makes the memory creepy or eerie to the reader. Don’t change the basic facts of the event, only select different facts and present them differently.

25. Show yourself in a scene pursuing the thing you want most in the world. Try to show the reader, without telling them, about your character flaws.

26. If you could throw five items into the fire, what would they be and why? To be clear, by throwing them in this fire, there would be no trace of them left anywhere, even if it’s something on the Internet or a memory. This is a very powerful fire. What would the consequences be?

27. What physical object or family heirloom ties together your grandparents, your parents, and yourself? Describe this object in great detail, and what it has meant to generations of your family.

This is seriously the best anthology out there for creative nonfiction.   

Lee Gutkind and Annie Dillard have created a fantastic repository of classics.

In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction

28. Tell a story from your life in inverted chronological order. Start with the end, then backpedal to the middle, then tell the beginning, and then fill in the rest of the gaps.

29. Write about your favorite trip or journey, and how that high level of happiness was eventually threatened.

30. Look at some photographs of your childhood. Look at the pictures of your old room, the clothes you wore, and the places you had been. Try to remember a friend from that time period, and describe the first memory of a time when they pressured you or made you uncomfortable or angry.

31. Take a small, boring moment that happened today and write as much as you can about it. Go overboard describing it, and make this boring moment exciting by describing it in intense detail with ecstatic prose. Eventually connect this small, boring detail with the grand narrative of your life, your bigger purpose and intentions.

32. Describe the best meal you ever ate. Then describe a conflict you had with the people you shared it with, one that happened before, during, or after.

33. Recall an individual that you particularly hated. Describe their cruelty to you, and try to write yourself into an understanding of why they might have done it.

34. What was the best/worst letter you ever received or wrote? Write about the situation surrounding that letter, and why it was so important.

35. Recall a name you’ve given to a toy, a car, a pet, or a child, and tell us the story of how you and your family selected that name. Who fought over the name? What was the significance of that name? What happened to the animal or thing you named?

36. Write about experiencing the craziest natural event you’ve ever seen — tornado, earthquake, tsunami, hurricane. Dramatize the physical danger of the natural event as well as the tension between you and the people you were with.

37. Tell the story of the most important person that has shaped your town and its culture (you might have to do some research). How did the activity of that person  influence the way you grew up or live currently?

How do you find good creative nonfiction stories?    

This book masterfully teaches you how to discover the stories others will want to hear.

Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life

38. Scientists have wondered for years how nature and nurture plays into the development of human minds and their choices. Explore where you and your siblings are today and the choices that brought you there. Would you like to trade places with your sibling? Would you be happy living in their shoes? How have your personal choices differed over the years?

39. Write a scene of a time when someone older than you gave you advice, and write about how you followed it or ignored it and the consequences.

40. Write a single, three-paragraph scene when your sexual desire was thwarted by yourself or someone else.

41. Describe a scene when you were stereotyping someone. Did someone challenge you, or if you only felt guilty by yourself, how did you change your behavior afterwards?

42. Describe the biggest epiphany of your life, then backtrack and tell the lead-up to that scene or the aftermath. In the lead-up or aftermath, show how the epiphany was either overrated or every bit as valuable as you’d previously thought.

43. Write about a fork in the road in your life, and how you made the decision to go the direction you did.

44. Explore an addiction you had or currently have. Whether the addiction is as serious as alcohol or cigarettes, or something much more mundane like texting, video games, or internet usage, describe in vivid detail the first time you tried it. If you quit, tell the story of how you quit.

45. Recall a scene in which you chose to remain silent. Whether it was your boss’s racist rant, or just an argument not worth having, explore the scene and why you chose not to speak.

46. Revisit a moment in your life that you feel you will never be able to forget. What about that moment made it so unforgettable?

47. What makes you feel guilty? Revisit a moment that you are ashamed of or feel guilty for and explore why that is. Describe the scene and the event and communicate why you feel this way.

48. Write about a moment in which you acted selflessly or against your own benefit. What motivated you to do so? What were the circumstances? How did you feel after words?

49. Write about the most pivotal scene in a relationship with someone in your extended family — Uncle, aunt, cousin, grandmother. Describe the tension or happiness you shared, and how that came to affect your relationship from that point onward.

50. If all else fails, try a writing-sprint. Set an alarm for 5, 10, or 15 minutes and write as much as possible within that time span. Even if you begin with no inspiration, you might be surprised with what you come up with by the end.

The definitive guide to creating riveting true life stories.     

Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction

For added pressure, try these writing websites:

• Write Or Die

If you stop writing for more than 5 seconds, everything you’ve written disappears. It’s like writing with someone with a whip behind your chair. But with this new update you can choose to get positive reinforcements, too, like a kitten or candy, or to have your words disemvoweled rather than disappear.

A points-based system to encourage writers to write 750 words every single day. You get bonus points for not skipping days, and bonus points for writing more than 750 words.

• Written? Kitten!

Every 100 words you write, you get shown a picture of a kitten. Ah, simple motivation. No word whether a dog version of the site is in the works for those who are more dog people.

For more on creative nonfiction writing, I suggest Creative Nonfiction . This website works with its print magazine counterpart to specifically cater to creative nonfiction writers and operates as an excellent starting point for more inspiration. Happy writing!

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Thank you for adding Written Kitten to the list, Bridget! We have bunnies and dogs now!

Thank you for this. Very helpful for a useless person like me

Stfu, you are amazing, and no one in this entire universe is useless, except for me, so love yourself.

This is super awesome & I am so happy to have some new ideas… creative block has been beyond bad. this is what I have needed to start unclogging it!

do you have topics i can write about

This is very helpful!

I am searching for non-fiction writing topics

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Last updated on Feb 20, 2023

Creative Nonfiction: How to Spin Facts into Narrative Gold

About the author.

Reedsy's editorial team is a diverse group of industry experts devoted to helping authors write and publish beautiful books.

About Savannah Cordova

Savannah is a senior editor with Reedsy and a published writer whose work has appeared on Slate, Kirkus, and BookTrib. Her short fiction has appeared in the Owl Canyon Press anthology, "No Bars and a Dead Battery". 

About Rebecca van Laer

Rebecca van Laer is a writer, editor, and the author of two books, including the novella How to Adjust to the Dark. Her work has been featured in literary magazines such as AGNI, Breadcrumbs, and TriQuarterly.

Creative nonfiction is a genre of creative writing that approaches factual information in a literary way. This type of writing applies techniques drawn from literary fiction and poetry to material that might be at home in a magazine or textbook, combining the craftsmanship of a novel with the rigor of journalism. 

Here are some popular examples of creative nonfiction:

• The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang
• Intimations by Zadie Smith
• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar
• I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

Creative nonfiction is not limited to novel-length writing, of course. Popular radio shows and podcasts like WBEZ’s This American Life or Sarah Koenig’s Serial also explore audio essays and documentary with a narrative approach, while personal essays like Nora Ephron’s A Few Words About Breasts and Mariama Lockington’s What A Black Woman Wishes Her Adoptive White Parents Knew also present fact with fiction-esque flair.

Writing short personal essays can be a great entry point to writing creative nonfiction. Think about a topic you would like to explore, perhaps borrowing from your own life, or a universal experience. Journal freely for five to ten minutes about the subject, and see what direction your creativity takes you in. These kinds of exercises will help you begin to approach reality in a more free flowing, literary way — a muscle you can use to build up to longer pieces of creative nonfiction.

If you think you’d like to bring your writerly prowess to nonfiction, here are our top tips for creating compelling creative nonfiction that’s as readable as a novel, but as illuminating as a scholarly article.

Write a memoir focused on a singular experience

Humans love reading about other people’s lives — like first-person memoirs, which allow you to get inside another person’s mind and learn from their wisdom. Unlike autobiographies, memoirs can focus on a single experience or theme instead of chronicling the writers’ life from birth onward.

For that reason, memoirs tend to focus on one core theme and—at least the best ones—present a clear narrative arc, like you would expect from a novel. This can be achieved by selecting a singular story from your life; a formative experience, or period of time, which is self-contained and can be marked by a beginning, a middle, and an end. 

When writing a memoir, you may also choose to share your experience in parallel with further research on this theme. By performing secondary research, you’re able to bring added weight to your anecdotal evidence, and demonstrate the ways your own experience is reflective (or perhaps unique from) the wider whole.

Example: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking , for example, interweaves the author’s experience of widowhood with sociological research on grief. Chronicling the year after her husband’s unexpected death, and the simultaneous health struggles of their daughter, The Year of Magical Thinking is a poignant personal story, layered with universal insight into what it means to lose someone you love. The result is the definitive exploration of bereavement — and a stellar example of creative nonfiction done well.

📚 Looking for more reading recommendations? Check out our list of the best memoirs of the last century .

Tip: What you cut out is just as important as what you keep

When writing a memoir that is focused around a singular theme, it’s important to be selective in what to include, and what to leave out. While broader details of your life may be helpful to provide context, remember to resist the impulse to include too much non-pertinent backstory. By only including what is most relevant, you are able to provide a more focused reader experience, and won’t leave readers guessing what the significance of certain non-essential anecdotes will be.

💡 For more memoir-planning tips, head over to our post on outlining memoirs .

Of course, writing a memoir isn’t the only form of creative nonfiction that lets you tap into your personal life — especially if there’s something more explicit you want to say about the world at large… which brings us onto our next section.

Pen a personal essay that has something bigger to say

Personal essays condense the first-person focus and intimacy of a memoir into a tighter package — tunneling down into a specific aspect of a theme or narrative strand within the author’s personal experience.

Often involving some element of journalistic research, personal essays can provide examples or relevant information that comes from outside the writer’s own experience. This can take the form of other people’s voices quoted in the essay, or facts and stats. By combining lived experiences with external material, personal essay writers can reach toward a bigger message, telling readers something about human behavior or society instead of just letting them know the writer better.

Example: The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison

Leslie Jamison's widely acclaimed collection The Empathy Exams  tackles big questions (Why is pain so often performed? Can empathy be “bad”?) by grounding them in the personal. While Jamison draws from her own experiences, both as a medical actor who was paid to imitate pain, and as a sufferer of her own ailments, she also reaches broader points about the world we live in within each of her essays.

Whether she’s talking about the justice system or reality TV, Jamison writes with both vulnerability and poise, using her lived experience as a jumping-off point for exploring the nature of empathy itself.

Tip: Try to show change in how you feel about something

Including external perspectives, as we’ve just discussed above, will help shape your essay, making it meaningful to other people and giving your narrative an arc. 

Ultimately, you may be writing about yourself, but readers can read what they want into it. In a personal narrative, they’re looking for interesting insights or realizations they can apply to their own understanding of their lives or the world — so don’t lose sight of that. As the subject of the essay, you are not so much the topic as the vehicle for furthering a conversation.

Often, there are three clear stages in an essay:

• Initial state 
• Encounter with something external
• New, changed state, and conclusions

By bringing readers through this journey with you, you can guide them to new outlooks and demonstrate how your story is still relevant to them.

Had enough of writing about your own life? Let’s look at a form of creative nonfiction that allows you to get outside of yourself.

Tell a factual story as though it were a novel

The form of creative nonfiction that is perhaps closest to conventional nonfiction is literary journalism. Here, the stories are all fact, but they are presented with a creative flourish. While the stories being told might comfortably inhabit a newspaper or history book, they are presented with a sense of literary significance, and writers can make use of literary techniques and character-driven storytelling.

Unlike news reporters, literary journalists can make room for their own perspectives: immersing themselves in the very action they recount. Think of them as both characters and narrators — but every word they write is true. 

If you think literary journalism is up your street, think about the kinds of stories that capture your imagination the most, and what those stories have in common. Are they, at their core, character studies? Parables? An invitation to a new subculture you have never before experienced? Whatever piques your interest, immerse yourself.

Example: The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

If you’re looking for an example of literary journalism that tells a great story, look no further than Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World , which sits at the intersection of food writing and popular science. Though it purports to offer a “plant’s-eye view of the world,” it’s as much about human desires as it is about the natural world.

Through the history of four different plants and human’s efforts to cultivate them, Pollan uses first-hand research as well as archival facts to explore how we attempt to domesticate nature for our own pleasure, and how these efforts can even have devastating consequences. Pollan is himself a character in the story, and makes what could be a remarkably dry topic accessible and engaging in the process.

Tip: Don’t pretend that you’re perfectly objective

You may have more room for your own perspective within literary journalism, but with this power comes great responsibility. Your responsibilities toward the reader remain the same as that of a journalist: you must, whenever possible, acknowledge your own biases or conflicts of interest, as well as any limitations on your research. 

Thankfully, the fact that literary journalism often involves a certain amount of immersion in the narrative — that is, the writer acknowledges their involvement in the process — you can touch on any potential biases explicitly, and make it clear that the story you’re telling, while true to what you experienced, is grounded in your own personal perspective.

Approach a famous name with a unique approach 

Biographies are the chronicle of a human life, from birth to the present or, sometimes, their demise. Often, fact is stranger than fiction, and there is no shortage of fascinating figures from history to discover. As such, a biographical approach to creative nonfiction will leave you spoilt for choice in terms of subject matter.

Because they’re not written by the subjects themselves (as memoirs are), biographical nonfiction requires careful research. If you plan to write one, do everything in your power to verify historical facts, and interview the subject’s family, friends, and acquaintances when possible. Despite the necessity for candor, you’re still welcome to approach biography in a literary way — a great creative biography is both truthful and beautifully written.

Example: American Prometheus  by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

Alongside the need for you to present the truth is a duty to interpret that evidence with imagination, and present it in the form of a story. Demonstrating a novelist’s skill for plot and characterization, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s American Prometheus is a great example of creative nonfiction that develops a character right in front of the readers’ eyes .

American Prometheus follows J. Robert Oppenheimer from his bashful childhood to his role as the father of the atomic bomb, all the way to his later attempts to reckon with his violent legacy.

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The biography tells a story that would fit comfortably in the pages of a tragic novel, but is grounded in historical research. Clocking in at a hefty 721 pages, American Prometheus distills an enormous volume of archival material, including letters, FBI files, and interviews into a remarkably readable volume. 

📚 For more examples of world-widening, eye-opening biographies, check out our list of the 30 best biographies of all time.

Tip: The good stuff lies in the mundane details

Biographers are expected to undertake academic-grade research before they put pen to paper. You will, of course, read any existing biographies on the person you’re writing about, and visit any archives containing relevant material. If you’re lucky, there’ll be people you can interview who knew your subject personally — but even if there aren’t, what’s going to make your biography stand out is paying attention to details, even if they seem mundane at first.

Of course, no one cares which brand of slippers a former US President wore — gossip is not what we’re talking about. But if you discover that they took a long, silent walk every single morning, that’s a granular detail you could include to give your readers a sense of the weight they carried every day. These smaller details add up to a realistic portrait of a living, breathing human being.

But creative nonfiction isn’t just writing about yourself or other people. Writing about art is also an art, as we’ll see below.

Put your favorite writers through the wringer with literary criticism

Literary criticism is often associated with dull, jargon-laden college dissertations — but it can be a wonderfully rewarding form that blurs the lines between academia and literature itself. When tackled by a deft writer, a literary critique can be just as engrossing as the books it analyzes.

Many of the sharpest literary critics are also poets, poetry editors , novelists, or short story writers, with first-hand awareness of literary techniques and the ability to express their insights with elegance and flair. Though literary criticism sounds highly theoretical, it can be profoundly intimate: you’re invited to share in someone’s experience as a reader or writer — just about the most private experience there is.

Example: The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar

Take The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, a seminal work approaching Victorian literature from a feminist perspective. Written as a conversation between two friends and academics, this brilliant book reads like an intellectual brainstorming session in a casual dining venue. Highly original, accessible, and not suffering from the morose gravitas academia is often associated with, this text is a fantastic example of creative nonfiction.

Tip: Remember to make your critiques creative

Literary criticism may be a serious undertaking, but unless you’re trying to pitch an academic journal, you’ll need to be mindful of academic jargon and convoluted sentence structure. Don’t forget that the point of popular literary criticism is to make ideas accessible to readers who aren’t necessarily academics, introducing them to new ways of looking at anything they read. 

If you’re not feeling confident, a professional nonfiction editor could help you confirm you’ve hit the right stylistic balance .

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Is creative nonfiction looking a little bit clearer now? You can try your hand at the genre , or head to the next post in this guide and discover online classes where you can hone your skills at creative writing.

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The 5 Rs of Creative Nonfiction

What's the Story #06

“The Essayist at Work” is our first special issue. The cover is different, and although it is our habit to center each issue around a general theme, the essays and profiles in “The Essayist at Work” are narrower in scope. In the future, we intend to publish special issues on a variety of topics, but this one is especially important, not only because it is our first, but also because it helps to launch the first Mid-Atlantic Creative Nonfiction Summer Writers’ Conference with the Goucher College Center for Graduate and Continuing Studies in Baltimore, Md., a supportive and enthusiastic summer partner. Many writers featured in “The Essayist at Work” will also be participating at the conference – an event we hope to continue to co-sponsor with Goucher for years to come.

The writers in this issue represent the incredible range of the newly emerging genre of creative nonfiction, from the struggle and success stories of Darcy Frey (“The Last Shot”) and William Least Heat-Moon (“Blue Highways”) to the master of the profession, John McPhee. From the roots of traditional journalism to poetry and fiction, Pulitzer Prize-winner Alice Steinbach, poet Diane Ackerman and novelists Phillip Lopate and Paul West, have helped expand the boundaries of form and tradition. Jane Bernstein, Steven Harvey, Mary Paumier Jones, Wendy Lesser and Natalia Rachel Singer ponder the spirit of the essay (and e-mail!), while I continue to reflect on and define the creative nonfiction form.

From the beginning, it has been our mission to probe the depths and intricacies of nonfiction by publishing the best prose by new and established writers. Creative Nonfiction provides a forum for writers, editors and readers interested in pushing the envelope of creativity and discussing and defining the parameters of accuracy, validity and truth. My essay below, “The 5 Rs of Creative Nonfiction,” is dedicated to that mission. It will appear in “More than the Truth: Teaching Nonfiction Writing Through Journalism,” which will be published in the fall of 1996 by Heineman.

It is 3 a.m., and I am standing on a stool in the operating room at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, in scrubs, mask, cap and paper booties, peering over the hunched shoulders of four surgeons and a scrub nurse as a dying woman’s heart and lungs are being removed from her chest. This is a scene I have observed frequently since starting my work on a book about the world of organ transplantation, but it never fails to amaze and startle me: to look down into a gaping hole in a human being’s chest, which has been cracked open and emptied of all of its contents, watching the monitor and listening to the rhythmic sighing sounds of the ventilator, knowing that this woman is on the fragile cusp of life and death and that I am observing what might well be the final moments of her life.

Now the telephone rings; a nurse answers, listens for a moment and then hangs up. “On the roof,” she announces, meaning that the helicopter has set down on the hospital helipad and that a healthy set of organs, a heart and two lungs, en bloc, will soon be available to implant into this woman, whose immediate fate will be decided within the next few hours.

With a brisk nod, the lead surgeon, Bartley Griffith, a young man who pioneered heart-lung transplantation and who at this point has lost more patients with the procedure than he had saved, looks up, glances around and finally rests his eyes on me: “Lee,” he says, “would you do me a great favor?”

I was surprised. Over the past three years I had observed Bart Griffith in the operating room a number of times, and although a great deal of conversation takes place between doctors and nurses during the long and intense surgical ordeal, he had only infrequently addressed me in such a direct and spontaneous manner.

Our personal distance is a by-product of my own technique as an immersion journalist – my “fly-on-the wall” or “living room sofa” concept of “immersion”: Writers should be regular and silent observers, so much so that they are virtually unnoticed. Like walking through your living room dozens of times, but only paying attention to the sofa when suddenly you realize that it is missing. Researching a book about transplantation, “Many Sleepless Nights” (W.W. Norton), I had been accorded great access to the O.R., the transplant wards, ethics debates and the most intimate conversations between patients, family members and medical staff. I had jetted through the night on organ donor runs. I had witnessed great drama – at a personal distance.

But on that important early morning, Bartley Griffith took note of my presence and requested that I perform a service for him. He explained that this was going to be a crucial time in the heart-lung procedure, which had been going on for about five hours, but that he felt obligated to make contact with this woman’s husband who had traveled here from Kansas City, Mo. “I can’t take the time to talk to the man myself, but I am wondering if you would brief him as to what has happened so far. Tell him that the organs have arrived, but that even if all goes well, the procedure will take at least another five hours and maybe longer.” Griffith didn’t need to mention that the most challenging aspect of the surgery – the implantation – was upcoming; the danger to the woman was at a heightened state.

A few minutes later, on my way to the ICU waiting area where I would find Dave Fulk, the woman’s husband, I stopped in the surgeon’s lounge for a quick cup of coffee and a moment to think about how I might approach this man, undoubtedly nervous – perhaps even hysterical – waiting for news of his wife. I also felt kind of relieved, truthfully, to be out of the O.R,, where the atmosphere is so intense.

Although I had been totally caught-up in the drama of organ transplantation during my research, I had recently been losing my passion and curiosity; I was slipping into a life and death overload in which all of the sad stories from people all across the world seemed to be congealing into the same muddled dream. From experience, I recognized this feeling – a clear signal that it was time to abandon the research phase of this book and sit down and start to write. Yet, as a writer, I was confronting a serious and frightening problem: Overwhelmed with facts and statistics, tragic and triumphant stories, I felt confused. I knew, basically, what I wanted to say about what I learned, but I didn’t know how to structure my message or where to begin.

And so, instead of walking away from this research experience and sitting down and starting to write my book, I continued to return to the scene of my transplant adventures waiting for lightning to strike . . . inspiration for when the very special way to start my book would make itself known. In retrospect, I believe that Bart Griffith’s rare request triggered that magic moment of clarity I had long been awaiting.

Defining the Discussion

Before I tell you what happened, however, let me explain what kind of work I do as an immersion journalist/creative nonfiction writer, and explain what I am doing, from a writer’s point-of-view, in this essay.

But first some definitions: “Immersion journalists” immerse or involve themselves in the lives of the people about whom they are writing in ways that will provide readers with a rare and special intimacy.

The other phrase to define, a much broader term, creative nonfiction, is a concept that offers great flexibility and freedom, while adhering to the basic tenets of nonfiction writing and/or reporting. In creative nonfiction, writers can be poetic and journalistic simultaneously. Creative nonfiction writers are encouraged to utilize fictional (literary) techniques in their prose – from scene to dialogue to description to point-of-view – and be cinematic at the same time. Creative nonfiction writers write about themselves and/or capture real people and real life in ways that can and have changed the world. What is most important and enjoyable about creative nonfiction is that it not only allows, but encourages the writer to become a part of the story or essay being written. The personal involvement creates a special magic that alleviates the suffering and anxiety of the writing experience; it provides many outlets for satisfaction and self-discovery, flexibility and freedom.

When I refer to creative nonfiction, I include memoir (autobiography), and documentary drama, a term more often used in relation to film, as in “Hoop Dreams,” which captures the lives of two inner-city high school basketball players over a six-year period. Much of what is generically referred to as “literary journalism” or in the past, “new journalism,” can be classified as creative nonfiction. Although it is the current vogue in the world of writing today, the combination of creative nonfiction as a form of writing and immersion as a method of research has a long history. George Orwell’s famous essay, “Shooting an Elephant” combines personal experience and high quality literary writing techniques. The Daniel DeFoe classic, “Robinson Crusoe,” is based upon a true story of a physician who was marooned on a desert island. Ernest Hemingway’s paean to bullfighting, “Death in the Afternoon,” comes under the creative nonfiction umbrella, as does Tom Wolfe’s, “The Right Stuff,” which was made into an award-winning film. Other well-known creative nonfiction writers, who may utilize immersion techniques include John McPhee (“Coming Into the Country”), Tracy Kidder (“House”), Diane Ackerman (“A Natural History of the Senses”) and Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard (“Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”), to name only a few of the many authors who have contributed to this burgeoning genre.

Currently, many of our best magazines – The New Yorker, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, Esquire – publish more creative nonfiction than fiction and poetry combined. Universities offer Master of Fine Arts degrees in creative nonfiction. Newspapers are publishing an increasing amount of creative nonfiction, not only as features, but in the news and op-ed pages, as well.

Reading, ‘Riting, ‘Rithmitic – the 3Rs – was the way in which basic public school education was once described. The “5 Rs” is an easy way to remember the basic tenets of creative nonfiction/immersion journalism.

The first “R” has already been explained and discussed: the “immersion” or “real life” aspect of the writing experience. As a writing teacher, I design assignments that have a real-life aspect: I force my students out into their communities for an hour, a day, or even a week so that they see and understand that the foundation of good writing emerges from personal experience. Some writers (and students) may utilize their own personal experience rather than immersing themselves in the experiences of others. In a recent introductory class I taught, one young man working his way through school as a sales person wrote about selling shoes, while another student, who served as a volunteer in a hospice, captured a dramatic moment of death, grief and family relief. I’ve sent my students to police stations, bagel shops, golf courses; together, my classes have gone on excursions and participated in public service projects – all in an attempt to experience or re-create from personal experience real life.

In contrast to the term “reportage,” the word “essay” usually connotes a more personal message from writer to reader. “An essay is when I write what I think about something,” students will often say to me. Which is true, to a certain extent – and also the source of the meaning of the second “R” for “reflection.” A writer’s feelings and responses about a subject are permitted and encouraged, as long as what they think is written to embrace the reader in a variety of ways. As editor of Creative Nonfiction, I receive approximately 150 unsolicited essays, book excerpts and profiles a month for possible publication. Of the many reasons the vast majority of these submissions are rejected, two are most prevalent, the first being an overwhelming egocentrism; in other words, writers write too much about themselves without seeking a universal focus or umbrella so that readers are properly and firmly engaged. Essays that are so personal that they omit the reader are essays that will never see the light of print. The overall objective of the personal essayist is to make the reader tune in – not out.

The second reason Creative Nonfiction and most other journals and magazines reject essays is a lack of attention to the mission of the genre, which is to gather and present information, to teach readers about a person, place, idea or situation combining the creativity of the artistic experience with the essential third “R” in the formula: “Research.”

Even the most personal essay is usually full of substantive detail about a subject that affects or concerns a writer and the people about whom he or she is writing. Read the books and essays of the most renowned nonfiction writers in this century and you will read about a writer engaged in a quest for information and discovery. From George Orwell to Ernest Hemingway to John McPhee, books and essays written by these writers are invariably about a subject other than themselves, although the narrator will be intimately included in the story. Personal experience and spontaneous intellectual discourse – an airing and exploration of ideas – are equally vital. In her first book, “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” which won the Pulitzer Prize, and in her other books and essays, Annie Dillard repeatedly overwhelms her readers with factual information, minutely detailed descriptions of insects, botany and biology, history, anthropology, blended with her own feelings about life.

One of my favorite Dillard essays, “Schedules,” focuses upon the importance of writers working on a regular schedule rather than writing only intermittently. In “Schedules,” she discusses, among many other subjects, Hasidism, chess, baseball, warblers, pine trees, june bugs, writers’ studios and potted plants – not to mention her own schedule and writing habits and that of Wallace Stevens and Jack London.

What I am saying is that the genre of creative nonfiction, although anchored in factual information, is open to anyone with a curious mind and a sense of self. The research phase actually launches and anchors the creative effort. Whether it is a book or essay I am planning, I always begin my quest in the library – for three reasons. First, I need to familiarize myself with the subject. If it is something about which I do not know, I want to make myself knowledgeable enough to ask intelligent questions. If I can’t display at least a minimal understanding of the subject about which I am writing, I will lose the confidence and the support of the people who must provide access to the experience.

Secondly, I will want to assess my competition. What other essays, books and articles have been written about this subject? Who are the experts, the pioneers, the most controversial figures? I want to find a new angle – not write a story similar to one that has already been written. And finally, how can I reflect and evaluate a person, subject or place unless I know all of the contrasting points-of-view? Reflection may permit a certain amount of speculation, but only when based upon a solid foundation of knowledge.

So far in this essay I have named a number of well-respected creative nonfiction writers and discussed their work, which means I have satisfied the fourth “R” in our “5R” formula: “Reading.” Not only must writers read the research material unearthed in the library, but they also must read the work of the masters of their profession. I have heard some very fine writers claim that they don’t read too much anymore – or that they don’t read for long periods, especially during the time they are laboring on a lengthy writing project. But almost all writers have read the best writers in their field and are able to converse in great detail about the stylistic approach and intellectual content. An artist who has never studied Picasso, Van Gogh, Michelangelo, even Warhol, is an artist who will quite possibly never succeed.

So far we have mostly discussed the nonfiction or journalistic aspects of the immersion journalism/creative nonfiction genre. The 5th “R” the “riting” part is the most artistic and romantic aspect of the total experience. After all of the preparatory (nonfiction) work is complete, writers will often “create” in two phases. Usually, there is an inspirational explosion, a time when writers allow instinct and feeling to guide their fingers as they create paragraphs, pages, and even entire chapters of books or complete essays. This is what art of any form is all about – the passion of the moment and the magic of the muse. I am not saying that this always happens; it doesn’t. Writing is a difficult labor, in which a regular schedule, a daily grind of struggle, is inevitable. But this first part of the experience for most writers is rather loose and spontaneous and therefore more “creative” and fun. The second part of the writing experience – the “craft” part, which comes into play after your basic essay is written – is equally important – and a hundred times more difficult.

Writing in Scenes

Vignettes, episodes, slices of reality are the building blocks of creative nonfiction – the primary distinguishing factor between traditional reportage/journalism and “literary” and/or creative nonfiction and between good, evocative writing and ordinary prose. The uninspired writer will tell the reader about a subject, place or personality, but the creative nonfiction writer will show that subject, place or personality in action. Before we discuss the actual content or construction of a scene, let me suggest that you perform what I like to call the “yellow test.”

Take a yellow “Hi-Liter” or Magic Marker and leaf through your favorite magazines – Vanity Fair, Esquire, The New Yorker or Creative Nonfiction. Or return to favorite chapters in previously mentioned books by Dillard, Ackerman, etc. Yellow-in the scenes, just the scenes, large and small. Then return to the beginning and review your handiwork. Chances are, anywhere from 50 to 80 percent of each essay, short story, novel selected will be yellow. Plays are obviously constructed with scenes, as are films. Most poems are very scenic.

Jeanne Marie Laskas, the talented columnist for the Washington Post Magazine, once told me: “I only have one rule from start to finish. I write in scenes. It doesn’t matter to me in which order the scenes are written; I write whichever scene inspires me at any given time, and I worry about the plot or frame or narrative later. The scene – a scene – any scene – is always first.”

The Elements of a Scene

First and foremost, a scene contains action. Something happens. I jump on my motorcycle and go helter-skelter around the country; suddenly, in the middle of July in Yellowstone National Park I am confronted with 20 inches of snow. Action needn’t be wild, sexy and death-defying, however. There’s also action in the classroom. A student asks a question, which requires an answer, which necessitates a dialogue, which is a marvelously effective tool to trigger or record action. Dialogue represents people saying things to one another, expressing themselves. It is a valuable scenic building block. Discovering dialogue is one of the reasons to immerse ourselves at a police station, bagel shop or at a zoo. To discover what people have to say spontaneously – and not in response to a reporter’s prepared questions.

Another vehicle or technique of the creative nonfiction experience may be described as “intimate and specific detail.” Through use of intimate detail, we can hear and see how the people about whom we are writing say what is on their minds; we may note the inflections in their voices, their elaborate hand movements and any other eccentricities. “Intimate” is a key distinction in the use of detail when crafting good scenes. Intimate means recording and noting detail that the reader might not know or even imagine without your particular inside insight. Sometimes intimate detail can be so specific and special that it becomes unforgettable in the reader’s mind. A very famous “intimate” detail appears in a classic creative nonfiction profile, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” written by Gay Talese in 1962 and published in Esquire Magazine.

In this profile, Talese leads readers on a whirlwind cross country tour, revealing Sinatra and his entourage interacting with one another and with the rest of the world and demonstrating how the Sinatra world and the world inhabited by everyone else will often collide. These scenes are action-oriented; they contain dialogue and evocative description with great specificity and intimacy such as the gray-haired lady spotted in the shadows of the Sinatra entourage – the guardian of Sinatra’s collection of toupees. This tiny detail – Sinatra’s wig lady – loomed so large in my mind when I first read the essay that even now, 35 years later, anytime I see Sinatra on TV or spot his photo in a magazine, I find myself unconsciously searching the background for the gray-haired lady with the hatbox.

The Narrative – or Frame

The frame represents a way of ordering or controlling a writer’s narrative so that the elements of his book, article or essay are presented in an interesting and orderly fashion with an interlaced integrity from beginning to end.

Some frames are very complicated, as in the movie, “Pulp Fiction”; Quentin Tarantino skillfully tangles and manipulates time. But the most basic frame is a simple beginning-to-end chronology. “Hoop Dreams,” for example, the dramatic documentary (which is also classic creative nonfiction) begins with two African-American teen-age basketball stars living in a ghetto and sharing a dream of stardom in the NBA and dramatically tracks both of their careers over the next six years.

As demonstrated in “Pulp Fiction,” writers don’t always frame in a strictly chronological sequence. My book, “One Children’s Place,” begins in the operating room at a children’s hospital. It introduces a surgeon, whose name is Marc Rowe, his severely handicapped patient, Danielle, and her mother, Debbie, who has dedicated her every waking moment to Danielle. Two years of her life have been spent inside the walls of this building with parents and children from all across the world whose lives are too endangered to leave the confines of the hospital. As Danielle’s surgery goes forward, the reader tours the hospital in a very intimate way, observing in the emergency room, participating in helicopter rescue missions as part of the emergency trauma team, attending ethics meetings, well-baby clinics, child abuse examinations – every conceivable activity at a typical high-acuity children’s hospital so that readers will learn from the inside out how such an institution and the people it services and supports function on an hour-by-hour basis. We even learn about Marc Rowe’s guilty conscience about how he has slighted his own wife and children over the years so that he can care for other families.

The book ends when Danielle is released from the hospital. It took two years to research and write this book, returning day and night to the hospital in order to understand the hospital and the people who made it special, but the story in which it is framed begins and ends in a few months.

Back to the Beginning – That Rare and Wonderful Moment of Clarity

Now let’s think about this essay as a piece of creative nonfiction writing, especially in relation to the concept of framing. It begins with a scene. We are in an operating room at the University of Pittsburgh, the world’s largest organ transplant center, in the middle of a rare and delicate surgery that will decide a dying woman’s fate. Her heart and both lungs have been emptied out of her chest and she is maintained on a heart-bypass system. The telephone alerts the surgical team that a fresh and potentially lifesaving set of organs has arrived at the hospital via helicopter. Suddenly the lead surgeon looks up and asks an observer (me) to make contact with the woman’s husband. I agree, leave the operating room and then stop for a coffee in the surgeon’s lounge.

Then, instead of moving the story forward, fulfilling my promise to Dr. Griffith and resolving my own writing dilemma, I change directions, move backwards (flashback) in time and sequence and begin to discuss this genre – immersion journalism/creative nonfiction. I provide a mountain of information – definitions, descriptions, examples, explanations. Basically, I am attempting to satisfy the nonfiction part of my responsibility to my readers and my editors while hoping that the suspense created in the first few pages will provide an added inducement for readers to remain focused and interested in this Introduction from the beginning to the end where, (the reader assumes) the two stories introduced in the first few pages will be completed.

In fact, my meeting with Dave Fulk in the ICU waiting room that dark morning was exactly the experience I had been waiting for, leading to that precious and magic moment of clarity for which I was searching and hoping. When I arrived, Mr. Fulk was talking with an elderly man and woman from Sacramento, Calif., who happened to be the parents of a 21-year-old U.S. Army private named Rebecca Treat who, I soon discovered, was the recipient of the liver from the same donor who gave Dave’s wife (Winkle Fulk) a heart and lungs. Rebecca Treat, “life-flighted” to Pittsburgh from California, had been in a coma for 10 days by the time she arrived in Pittsburgh; the transplanted liver was her only hope of ever emerging from that coma and seeing the light of day.

Over the next half-hour of conversation, I learned that Winkle Fulk had been slowly dying for four years, had been bedbound for three of those years, as Dave and their children watched her life dwindle away, as fluid filled her lungs and began to destroy her heart. Rebecca’s fate had been much more sudden; having contracted hepatitis in the army, she crashed almost immediately. To make matters worse, Rebecca and her new husband had separated. As I sat in the darkened waiting area with Dave Fulk and Rebecca’s parents, I suddenly realized what it was I was looking for, what my frame or narrative element could be. I wanted to tell about the organ transplant experience – and what organ transplantation can mean from a universal perspective – medically, scientifically, personally for patients, families and surgeons. Rebecca’s parents and the Fulk family, once strangers, would now be permanently and intimately connected by still another stranger – the donor – the person whose tragic death provided hope and perhaps salvation to two dying people. In fact, my last quest in the research phase of the transplant book experience was to discover the identity of this mysterious donor and literally connect the principal characters. In so doing, the frame or narrative drive of the story emerged.

“Many Sleepless Nights” begins when 15-year-old Richie Becker, a healthy and handsome teen-ager from Charlotte, N.C., discovers that his father is going to sell the sports car that he had hoped would one day be his. In a spontaneous and thoughtless gesture of defiance, Richie, who had never been behind the wheel, secretly takes his father’s sports car on a joy ride. Three blocks from his home, he wraps the car around a tree and is subsequently declared brain dead at the local hospital. Devastated by the experience, but hoping for some positive outcome to such a senseless tragedy, Richie’s father, Dick, donates his son’s organs for transplantation.

Then the story flashes back a half century, detailing surgeons’ first attempts at transplantation and all of the experimentation and controversy leading up to the development and acceptance of transplant techniques. I introduce Winkle Fulk and Pvt. Rebecca Treat. Richie Becker’s liver is transplanted into Rebecca, while his heart and lungs are sewn into Mrs. Fulk by Dr. Bartley Griffith. The last scene of the book 370 pages later is dramatic and telling and finishes the frame three years later when Winkle Fulk travels to Charlotte, N.C., a reunion I arranged to allow the folks to personally thank Richie’s father for his son’s gift of life.

At the end of the evening, just as we were about to say goodbye and return to the motel, Dick Becker stood up in the center of the living room of his house, paused, and then walked slowly and hesitantly over toward Winkle Fulk, who had once stood alone at the precipice of death. He eased himself down on his knees, took Winkle Fulk by the shoulder and simultaneously drew her closer, as he leaned forward and placed his ear gently but firmly between her breasts and then at her back.

Everyone in that room was suddenly and silently breathless, watching as Dick Becker listened for the last time to the absolutely astounding miracle of organ transplantation: the heart and the lungs of his dead son Richie, beating faithfully and unceasingly inside this stranger’s warm and loving chest.

100 Major Works of Modern Creative Nonfiction

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• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Essays , memoirs , autobiographies , biographies , travel writing , history, cultural studies, nature writing —all of these fit under the broad heading of creative nonfiction , and all are represented in this list of 100 major works of creative nonfiction published by British and American writers over the past 90 years or so. They're arranged alphabetically by author last name.

Recommended Creative Nonfiction

• Edward Abbey, "Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness" (1968)
• James Agee, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" (1941)
• Martin Amis, "Experience" (1995)
• Maya Angelou , "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1970)
• Russell Baker, "Growing Up" (1982)
• James Baldwin , "Notes of a Native Son" (1963)
• Julian Barnes, "Nothing to Be Frightened Of" (2008)
• Alan Bennett, "Untold Stories" (2005)
• Wendell Berry, "Recollected Essays" (1981)
• Bill Bryson, "Notes From a Small Island" (1995)
• Anthony Burgess, "Little Wilson and Big God: Being the First Part of the Confessions of Anthony Burgess" (1987)
• Joseph Campbell, "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" (1949)
• Truman Capote , "In Cold Blood" (1965)
• Rachel Carson, "Silent Spring" (1962)
• Pat Conroy, "The Water Is Wide" (1972)
• Harry Crews, "A Childhood: The Biography of a Place" (1978)
• Joan Didion, "We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction" (2006)
• Joan Didion, "The Year of Magical Thinking" (2005)
• Annie Dillard, "An American Childhood" (1987)
• Annie Dillard, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" (1974)
• Barbara Ehrenreich, "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" (2001)
• Gretel Ehrlich, "The Solace of Open Spaces" (1986)
• Loren Eiseley, "The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature" (1957)
• Ralph Ellison, "Shadow and Act" (1964)
• Nora Ephron, "Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women" (1975)
• Joseph Epstein, "Snobbery: The American Version" (2002)
• Richard P. Feynman, "The Feynman Lectures on Physics" (1964)
• Shelby Foote, "The Civil War: A Narrative" (1974)
• Ian Frazier, "Great Plains" (1989)
• Paul Fussell, "The Great War and Modern Memory" (1975)
• Stephen Jay Gould, "Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History" (1977)
• Robert Graves, "Good-Bye to All That" (1929)
• Alex Haley, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" (1965)
• Pete Hamill, "A Drinking Life: A Memoir" (1994)
• Ernest Hemingway , "A Moveable Feast" (1964)
• Michael Herr, "Dispatches" (1977)
• John Hersey, "Hiroshima" (1946)
• Laura Hillenbrand, "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" (2010)
• Edward Hoagland, "The Edward Hoagland Reader" (1979)
• Eric Hoffer, "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements" (1951)
• Richard Hofstadter, "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" (1963)
• Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston, "Farewell to Manzanar" (1973)
• Langston Hughes , "The Big Sea" (1940)
• Zora Neale Hurston , "Dust Tracks on a Road" (1942)
• Aldous Huxley, "Collected Essays" (1958)
• Clive James, "Reliable Essays: The Best of Clive James" (2001)
• Alfred Kazin, "A Walker in the City" (1951)
• Tracy Kidder, "House" (1985)
• Maxine Hong Kingston, "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Childhood Among Ghosts" (1989)
• Thomas Kuhn, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" (1962)
• William Least Heat-Moon, "Blue Highways: A Journey Into America" (1982)
• Bernard Levin, "Enthusiasms" (1983)
• Barry Lopez, "Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape" (1986)
• David McCullough, "Truman" (1992)
• Dwight Macdonald, "Against The American Grain: Essays on the Effects of Mass Culture" (1962)
• John McPhee, "Coming Into the Country" (1977)
• Rosemary Mahoney, "Whoredom in Kimmage: The Private Lives of Irish Women" (1993)
• Norman Mailer, "The Armies of the Night" (1968)
• Peter Matthiessen, "The Snow Leopard" (1979)
• H.L. Mencken, "A Mencken Chrestomathy: His Own Selection of His Choicest Writing" (1949)
• Joseph Mitchell, "Up in the Old Hotel and Other Stories" (1992)
• Jessica Mitford, "The American Way of Death" (1963)
• N. Scott Momaday, "Names" (1977)
• Lewis Mumford, "The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects" (1961)
• Vladimir Nabokov, "Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited" (1967)
• P.J. O'Rourke, "Parliament of Whores" (1991)
• Susan Orlean, "My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere" (2004)
• George Orwell , "Down and Out in Paris and London" (1933)
• George Orwell, "Essays" (2002)
• Cynthia Ozick, "Metaphor and Memory" (1989)
• Robert Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (1975)
• Richard Rodriguez, "Hunger of Memory" (1982)
• Lillian Ross, "Picture" (1952)
• David Sedaris, "Me Talk Pretty One Day" (2000)
• Richard Selzer, "Taking the World in for Repairs" (1986)
• Zadie Smith, "Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays" (2009)
• Susan Sontag, "Against Interpretation and Other Essays" (1966)
• John Steinbeck, "Travels with Charley" (1962)
• Studs Terkel, "Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression" (1970)
• Lewis Thomas, "The Lives of a Cell" (1974)
• E.P. Thompson, "The Making of the English Working Class" (1963; rev. 1968)
• Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream" (1971)
• James Thurber, "My Life and Hard Times" (1933)
• Lionel Trilling, "The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society" (1950)
• Barbara Tuchman, "The Guns of August" (1962)
• John Updike, "Self-Consciousness" (1989)
• Gore Vidal, "United States: Essays 1952–1992" (1993)
• Sarah Vowell, "The Wordy Shipmates" (2008)
• Alice Walker , "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose" (1983)
• David Foster Wallace, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments" (1997)
• James D. Watson, "The Double Helix" (1968)
• Eudora Welty, "One Writer's Beginnings" (1984)
• E.B. White , "Essays of E.B. White" (1977)
• E.B. White, "One Man's Meat" (1944)
• Isabel Wilkerson, "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration" (2010)
• Tom Wolfe, "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" (1968)
• Tom Wolfe, "The Right Stuff" (1979)
• Tobias Wolff, "This Boy's Life: A Memoir" (1989)
• Virginia Woolf , "A Room of One's Own" (1929)
• Richard Wright, "Black Boy" (1945)
• Stream of Consciousness Writing
• Creative Nonfiction
• Examples of Images in Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction
• Writers on Reading
• An Introduction to Literary Nonfiction
• Defining Nonfiction Writing
• What Is Literary Journalism?
• List (Grammar and Sentence Styles)
• A Look at the Roles Characters Play in Literature
• Point of View in Grammar and Composition
• Tips on Great Writing: Setting the Scene
• Using Flashback in Writing
• Genres in Literature
• Premise Definition and Examples in Arguments
• Definition and Examples of Formal Essays

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Creative Nonfiction: An Overview

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The Creative Nonfiction (CNF) genre can be rather elusive. It is focused on story, meaning it has a narrative plot with an inciting moment, rising action, climax and denoument, just like fiction. However, nonfiction only works if the story is based in truth, an accurate retelling of the author’s life experiences. The pieces can vary greatly in length, just as fiction can; anything from a book-length autobiography to a 500-word food blog post can fall within the genre.

Additionally, the genre borrows some aspects, in terms of voice, from poetry; poets generally look for truth and write about the realities they see. While there are many exceptions to this, such as the persona poem, the nonfiction genre depends on the writer’s ability to render their voice in a realistic fashion, just as poetry so often does. Writer Richard Terrill, in comparing the two forms, writes that the voice in creative nonfiction aims “to engage the empathy” of the reader; that, much like a poet, the writer uses “personal candor” to draw the reader in.

Creative Nonfiction encompasses many different forms of prose. As an emerging form, CNF is closely entwined with fiction. Many fiction writers make the cross-over to nonfiction occasionally, if only to write essays on the craft of fiction. This can be done fairly easily, since the ability to write good prose—beautiful description, realistic characters, musical sentences—is required in both genres.

So what, then, makes the literary nonfiction genre unique?

The first key element of nonfiction—perhaps the most crucial thing— is that the genre relies on the author’s ability to retell events that actually happened. The talented CNF writer will certainly use imagination and craft to relay what has happened and tell a story, but the story must be true. You may have heard the idiom that “truth is stranger than fiction;” this is an essential part of the genre. Events—coincidences, love stories, stories of loss—that may be expected or feel clichéd in fiction can be respected when they occur in real life .

A writer of Creative Nonfiction should always be on the lookout for material that can yield an essay; the world at-large is their subject matter. Additionally, because Creative Nonfiction is focused on reality, it relies on research to render events as accurately as possible. While it’s certainly true that fiction writers also research their subjects (especially in the case of historical fiction), CNF writers must be scrupulous in their attention to detail. Their work is somewhat akin to that of a journalist, and in fact, some journalism can fall under the umbrella of CNF as well. Writer Christopher Cokinos claims, “done correctly, lived well, delivered elegantly, such research uncovers not only facts of the world, but reveals and shapes the world of the writer” (93). In addition to traditional research methods, such as interviewing subjects or conducting database searches, he relays Kate Bernheimer’s claim that “A lifetime of reading is research:” any lived experience, even one that is read, can become material for the writer.

The other key element, the thing present in all successful nonfiction, is reflection. A person could have lived the most interesting life and had experiences completely unique to them, but without context—without reflection on how this life of experiences affected the writer—the reader is left with the feeling that the writer hasn’t learned anything, that the writer hasn’t grown. We need to see how the writer has grown because a large part of nonfiction’s appeal is the lessons it offers us, the models for ways of living: that the writer can survive a difficult or strange experience and learn from it. Sean Ironman writes that while “[r]eflection, or the second ‘I,’ is taught in every nonfiction course” (43), writers often find it incredibly hard to actually include reflection in their work. He expresses his frustration that “Students are stuck on the idea—an idea that’s not entirely wrong—that readers need to think” (43), that reflecting in their work would over-explain the ideas to the reader. Not so. Instead, reflection offers “the crucial scene of the writer writing the memoir” (44), of the present-day writer who is looking back on and retelling the past. In a moment of reflection, the author steps out of the story to show a different kind of scene, in which they are sitting at their computer or with their notebook in some quiet place, looking at where they are now, versus where they were then; thinking critically about what they’ve learned. This should ideally happen in small moments, maybe single sentences, interspersed throughout the piece. Without reflection, you have a collection of scenes open for interpretation—though they might add up to nothing.

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10 Great Creative Nonfiction Books

• April 2, 2015
• Staff Writer
• Reviews: Books, Movies, Short Stories

Tineke Bryson, Staff Writer

Last week Tineke addressed writing about our own life experiences, sharing 8 ways to do creative nonfiction well . But if you found yourself wondering what exactly creative nonfiction (CNF) is, and what sorts of books represent the genre, you are not unusual.

A film of panic clouds the eyes of the Half Price Books employee looking at me from across the trade-in counter.

“Memoirs, for example,” I offer.

“Do you mean biographies?”

“Sure,” I say. That’s not it at all , but I hope the biographies might be somewhere close to the CNF section—if it exists. When I eventually locate the small block of shelves allotted to CNF, I find them labeled as “Essays,” “Memoirs,” and “Letters.” Letters…charmingly old-fashioned. These are not letters as we think of them; they are not written to a person, but you could say they are written to humanity .

I get why CNF is not widely understood. But I am sad that so many people are never disabused of the grade-school notion that nonfiction is just history textbooks, science fact books, newspapers, and encyclopedias .

I want to challenge that idea.

Yet when I tell people that CNF is nonfiction that uses all the tools of fiction—extended metaphor, symbolism, plot structure, etc.—I always feel frustration . Because I know how easy it is to ask, “But don’t scholarly articles use metaphors?” or “Isn’t there a plot in a biography?”

Yes. And, yes.

Creative nonfiction as a genre label is easy to define but difficult to restrict . The definition in Wikipedia, for example, sounds simple enough:

Creative nonfiction (also known as literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction) is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as technical writing or journalism, which is also rooted in accurate fact, but is not primarily written in service to its craft. 

Yet when I try to put myself in the shoes of a journalist, I think I would take issue with defining journalism as rooted in fact but not written “in service to” craft . Great journalism can be creative, and is definitely a craft.

And then I wonder if it could be said that personal blog posts are all CNF. That doesn’t go down easily either. Blog posts are not technical writing or journalism, but so few blog posts are crafted . (Or is it just me?)

What I want to do is scream, “Just read some examples and you will see what I mean!”

So this post is a virtual scream. Not because I am angry; just because I would love to see more writers and readers give CNF a go, and I think reading classic examples is more helpful than a definition.

What follows is a list of 10 books I consider compelling examples of the power and range of CNF . I have only included books I have read, so it should go without saying—yet must be said—that this is not a list of the ten best CNF books. They are also not in a particular order.

I defy anyone to read An American Childhood and not catch curiosity fever. Her powers of observation of the natural world are wonderful . She is esteemed both as a memoirist and as a riveting nature writer.

Henri Nouwen, evangelicalism’s favorite Catholic (yes, I know about Tolkien), kept a journal during a six-month stay at a Trappist monastery in Western New York. The result is this quiet, but grounding spiritual travel log —Nouwen is physically restricted, but slowly journeying to a wide and open peace in his inner life.

It’s a strong example of editing and re-sequencing a private journal to present to others . It’s also interesting because it manages to avoid being a devotional book while exploring devotion .

A celebration of childhood, Dandelion Wine is delightful while also sometimes somber, and is a provocative read for writers trying to work out what the balance should be between fact and storytelling in their own nonfiction work.

I enjoy comparing and contrasting this book to Dillard’s.

This book is a meditation on the power of landscape and climate to shape culture and the soul , and is also a tribute to place . It is by turns poetic and informative—a great example of writing about place without primarily writing about the self. The non-chronological structure of the book is also interesting.

Apart from saving me a lot of time, studying it in three contexts underlined for me how complex a work of CNF can be— a frank, crafted account of the self can be read on many levels  and stand among the classics of literature.

I am so glad I got past the cover and gave this book a chance. Stunning prose. Heartfelt and moving wrestle with God. Just switch out the jacket!

To read a shorter specimen of his, I recommend The word-hoard: Robert Macfarlane on rewilding our language of landscape , ( The Guardian ).

I find it more relatable than Lewis’s CNF, perhaps because Vanauken’s writing voice is not quite so gruff and he is less private.

This book tells of his beginnings as a pilot, meditates on legendary pilot adventures, and also documents in whimsical but vivid terms his stint as a commercial pilot in the Sahara, including his survival of a crash landing in the desert. I find it especially compelling for its strange blend of colonial ethnocentrism and warm sympathy for individual Africans.

He began writing entries at age 20. The book is interspersed with haiku-style poems, and covers many topics. The guiding idea of Markings is his search for meaning in everything he encountered and experienced.

What are some CNF books you like? I would love to read your recommendations in the comments!

Tineke Bryson works for One Year Adventure Novel as a kind of jane-of-all-trades, but her favorites trade of the lot is editing. Previous to OYAN, she graduated from Houghton College with an Honors in Writing and then worked as an editor for a large para-church organization.

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Mr. S. Reviews “The Space Merchants” by Pohl and Kornbluth

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Kind of by accident, I stumbled into the travel writing section of the used bookstore several months ago and picked up /Notes from a Small Island/ by Bill Bryson, which I haven’t finished partly due to some crude language. But that got me interested in travel writing. I haven’t made much of it, being in college and all, but lots of these books look interesting.

Would you also consider nonfiction history books with conversational or narrative styles CNF? Your examples seem to be specifically rooted in one person’s experiences on some level. Books I’m thinking of in the history side are things like:

/Bomb: the Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon/ by Steve Sheinkin – extremely based in fact but written in a very compelling way with a good plot shaped from historical events.

/The Killer Angels/ by Michael Shaara or even Jeff Shaara’s many books. These tend towards more historical fiction, I think. They follow historical fact but give dialogue and even thoughts to historical characters.

I just started reading a book called /Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings/ by Amy Kelly, which is giving historical fact but also painting a vivid picture of the times.

I re-read your definition part and I’m beginning to think that no, you wouldn’t include books like these. They seem a bit caught in-between genres, which is interesting. Being passionate about history and all, I’d love to see more of them. 🙂

I have the disadvantage of not being familiar with any of the books you mention, although I know some of Bill Bryson’s stuff is in the CNF category. There are many nonfiction books so well crafted, and that use elements of storytelling to great effect, that it is difficult to place them. If we see them on a continuum, we can manage; but if we try to put them in different boxes, we run into trouble. From your descriptions, I think the *The Killer Angels* sounds like it could be CNF…maybe. The others sound more like really well-written historical books. Historians are awesome because the field demands that they write history in a compelling way in addition to being accurate—something we can’t say of all fields of study. For example, Simon Schama’s history of Britain is very well-written. But not CNF.

What do you think of The Waterfront by Danny R. Martineau Jr.; I believe it is an example of a CNF novel.

I haven’t read it, but based on the author info on Amazon, it does sound like CNF. It’s just unusual that it is marketed as a novel. Lots of CNF reads like a novel, but it isn’t usual to call it that. Interesting!

Great post Tineke! I agree with R.G. that Bill Bryson is a good example of a creative non-fiction author. A Walk in the Woods is a solid instance that meets the definition. Also, the work of A.J. Jacobs is creative non-fiction — first-person acts of experimentation. If you are interested, I am the author of a new creative non-fiction book. The Things I Learned in College tells the amusing and true story of a year that I spent exploring the eight Ivy League schools. The book will be released next month, but I would be delighted to share an advance copy with you.

Thank you! Both for the recommendations and your very kind offer. Congrats! I would be honored to receive a free advance copy, but I do want to clarify that we don’t typically offer reviews on this blog. So I would happily look at it, and perhaps review it on Amazon or Goodreads, etc., but I would not be able to offer something like that on this blog here. If you would still like to send it, use the press address: Clear Water Press, ATTN: Tineke Bryson, PO Box 62, Olathe, KS 66051. All the best!

Hi, Tineke. I hope you received the copy of The Things I Learned in College. Amazon and Goodreads are ready for your review if you choose to post one. Thank you for your consideration!

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A Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction

by Melissa Donovan | Mar 4, 2021 | Creative Writing | 12 comments

Try your hand at writing creative nonfiction.

Here at Writing Forward, we’re primarily interested in three types of creative writing: poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.

With poetry and fiction, there are techniques and best practices that we can use to inform and shape our writing, but there aren’t many rules beyond the standards of style, grammar, and good writing . We can let our imaginations run wild; everything from nonsense to outrageous fantasy is fair game for bringing our ideas to life when we’re writing fiction and poetry.

However, when writing creative nonfiction, there are some guidelines that we need to follow. These guidelines aren’t set in stone; however, if you violate them, you might find yourself in trouble with your readers as well as the critics.

What is Creative Nonfiction?

Telling True Stories (aff link).

What sets creative nonfiction apart from fiction or poetry?

For starters, creative nonfiction is factual. A memoir is not just any story; it’s a true story. A biography is the real account of someone’s life. There is no room in creative nonfiction for fabrication or manipulation of the facts.

So what makes creative nonfiction writing different from something like textbook writing or technical writing? What makes it creative?

Nonfiction writing that isn’t considered creative usually has business or academic applications. Such writing isn’t designed for entertainment or enjoyment. Its sole purpose is to convey information, usually in a dry, straightforward manner.

Creative nonfiction, on the other hand, pays credence to the craft of writing, often through literary devices and storytelling techniques, which make the prose aesthetically pleasing and bring layers of meaning to the context. It’s pleasurable to read.

According to Wikipedia:

Creative nonfiction (also known as literary or narrative nonfiction) is a genre of writing truth which uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as technical writing or journalism, which is also rooted in accurate fact, but is not primarily written in service to its craft.

Like other forms of nonfiction, creative nonfiction relies on research, facts, and credibility. While opinions may be interjected, and often the work depends on the author’s own memories (as is the case with memoirs and autobiographies), the material must be verifiable and accurately reported.

Creative Nonfiction Genres and Forms

There are many forms and genres within creative nonfiction:

• Autobiography and biography
• Personal essays
• Literary journalism
• Any topical material, such as food or travel writing, self-development, art, or history, can be creatively written with a literary angle

Let’s look more closely at a few of these nonfiction forms and genres:

Memoirs: A memoir is a long-form (book-length) written work. It is a firsthand, personal account that focuses on a specific experience or situation. One might write a memoir about serving in the military or struggling with loss. Memoirs are not life stories, but they do examine life through a particular lens. For example, a memoir about being a writer might begin in childhood, when the author first learned to write. However, the focus of the book would be on writing, so other aspects of the author’s life would be left out, for the most part.

Biographies and autobiographies: A biography is the true story of someone’s life. If an author composes their own biography, then it’s called an autobiography. These works tend to cover the entirety of a person’s life, albeit selectively.

Literary journalism: Journalism sticks with the facts while exploring the who, what, where, when, why, and how of a particular person, topic, or event. Biographies, for example, are a genre of literary journalism, which is a form of nonfiction writing. Traditional journalism is a method of information collection and organization. Literary journalism also conveys facts and information, but it honors the craft of writing by incorporating storytelling techniques and literary devices. Opinions are supposed to be absent in traditional journalism, but they are often found in literary journalism, which can be written in long or short formats.

Personal essays are a short form of creative nonfiction that can cover a wide range of styles, from writing about one’s experiences to expressing one’s personal opinions. They can address any topic imaginable. Personal essays can be found in many places, from magazines and literary journals to blogs and newspapers. They are often a short form of memoir writing.

Speeches  can cover a range of genres, from political to motivational to educational. A tributary speech honors someone whereas a roast ridicules them (in good humor). Unlike most other forms of writing, speeches are written to be performed rather than read.

Journaling: A common, accessible, and often personal form of creative nonfiction writing is journaling. A journal can also contain fiction and poetry, but most journals would be considered nonfiction. Some common types of written journals are diaries, gratitude journals, and career journals (or logs), but this is just a small sampling of journaling options.

Writing Creative Nonfiction (aff link).

Any topic or subject matter is fair game in the realm of creative nonfiction. Some nonfiction genres and topics that offer opportunities for creative nonfiction writing include food and travel writing, self-development, art and history, and health and fitness. It’s not so much the topic or subject matter that renders a written work as creative; it’s how it’s written — with due diligence to the craft of writing through application of language and literary devices.

Guidelines for Writing Creative Nonfiction

Here are six simple guidelines to follow when writing creative nonfiction:

• Get your facts straight. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing your own story or someone else’s. If readers, publishers, and the media find out you’ve taken liberties with the truth of what happened, you and your work will be scrutinized. Negative publicity might boost sales, but it will tarnish your reputation; you’ll lose credibility. If you can’t refrain from fabrication, then think about writing fiction instead of creative nonfiction.
• Issue a disclaimer. A lot of nonfiction is written from memory, and we all know that human memory is deeply flawed. It’s almost impossible to recall a conversation word for word. You might forget minor details, like the color of a dress or the make and model of a car. If you aren’t sure about the details but are determined to include them, be upfront and include a disclaimer that clarifies the creative liberties you’ve taken.
• Consider the repercussions. If you’re writing about other people (even if they are secondary figures), you might want to check with them before you publish your nonfiction. Some people are extremely private and don’t want any details of their lives published. Others might request that you leave certain things out, which they want to keep private. Otherwise, make sure you’ve weighed the repercussions of revealing other people’s lives to the world. Relationships have been both strengthened and destroyed as a result of authors publishing the details of other people’s lives.
• Be objective. You don’t need to be overly objective if you’re telling your own, personal story. However, nobody wants to read a highly biased biography. Book reviews for biographies are packed with harsh criticism for authors who didn’t fact-check or provide references and for those who leave out important information or pick and choose which details to include to make the subject look good or bad.
• Pay attention to language. You’re not writing a textbook, so make full use of language, literary devices, and storytelling techniques.
• Know your audience. Creative nonfiction sells, but you must have an interested audience. A memoir about an ordinary person’s first year of college isn’t especially interesting. Who’s going to read it? However, a memoir about someone with a learning disability navigating the first year of college is quite compelling, and there’s an identifiable audience for it. When writing creative nonfiction, a clearly defined audience is essential.

Are you looking for inspiration? Check out these creative nonfiction writing ideas.

Ten creative nonfiction writing prompts and projects.

The prompts below are excerpted from my book, 1200 Creative Writing Prompts , which contains fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction writing prompts. Use these prompts to spark a creative nonfiction writing session.

1200 Creative Writing Prompts (aff link).

• What is your favorite season? What do you like about it? Write a descriptive essay about it.
• What do you think the world of technology will look like in ten years? Twenty? What kind of computers, phones, and other devices will we use? Will technology improve travel? Health care? What do you expect will happen and what would you like to happen?
• Have you ever fixed something that was broken? Ever solved a computer problem on your own? Write an article about how to fix something or solve some problem.
• Have you ever had a run-in with the police? What happened?
• Have you ever traveled alone? Tell your story. Where did you go? Why? What happened?
• Let’s say you write a weekly advice column. Choose the topic you’d offer advice on, and then write one week’s column.
• Think of a major worldwide problem: for example, hunger, climate change, or political corruption. Write an article outlining a solution (or steps toward a solution).
• Choose a cause that you feel is worthy and write an article persuading others to join that cause.
• Someone you barely know asks you to recommend a book. What do you recommend and why?
• Hard skills are abilities you have acquired, such as using software, analyzing numbers, and cooking. Choose a hard skill you’ve mastered and write an article about how this skill is beneficial using your own life experiences as examples.

Do You Write Creative Nonfiction?

Have you ever written creative nonfiction? How often do you read it? Can you think of any nonfiction forms and genres that aren’t included here? Do you have any guidelines to add to this list? Are there any situations in which it would be acceptable to ignore these guidelines? Got any tips to add? Do you feel that nonfiction should focus on content and not on craft? Leave a comment to share your thoughts, and keep writing.

12 Comments

Shouldn’t ALL non-fiction be creative to some extent? I am a former business journalist, and won awards for the imaginative approach I took to writing about even the driest of business topics: pensions, venture capital, tax, employment law and other potentially dusty subjects. The drier and more complicated the topic, the more creative the approach must be, otherwise no-one with anything else to do will bother to wade through it. [to be honest, taking the fictional approach to these ghastly tortuous topics was the only way I could face writing about them.] I used all the techniques that fiction writers have to play with, and used some poetic techniques, too, to make the prose more readable. What won the first award was a little serial about two businesses run and owned by a large family at war with itself. Every episode centred on one or two common and crucial business issues, wrapped up in a comedy-drama, and it won a lot of fans (happily for me) because it was so much easier to read and understand than the dry technical writing they were used to. Life’s too short for dusty writing!

I believe most journalism is creative and would therefore fall under creative nonfiction. However, there is a lot of legal, technical, medical, science, and textbook writing in which there is no room for creativity (or creativity has not made its way into these genres yet). With some forms, it makes sense. I don’t think it would be appropriate for legal briefings to use story or literary devices just to add a little flair. On the other hand, it would be a good thing if textbooks were a little more readable.

I think Abbs is right – even in academic papers, an example or story helps the reader visualize the problem or explanation more easily. I scan business books to see if there are stories or examples, if not, then I don’t pick up the book. That’s where the creativity comes in – how to create examples, what to conflate, what to emphasis as we create our fictional people to illustrate important, real points.

Thanks for the post. Very helpful. I’d never thought about writing creative nonfiction before.

You’re welcome 🙂

Hi Melissa!

Love your website. You always give a fun and frank assessment of all things pertaining to writing. It is a pleasure to read. I have even bought several of the reference and writing books you recommended. Keep up the great work.

Top 10 Reasons Why Creative Nonfiction Is A Questionable Category

10. When you look up “Creative Nonfiction” in the dictionary it reads: See Fiction

9. The first creative nonfiction example was a Schwinn Bicycle Assembly Guide that had printed in its instructions: Can easily be assembled by one person with a Phillips head screw driver, Allen keys, adjustable wrench and cable cutters in less than an hour.

8. Creative Nonfiction; Based on actual events; Suggested by a true event; Based on a true story. It’s a slippery slope.

7. The Creative Nonfiction Quarterly is only read by eleven people. Five have the same last name.

6. Creative Nonfiction settings may only include: hospitals, concentration camps, prisons and cemeteries. Exceptions may be made for asylums, rehab centers and Capitol Hill.

5. The writers who create Sterile Nonfiction or Unimaginative Nonfiction now want their category recognized.

4. Creative; Poetic License; Embellishment; Puffery. See where this is leading?

3. Creative Nonfiction is to Nonfiction as Reality TV is to Documentaries.

2. My attorney has advised that I exercise my 5th Amendment Rights or that I be allowed to give written testimony in a creative nonfiction way.

1. People believe it is a film with Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson and Queen Latifa.

Hi Steve. I’m not sure if your comment is meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek, but I found it humorous.

My publisher is releasing my Creative Nonfiction book based on my grandmother’s life this May 2019 in Waikiki. I’ll give you an update soon about sales. I was fortunate enough to get some of the original and current Hawaii 5-0 members to show up for the book signing.

Hi, when writing creative nonfiction- is it appropriate to write from someone else’s point of view when you don’t know them? I was thinking of writing about Greta Thungbrurg for creative nonfiction competition – but I can directly ask her questions so I’m unsure as to whether it’s accurate enough to be classified as creative non-fiction. Thank you!

Hi Madeleine. I’m not aware of creative nonfiction being written in first person from someone else’s point of view. The fact of the matter is that it wouldn’t be creative nonfiction because a person cannot truly show events from another person’s perspective. So I wouldn’t consider something like that nonfiction. It would usually be a biography written in third person, and that is common. You can certainly use quotes and other indicators to represent someone else’s views and experiences. I could probably be more specific if I knew what kind of work it is (memoir, biography, self-development, etc.).

Dear Melissa: I am trying to market a book in the metaphysical genre about an experience I had, receiving the voice of a Civil War spirit who tells his story (not channeling). Part is my reaction and discussion with a close friend so it is not just memoir. I referred to it as ‘literary non-fiction’ but an agent put this down by saying it is NOT literary non-fiction. Looking at your post, could I say that my book is ‘creative non-fiction’? (agents can sometimes be so nit-picky)

Hi Liz. You opened your comment by classifying the book as metaphysical but later referred to it as literary nonfiction. The premise definitely sounds like a better fit in the metaphysical category. Creative nonfiction is not a genre; it’s a broader category or description. Basically, all literature is either fiction or nonfiction (poetry would be separate from these). Describing nonfiction as creative only indicates that it’s not something like a user guide. I think you were heading in the right direction with the metaphysical classification.

The goal of marketing and labeling books with genres is to find a readership that will be interested in the work. This is an agent’s area of expertise, so assuming you’re speaking with a competent agent, I’d suggest taking their advice in this matter. It indicates that the audience perusing the literary nonfiction aisles is simply not a match for this book.

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Creative Writing

Creative nonfiction.

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• Figurative Language

Within the world of creative writing, the term creative nonfiction encompasses texts about factual events that are not solely for scholarly purposes. Creative nonfiction may include memoir, personal essays, feature-length articles in magazines, and narratives in literary journals. This genre of writing incorporates techniques from fiction and poetry in order to create accounts that read more like story than a piece of journalism or a report. The audience for creative nonfiction is typically broader than the audiences for scholarly writing.

The term creative nonfiction is credited to Lee Gutkind, who defines this genre as “true stories well told.” However, the concept of literary nonfiction has its roots in ancient poetry, historical accounts, and religious texts. Throughout history, people have tried to keep a record of the human experience and have done so through the vehicle of story since the invention of language. For more about the origins of the term creative nonfiction, see the article What is Creative Nonfiction ?

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Want to perfect your process for writing creative non-fiction, or elevate your writing style? Maybe you’re making the move from fiction to non-fiction.

This comprehensive guide using interviews from The Writing Life podcast offers advice and guidance from writers and editors, often describing the obstacles they faced and how they traversed them in their own projects.

This page covers creative non-fiction inspiration, research, structure, narrative, point of view and much more.

1. Know thyself: are you a non-fiction writer?

Not everyone is suited to the type of writing they might want to do. It’s important to understand not only what interests us, but what we have an aptitude for. It can be valuable to find where these two meet.

Author and journalist Sonia Faleiro describes her own journey of self-discovery and self-actualisation: ‘After I wrote my debut novel, The Girl , I looked at it and realised, ‘wow, I’m not a novelist – what were you thinking?!’. I am so glad I realised that. Imagine attempting to put out more books and not knowing that that was not what I was meant to do.

‘I didn’t grow up with much non-fiction, so it wasn’t something I had imagined doing. Only later did I learn more about it.’

‘I didn’t want to follow the American cookie-cutter format of narrative non-fiction. It’s very gripping, but it’s quite formulaic. I wanted to take the basic tenets of narrative non-fiction and make it mine and adapt it to the kind of storytelling I was keen on.

‘When I lived in Mumbai, I started writing about communities that live on the edge of society. The trans community, the Hijra and the community of bar dancers. I’m a middle-class Indian, I’m not very interesting but I was interested in these others groups, so I write about these people in my non-fiction books.’

Listen to our J. Michael Straczynski on Becoming A Writer, Staying A Writer podcast.

2. Be brave

Creative non-fiction journal Hinterland co-editor Yin F. Lim says: ‘When we write from our memories and our life stories, there’s a temptation to gloss over things and leave out the difficult parts. But to write a memoir or a personal essay well, we need to interrogate the truth as we remember it, and write with honesty and candour to achieve an authentic voice that allows readers to connect with our writing.’

Filmmaker Josef Steiff says: ‘I see so many people edit themselves before they even get the story out. Get the story on paper/screen first. Raw, complicated, contradictory. Then in the rewriting, continue to be brave. Not reckless, but brave.  I often find that when I read the piece after it’s finished, I feel vulnerable. I’ve even blushed sometimes when reading something aloud to others. For me, this is my evidence that I’ve cut as close to the truth as I can.’

Ed Parnell explains his own trepidation about tackling potentially upsetting subject matter in his autobiographical work, Ghostland .

‘It was difficult. I was writing about my parents who died when I was 17 and 18.’

‘It was difficult,’ says Ed. ‘I was writing about my parents who died when I was 17 and 18. I don’t tend to think about when they were in hospital and things. You don’t really want to go revisit those memories and feelings, but I felt I should do for this project.

‘I was like a story in an M.R. James story who’s digging into the past: you know they shouldn’t but they’re compelled to. That was tough. Because it’s upsetting, you think, ‘what’s to be gained from doing it?’ I’m pleased I did. It probably did me good to think about it. I don’t believe in that vacuous concept of ‘closure’. You can’t get closure. Sure, there was some catharsis, but it was also upsetting. I’d be writing this stuff thinking, ‘I’m not sure I should have written that’. On reflection, I think it was right to do.

‘I also thought, ‘If I don’t write about this, then no one will’. It felt like a sacred duty to try and bring my parents some kind of presence on a page – like I’m the last guardian of their memory. I wanted it to be about nicer memories, but I couldn’t avoid the more troubling elements of the story.’

Listen to Ed discuss Ghostland here.

3. Research and organise

Creative non-fiction is also referred to as narrative non-fiction. Finding, directing and building that narrative is essential. But it can be a challenge. Stories have a habit of growing arms and legs – often driven by our interest in the subject which can result in tangents, interlinking stories and goose chases.

Ed Parnell says there was ‘lots of reading’ for his book, Ghostland . But reading was only a part of his research.

‘When you’re researching a novel, there’s lots of reading. You want to know your setting, the characters and your period. If you’re writing about a public figure – especially someone who produced works of art, music, theatre, film etc. – you will need to review the cultural criticism. There were psycho-geographic elements in the book so I also did a lot of traveling around.’

‘I also had to visit places of which I had no memory that I’d been to when I was very small.

‘The good thing with research is that, because the chapters are chronological, I ended up researching it chronologically as well. I could break it down: this is the Welsh chapter, I will go to Wales and then come back and write about it. Even if the writing was a couple of months later.

‘I had a head start because I had done lots of the reading and watching movies. It wasn’t a faked interest. But reading them for pleasure is very different to reading them to try and say something interesting about them.’

Liverpool-born writer Peter Goulding says: ‘Go and interview people and let them talk.  It is not a conversation, more of what they say and think should be on the tape than your own questions or opinions.  I’ve just recorded an interview with a tree surgeon: he spent five minutes describing a smell.  I couldn’t have written anything like it from my own mind, not without experiencing it myself.  The next trick is welding those bits of interview into what you want to write. They need to fit and they need to have a strong join. Then you need to polish out the weld, so the reader can’t see the join. Craft and graft.’

Sonia Faleiro is a journalist and author of creative non-fiction. She explained her process for distilling the vast amounts of information she gathered for her 2021 book, The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing , in The Writing Life podcast . The book explores the death of two girls in rural India.

‘It was a big case in India. It was all over the news so I had lots of information; I could locate myself and figure out who I needed to speak to.

• Family tree

‘The first thing I did, was to make a family tree’ says Sonia. ‘There were two girls from two families, but they lived in a joint family setting of 18 people.

‘Then I made lists of names, any name that I came across: police, court, family, investigator, neighbour.

‘Then I got in touch with as many reporters as I could, those who had reported on the story as it happened – TV, papers – those who had gone to the village within a day or so of the children being found. I reached out to them for contacts and I also asked them what they thought. ‘What is your sense of the village and the story and the people? A journalist’s intuition may not be something that they put into their reporting but is nonetheless valuable. I remember two journalists saying to me, ‘yeah, something’s up, I don’t know what… but if you find out, let me know’.

‘Then you start drawing your own charts and making your own notes. Things get lost in translation; a mistake that gets made in an early report ends up being repeated, so you correct the information you have.

‘Then I went to the village and spoke to people. I recorded every conversation – hours of it.’

Andrew Kenrick says: ‘While you might not plan to extensively pepper your writing with footnotes or references, all the same, keep a track of where you’ve found your information. This might be just to offer a credit or to supply a bibliography, but it can also prove essential if you find yourself needing to return to the same subject in the future – and you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to forget where you’ve read something further down the line! There’s all manner of reference managers out there – I use Zotero but there are loads available freely.’

• Primary research

‘In the village, I also took notes. The recording only captures so much so I would write notes: background sounds and wildlife; what does it look and smell like? What are they wearing? What do bare feet look like?’

• Secondary research

‘I also got information from online archives, for example, what the village used to be like.

‘Not too long ago, during the monsoons, the village would flood, so people would have to use boats to get from their homes to the fields. That gives you a sense of where people have come up from. The last generation needed to use boats because of how poorly the drainage worked. Now things have changed, they have bicycles and motorbikes and, vital to the story, is that they use modern devices like mobile phones and social messaging.

‘While focusing on the present, you need to delve into the past to figure out what led to the current events.’

‘I took assistance when I needed it. Early on, I worked with a fact checker and worked with lawyers and translators. Although I speak fluent Hindi, many people in the village speak Braj Bhasha [regional dialect] – I can understand it but not well enough to translate it perfectly.’

More on research

• Podcast: Research for writing with Megan Bradbury
• Podcast: Kate Mosse on the Women’s Prize, Discoveries and research
• Podcast: Writing creative non-fiction with Sonia Faleiro
• Podcast: Research, editing & planning novels with Stuart Turton
• Podcast: Researching True Crime with Stephanie Scott
• Blog: Researching a novel: moving beyond what you know

4. Write to know

Different writers have different approaches – some plan and write meticulously, turning in a perfect first draft; others write and revise until the story and the words come together.

Writing creative non-fiction, as opposed to fiction, may impact this – real events being fixed, even if the book’s narrative can change.

‘The secret to getting something written is to write.’

Sonia Faleiro says writing helped her discover the narrative.

‘I had between the 3,000 pages of documents and hundreds of hours of interviews. I felt like I was looking for a needle in a haystack. And I was buried under the haystack. I just needed to remind myself, ‘it’s fine, it’s ok to feel like this, just continue to work on this and one day, it won’t be like this. I will have figured it out’. That’s the secret. The secret to getting something written is to write. Even those people who think that if left to their own devices they would just research until the end of time, they wouldn’t. Finally they will get it.’

As Ed Parnell says: ‘It still comes down to sitting in a room, staring at a screen and typing.’

5. Take notes

Justin Kern says: ‘Simply: you must write a journal. Every day. Even if it’s two sentences about the bathroom, or breakfast, or a slight at work. And you must write what is real, to you, as long, silly, rote and deeply as you can. This ritualistic dedication to churning over your internal world in a journal will give you agency over the ultimate story of your own world, as well as those outside of it that you hope to tell.’

Listen to our Lucy van Smit’s A Writer’s Journal Workbook podcast. Lucy is an award-winning author, a screenwriter, and an artist.

Hinterland co-editor Yin F. Lim says: ‘Whether on paper or screen, get into the habit of recording your moments, thoughts and emotions. Journalling provides valuable raw material for writing from your life, but re-reading what you’ve recorded also helps bring you back to that moment in the past. It enables you to remember details and write with an immediacy that’s not as easy to replicate from our often unreliable memories.’

6. Get inspired

  Whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction, inspiration can come from anywhere. However, for the latter, it is very often driven by the very pursuit of the interest. Writer and NCW tutor Ed Parnell explains the genesis of his creative non-fiction work, Ghostland: In Search Of A Haunted Country .

‘I was putting off writing a second novel. I had some ideas, one of which was to have the Victorian ghost story writer, M.R. James as a bit part.

‘I was looking into that and I visited the place where James grew up – a spooky little village called Great Livermere outside Bury St Edmunds. I took lots of pictures and when I got home, I wrote a blog about it.

‘An editor at Harper Collins saw it two months later and emailed me, asking whether I’d ever thought about writing a non-fiction book on the subject. I went down to see him and found that we had a shared love of trashy old 60s and 70s horror films. He invited me to put a proposal together. I had to think, ‘Would I like to write about this?’ And at that point, I thought, ‘yes, I do’.

More on inspiration

• Blog: Writing exercise inspired by Our Place

7. Search for the truth

It is said that if the police ask three people what happened at the scene of an accident, they will get three versions of events. How can we ensure that we get to the truth of our story?

Sonia Faleiro’s investigation into the death of two girls in India resulted in various ever-changing stories. Here she describes how the combination of social rules, mores and pressure made her hunt for the truth even harder.

‘A search ensued with torches, but in total silence, because the families didn’t want to create fear in the village because it would raise questions about why the girls had been out to begin with.

‘There are dozens of people running round in the fields, so by the time I arrive to capture the story, there are dozens of versions of the story to untangle.

‘A lot of people continued to change their story over the years for various reasons and I’m quite sure that if I went to the village tomorrow, I would find someone who would change their story again. It could continue forever. In a village like that, you’re not just answerable to yourself, not even your family, you are answerable to the community. So you have to be careful, not just about how they behave, but what they say about the behaviour of others because it can have deadly consequences for them.

‘Figuring out who was telling the truth and who wasn’t, became the most important thing. Persistence is the key. I kept returning back to the village and would report around people. If someone is telling you something that is clearly not true, you can keep asking them the same question over and over but it will only bring you grief. It won’t endear you to them. Alternatively, you can talk to somebody else: fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, friends.

‘That is how I was able to build the narrative, by crosschecking information. It’s important not to take people at their word right away. Not only must they earn your trust, but you must earn theirs. It works both ways.’

‘It’s not my job to tell the story that they want me to tell. I’m not even telling the story that I want to tell. I’m telling the story that is.

8. Who’s story is it?

The point of narrative or creative non-fiction is that it’s not just a reference book. The facts hang from someone’s story, seen through their eyes. As such, knowing lots about the subject, person or time isn’t enough, you need to bring this to life through one or more people’s stories.

Author, Ed Parnell had been invited by Harper Collins to pitch an idea they’d discussed – to write a non-fiction book about ghost story writer M.R. James.

‘The more I redrafted it, the more I edged towards, seeing things from Fodor’s point of view.’

‘I had decided that I would like to write a book about him. So I thought, if I did want to write it, how would I do it?

‘I was conscious that I’m not an academic who specialises in this field. there must be lots of people who are more qualified than me to write this.

‘I knew quite a lot about it and was quite interested in the subject, but I wanted to bring something of myself to it. I thought about my own family history and the more I thought about it, the more I thought of other writers I’d like to explore, how their lives tied in to places I’d been to on holiday as a kid, and how that tied into my own family story. So the story is told through me as I explore and rediscover my childhood memories, those ghost story writers I was reading, and their relationship to the places I’d been.’

Kate Summerscale , the award-winning author of  The Suspicions of Mr Whicher ,  describes how the point of view developed during the writing of The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story .

‘I had done three years of pure research. I’d worked out how to tell the story: the structure of the story and put it together while continuing to go back and forth with the research.

‘The shape of the book and the storytelling was hard to work out.

‘The more I redrafted it, the more I edged towards, seeing things from Fodor’s point of view. In a way, Fodor wanted to explore everything I wanted to explore. Although my perspective is different because I’m in a different point in history, he could still allow me access to everything I needed. I realised that it worked better than putting Alma’s experience at the centre or being detached from both of the main characters altogether. Although it’s not exclusively from his point of view, the grounding in seeing things as he would have seen them, helped me ground myself in that historical moment – and the reader can get their bearings from him.

‘That decision about perspective and point of view was what made it all start to work as a story.’

More on characters

• Podcast: Exploring themes through characters
• Podcast: Creating characters with Okechukwu Nzelu
• Podcast: How Sarah Perry develops characters
• Course: Writing Science Fiction: Characters and points of view

9. Don’t forget to read!

Hinterland editor Freya Dean says: ‘I find I can’t read non-fiction during a period of intensive memoir writing. It’s not that I’m afraid I’ll subconsciously copy from other writers, but just that my thought stream gets disrupted and I can’t keep the flow of my own work. Instead, I read fiction (just re-read Jennifer Egan’s brilliant A Visit From the Goon Squad ), YA fiction (my kids have got me into Philip Reeve), poetry (currently Lieke Marsman), and those big ‘coffee table’ art and fashion books, when I can afford them.’

10. Go off track

Josef Steiff says: ‘Tangents can be your friend.  Sometimes when I’m writing, my mind will start drifting.  I’ve found that it can be productive to follow these tangents to determine if they are actually associations or resonances that deepen and need to be interwoven into the main story.’

11. Build a roadmap

Ed Parnell explains: ‘With non-fiction, you have to create this big pitch document for the publisher. I had created a 50-page, chapter-by-chapter document, so I had thought about the structure and had a roadmap.

‘You have to write that stuff to know it needs to be removed.’

‘When I came to write it, some of those chapters fell by the wayside and new things came in: new books and films I wanted to include, new parts of my own travels within the book. Having a roadmap was good, even if I meandered from it.

‘My first draft was 140k words. I cut it down to 100k. You have to write that stuff to know it needs to be removed.’

12. Structure: One size doesn’t fit all

‘Writing non-fiction was a new process for me,’ explains Ed Parnell, ‘so I researched other non-fiction books. I physically analysed them: how long the chapters were. Is a 40-page chapter too long?

‘You look for patterns but there are none because everyone does it differently. You’re learning as you go. I suspect that every book a writer writes, you feel like you’re starting over again.’

13. Raid the novelist’s toolkit

Andrew Kenrick says: ‘One of the things that often defines the best creative non-fiction that we receive at Hinterland is that it applies the tools of a novel writer to real situations and settings: flashbacks, starting in media res, dialogue, rich descriptions of character and plenty of texture in the writing – colours, sounds and smells.’

14. Facts vs fiction

‘I always keep the narrative in the foreground. It’s almost the reverse of normal where the important events take place in the foreground and the trivia is at the edges. It’s inverting that.

‘So the story is an apparently silly story about a poltergeist and a woman in Croydon in the 1930s and an eccentric ghost hunter. Instead, it becomes a thing I take very seriously – it’s driving the story forward.

‘Almost off-stage, national and international events are taking place – Hitler is invading Austria.

‘But events aren’t just to give context and colour. As I write, I’m trying to work out how they connect to the story I’m telling and why I’ve picked these particular fragments to drop in. They have to earn their place, as shadows to my story, even though they are these huge and momentous world events that changed things for millions of people. I need to make them pay off as motifs in the particular story I’m telling and I hope that that in turn will give some extra resonance to the story. I work how these things fit together as I go along, I don’t know in advance.’

15. Develop an Editor’s eye

Hinterland editor Freya Dean says: ‘Try to have a ‘fallow’ period between writing projects where you read intensively and think hard about what you’re reading. The keystone of most non-fiction creative writing courses is exactly this: reading great writers to understand why their writing shines, which then helps you to develop a critical, editorial lens that you can apply to your own work.  As far as non-fiction titans go, Joan Didion’s essays, and those by Gay Talese (see especially Frank Sinatra Has A Cold & Other Essays)  are a great place to start. Take one short passage and really dissect it, right down to the last full stop.’

16.  Share your work

Freya says: ‘Take every opportunity to have your non-fiction critically (and constructively) workshopped.  Even more than a way to gain feedback, structured discussion is invaluable for the perspective it brings when you’re working with material drawn from your own life.  It helps build that sense of ‘remove’, of feeling that what you have written exists as something in its own right, distinct from yourself and your inner world. This in turn helps you to better craft and evaluate the work as you are writing.’

17. Shelve it!

Freya says: ‘So many successful writers I know consider this an essential part of the writing process. Whether they’ve reached a point where they’re stuck with a manuscript, or are reasonably happy that they’ve nailed it, they print a hard copy and put it away in a drawer, and then they don’t look at it for several weeks. This is helpful for all writing, no matter your subject, but is especially key when you’re writing anything that draws heavily on your own experience. When you take the text out again and read it with fresh eyes, you’ll instantly see the flaws in the writing, whether great or (hopefully) small.’

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Examples of Creative Nonfiction for the Slightly Confused

If the term “creative nonfiction” gives you pause, I get it. Creativity doesn’t always feel appropriate in every context.

For example, the day before writing this, I was in a dental chair having my gums treated. As the hygienist blasted the only mouth I have with actual lasers, she mused that she considered her profession a “creative” one. I was very interested to learn how creative she was planning to get in the present context.

Turns out, she just meant she actively looked for ways to do her job more effectively—to innovate and problem-solve rather than committing fully to old routines.

You could look at creative nonfiction the same way. It’s the same job as regular nonfiction; the whole point is to tell the truth. But with creative nonfiction, you give yourself more license to play with the delivery of truth… to discover more effective ways to communicate your personal experiences or our shared reality.

If you could use an example of creative nonfiction to clarify the concept, don’t worry. You’ve got a bunch coming your way. You’ll also get a complete breakdown of how this literary art form blends truth-telling with creative writing, why it’s so impactful, and how to master it yourself.

As we so often do here in DabbleU , we’ll start with a definition.  

What is Creative Nonfiction?

All nonfiction is inherently creative. I want to clarify that first and foremost. I mean, think of a technical writer who has to turn a complex concept into a clear and accessible explanation. It takes a ton of creativity to pull that off.

So creative nonfiction isn’t different from standard nonfiction because it takes creativity. It’s different because it incorporates elements of creative writing while still remaining in the world of nonfiction.

More specifically, creative nonfiction turns to literary devices , elements of poetry, and storytelling techniques to communicate the truth in an insightful and emotionally resonant way.

This subgenre of nonfiction is also unique in that the author’s point of view is a defining feature of the work. If you read a news article or textbook, you’ll (hopefully) see that the author has left their perspective out of it. With creative nonfiction, it’s the opposite.

So What Counts as Creative Nonfiction?

There’s an extremely high chance you’ve already read some creative nonfiction. You’ve definitely read at least a few pieces if you completed your high school literature assignments.

Here are a few subgenres where creative nonfiction reins:

Memoir - A memoir is a long work of literary nonfiction in which the author shares their personal experience with a specific event, theme, or topic. 

Personal essay - This is like a memoir, but essay length, if you can believe it. Throw in enough figurative language and literary devices, and you can take it one step further to the realm of lyric essay .

Travel writing - When we talk about creative nonfiction in the area of travel writing, we’re often talking about works that overlap with memoirs, like Eat Pray Love , or personal essays, like just about anything by Pico Iyer.

Nature writing - Here the author shares their real experiences or thoughts on the natural world, whether it’s a travel adventure or deep thoughts about delicate ecosystems.

Speeches - The vast majority of speeches exist to inspire, persuade, or connect. It’s hard to pull that off with cold, hard facts alone. So, naturally, any celebrated speechwriter is going to be well-versed in creative writing. They’ll likely use a lot of storytelling strategies, metaphors, and literary devices that create a sense of rhythm.

Literary journalism - Literary journalism is exactly what it sounds like. It reports on real-world events or sociological issues but incorporates literary elements and leaves room for the author’s point of view. Getting the facts exactly right is still crucial in literary journalism.

Autobiography/biography - This is where the lines begin to blur for me personally. In an autobiography , the author tells the story of their own life. Because the book focuses on their own experiences, there’s no getting away from the personal storytelling that is the defining feature of creative nonfiction.

Biographies, though? They’re a written record of someone else’s life. The author might choose to go the creative nonfiction route, but they can also opt to report on the facts without inserting their own reflections or using a lot of descriptive and figurative language.

No matter what subgenre they fit into, all works of creative nonfiction must center on real stories. But unlike traditional journalism or academic writing, they can be brazenly biased. The fact that they’re personal is what makes them so engaging. 

The Artistry of Creative Nonfiction

It might feel a bit mystifying—this idea that you can put a creative spin on something and still call it the truth.

If you’re struggling to make sense of how this works, it might help to explore some of the literary techniques creative nonfiction writers use to bring their true stories to life for their readers. Techniques like:

A Clear Narrative Voice

Your narrative voice is essentially your personality on the page. It’s made up of several style choices, including diction , pacing, sentence structure, and tone (the author’s attitude about the subject).

In works of nonfiction where it’s important to stick to the facts and present an impartial report, the author’s voice is direct and unemotional. It’s not supposed to stand out, because the information is what matters.

Creative nonfiction writers put much more emphasis on voice, as it makes the work feel more personal.

Real People as Characters

Okay, this is something you have to be careful about if you plan to write creative nonfiction. You don’t want to fabricate personality traits or actions just to make a real person more interesting. In fact, you want to be super careful and deliberate in your portrayal of others. I cover this subject more extensively in this article on memoir .

Having said that, creative nonfiction thrives on the same storytelling elements you’d use in fiction. That means fully developing the human beings who populate your work the same way you would a character.

You’re not just reporting on what they do and say. You’re noting mannerisms, the way they move, the way they evolve, if they evolve, and above all, how you perceive them.

Real Places as Setting

If you write fiction, you know the world of the story is key for transporting the reader, creating an atmosphere, and even working in a little symbolism . The same is true in creative nonfiction.

Say you’re writing a newspaper article about a marathon and it starts raining halfway through. As a reporter, you’d probably inform the public of the time that the rain started and interview a runner about how it affected their performance.

As a creative nonfiction writer, you might linger on the rain a bit more—the dark skies and sharp, earthy smell. You might mention the cold droplets that slip under your collar and slide down your spine. You might think about the personal crisis you’re currently going through and feel a kinship with the runners who keep pressing forward even as their feet slip and the sky threatens them.

Setting isn’t just a fact in creative nonfiction. It’s an experience.

Creative Structure

There’s no official structure in creative nonfiction. If you read a personal essay, you’re unlikely to get a thesis statement followed by three supporting paragraphs.

You might get a true story told in a traditional fiction structure like the three-act structure or the Hero’s Journey .

Or you might get something more experimental. Anything can be anything. The author just has to have a reason for the choices they make.

Figurative Language

You’ve likely picked up on this by now, but you see a lot more figurative language in creative fiction than you do in the standard stuff.

Figurative language includes things like metaphors, personification, hyperbole … basically anything that manages to paint a deeper or more vivid picture by using a phrase that’s not literally true.

You don’t see a lot of that in textbooks, because in that context, it’s extremely important that the reader can identify what the concrete facts are without having to interpret the author’s hidden meaning.

For creative nonfiction, however, figurative language is a powerful tool for creating a psychological and emotional impact. 

Incorporating Research

Not all works of creative nonfiction include facts and figures. But some do, weaving broader research with the author’s personal narrative.

This promotes empathy and understanding by exploring wider societal issues in the context of a single human life. It also grounds the author’s personal story in proven facts. Wins all around.

Balancing What’s Interesting With What’s Real

This is one of the toughest aspects of creative nonfiction writing. How do authors make a creative nonfiction piece read like a story or poetry without compromising the truth?

First, all the techniques we just discussed help a lot. You don’t have to lie to paint a vivid word picture , dabble in metaphors, or experiment with storytelling structure.

It also helps to remember that creative nonfiction is a true account of the author’s observations and experiences. They’re not just reporting on what happened, they’re clarifying how they perceived what happened. 

That doesn’t mean you can lie and call it a point of view. But it does mean you’re not limited to only discussing quantifiable facts.

Examples of Creative Nonfiction

As I mentioned before, you’ve most likely read creative nonfiction before, even if you didn’t realize it at the time. But if the stuff we’ve already covered didn’t bring any immediate examples to mind, here are a few famous ones to help drive these ideas home.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

“If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.”

In one of the most famous American autobiographies, poet Maya Angelou tells the story of her youth. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings offers deeply personal reflections on racial trauma and sexual abuse, and Angelou’s willingness be forthright on these topics has inspired countless authors to find their own voices. 

The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

“Turns out this mantis has been my companion for the last twenty minutes, this whole break in my afternoon, edging closer to me, dancing, then scooting closer still. And when I sit back in my chair, the mantis pulls its head over the glass to see me (am I being egocentric?), swaying as it does so.”

In this collection of lyrical personal essays, Ross Gay records daily “delights”—small joys that are made greater by sharing them. Over the course of the collection, he manages to bring tiny moments to life in intricate detail and cut to the heart of greater societal struggles. It’s pretty remarkable stuff.

Up for Debate: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

“At the time not a soul in sleeping Holcomb heard them—four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives.”

Most people categorize In Cold Blood as creative nonfiction, though it might be more accurate to call it a nonfiction novel (yes, that’s a real term) or “faction,” which is a fact-plus-fiction portmanteau that I personally find confusing, considering it’s already a word that means something else entirely. 

Anyway, In Cold Blood tells the true story of the Clutter family murders , with a few bonus fabrications Capote tossed in for kicks. Is it nonfiction creatively told? You bet.

Can you invent entire scenes and still call it creative nonfiction? Depends on who you ask.

Can you call it literary journalism? You absolutely cannot and that’s why this book is infamous.

Techniques for Writing Creative Nonfiction

Feeling like you’re ready to write a little creative nonfiction of your own? 

Whether you’ve got your sights set on a memoir, personal essay, travel writing, or any other creative nonfiction format, the techniques we discussed above will serve you well.

But just to make sure you’re fully prepared, here are a few more tips:  

Do Your Research

It’s possible that your creative nonfiction stories will be so personal you don’t have to do any research . But remember: nonfiction is, by definition, true.

If you can’t remember that street name, find out what it is. Revisit old news clippings to make sure you’re right about what time it was when that plane crashed into your uncle’s cornfield. And if you want to tie your own story into greater societal themes, working with statistics and interviews is a powerful move.

Tell a Story

While you’re aiming for factual writing, you’re not reporting. So think less about conveying information and more about telling a story.

As we know from fiction, a story centers on a compelling character who (probably) goes on a journey of growth . In creative nonfiction, that character is often you , the author. 

The execution may not look the same as it does in a novel. In fact, in a lot of personal essays, the author’s journey of growth or discovery seems to play out in the telling of the story, not the story itself.

I recommend reading whatever form of creative nonfiction you want to write. Like, a lot of it. See if you can pinpoint the journey the narrator takes you on and make a note of how they get the job done.

Have a Clear Voice and Point of View

Want to know what the secret draw of creative nonfiction is?

In this genre, the author doesn’t hide behind the facts… or fiction, for that matter. Instead, the reader gets to experience everything from inside the author’s head. They get to know the writer’s opinions, feelings, and even some personal details that might further explain the narrative perspective.

So let your point of view and distinctive voice shine through. 

Observe and Interpret

Creative nonfiction isn’t interested in information for information’s sake. Even in the realm of literary journalism, when authors sit down to write about real world events, their goal isn’t just to say what happened but to explain what it means .

This is true whether you’re writing about gentrification in your city or composing a lyric essay about your first trip to the beach. So as a creative nonfiction writer, practice keeping your eyes and mind open. Observe the details in the world around you and examine the thoughts or feelings they spark. 

The Legacy of Creative Nonfiction

So who’s idea was this anyway—applying literary techniques to nonfiction and pairing facts with deeply personal analysis?

As is the case with pretty much all literary genres, it’s impossible to pinpoint the moment this writing style was officially born. Many people think of creative nonfiction as a movement that came out of the 1960s when authors like Joan Didion and Hunter S. Thompson allowed their own voices to shine through in their journalism.

But really, human beings have been finding creative ways to communicate and examine the truth since… forever, probably. 

The big question now is: what role will you play in the future of creative nonfiction? How will you harness literary techniques to unveil truthier truths than mere facts can reveal?

I hope this article has provided some clarity and set you up to explore this world further. And I’ve got just one last tip before you go.

Plan, write, and revise with Dabble . It’s an all-in-one writing tool that was designed for fiction, which—weirdly enough—makes it incredibly helpful for creative nonfiction. 

Use the Plot Grid to track timelines, symbols, your own journey of growth, and more. Store your research in the fully customizable Story Notes and use character profiles to examine the role real-life people play in your narrative.

The best part is, all these notes are one click away as you write and revise your piece.

You can try it out for free for 14 days by following this link . No credit card is required, which means zero risk of accidental charges.

Now get out there and speak your truth.

Abi Wurdeman is the author of Cross-Section of a Human Heart: A Memoir of Early Adulthood, as well as the novella, Holiday Gifts for Insufferable People. She also writes for film and television with her brother and writing partner, Phil Wurdeman. On occasion, Abi pretends to be a poet. One of her poems is (legally) stamped into a sidewalk in Santa Clarita, California. When she’s not writing, Abi is most likely hiking, reading, or texting her mother pictures of her houseplants to ask why they look like that.

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• Pastoral Fiction
• Pastoral Poetry
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Petrarchan Sonnet
• Picaresque Novel
• Poetic Devices
• Poetic Form
• Poetic Genre
• Poetic Terms
• Political Satire
• Postcolonial Literature
• Prose Poetry
• Psychological Fiction
• Queer Literature
• Regency Romance
• Regional Fiction
• Religious Fiction
• Research Article
• Restoration Comedy
• Rhyme Scheme
• Roman a clef
• Romance Fiction
• Satirical Poetry
• Sceptical Literature
• Science Fiction
• Scottish Literature
• Second World War Fiction
• Sentimental Comedy
• Sentimental Novel
• Shakespearean Sonnet
• Short Fiction
• Social Realism Literature
• Speculative Fiction
• Spenserian Sonnet
• Stream of Consciousness
• Supernatural Fiction
• The Early Novel
• Theatre of the Absurd
• Theatrical Realism
• Tragedy in Drama
• Tragicomedy
• Translations and English Literature
• Urban Fiction
• Utopian Fiction
• Verse Fable
• Volta Poetry
• Welsh Literature
• Western Novels
• Women's fiction
• Literary Elements
• Literary Movements
• Literary Studies
• Non-Fiction Authors

The principles of creative non-fiction are simple. A writer of creative non-fiction must write about a subject and events that have either taken place in, or refer to, the real world, and not an imagined subject and event – that's fiction!

If an author descriptively writes about a trip they had planned in their head for years, but never took, this is still creative non-fiction. Sure, they imagined it, but they are recording their real thoughts, so they are still writing about reality – their interior reality!

The other main principle of creative non-fiction is that the writing should make thoughtful observations on its subject, life and the world.

The basic elements of creative non-fiction are already familiar to you. These are the same storytelling elements present in fiction, except they are used to creatively write about reality:

• Descriptive and figurative language : t his is one of the defining features of the genre.
• Point of view : often this will be the author's own point of view .
• Voice : the voice is often personal, intimate and colloquial.
• Tone : what is the author's attitude towards the subject and the reader? Are they sincere? Ironic? Satirical?
• Style : the author's own personal style – is it flowery and verbose? Sharp and witty? Do they veer towards certain techniques?
• Character : the real people depicted in creative non-fiction can be seen as characters.
• Setting : not all creative non-fiction will have a setting , but setting is a key element of the memoir and travel writing, for example.
• Structure : the structure could be linear or non-linear.

In your analysis of creative non-fiction, it is helpful to consider how these elements might be used differently in creative non-fiction in comparison to other genres (non-fiction or fiction).

Techniques and purpose

In creative non-fiction, the purpose of literary techniques is to convey:

• the significance, quality, and psychological and emotional impact of real-world events.
• a person's character.

Figurative language

Authors writing in this genre use similes , metaphors and symbolism in their imaginative representations of reality to create rich meanings.

Claudia Rankine's collection of prose poetry Citizen (2014) is about racism in the United States. Rankine uses the following metaphor to illustrate how people choose to ignore the reality of racism:

Years have passed and so soon we love this world, so soon we are willing to coexist with dust in our eyes.

- '' An American Lyric'

Narrative and character arcs

Works of creative non-fiction with pronounced narrative arcs form a subset of creative non-fiction known as narrative non-fiction . A narrative arc looks like this:

• Inciting incident
• Rising Action
• Falling Action
• Resolution.

Works of creative non-fiction can also have character arcs . A character arc looks like this:

• A state of order and stasis
• The character faces challenges
• The character overcomes those challenges and learns about themselves and or/the world and changes for the better.

Creative non-fiction types

Writing non-fiction creatively is useful for authors who want to write about their personal experiences and lives. By taking a creative approach to writing about reality, using figurative language and other literary devices , authors can convey a truth about their subjective experience of real-life experiences - to convey a sense of 'what it was like'.

Let's go over some of the main forms of creative non-fiction.

Life writing

Life writing is a broad genre of non-fiction writing about a person's life, about the author's own life or someone else's.

• Biography and autobiography

A biography is a book documenting a person's life. An autobiography is an account of one's own life.

Some examples of autobiographies are The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou .

A memoir is a written first-person reflection on an important time in the author's life that allows the author to reflect on their memories.

Some notable memoirs are Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) and Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003) by Azar Nafisi.

• Personal essay

The informal or personal essay can be distinguished from the formal essay, which involves a knowledgeable person making a convincing argument about a certain topic.

In the personal essay, the author writes about their own experiences and knowledge in an intimate way, that reveals their personality and how they think. Personal essays are often published as collections.

Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and The Death of the Moth (1942) are two famous informal essays.

• Travel writing

Travel writing is writing about the author's journeys to and experiences in different places.

In the early 18th century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wrote letters, The Turkish Embassy Letters (1763), about her travels to the Ottoman Empire that were published as a collection upon her death. London From a Distance by Ford Madox Ford. A contemporary example is Bill Bryson 's Notes from a Small Island (1995), a comical travel book written by an American about England.

She collected and revised them throughout her life, circulating the manuscripts among friends, and they were first published in 1763 after her death

Non-fiction novel or 'faction'

The term ' faction ' emerged in the 1960s to describe novels that blend 'fact' and 'fiction'.

This was the term used to describe Truman Capote 's In Cold Blood (1965) which was about the 1959 murders of the Cuttler family.

The book follows the stories of the victims, the murderers and other people affected by the incident. Capote conducted a series of interviews and labelled his book as non-fiction.

Recently, there has been a move away from non-fiction novels and toward the more personal, life-writing forms we have covered above. Maybe this is because of the difficulty of writing a non-fiction novel without slipping into fiction.

In addition, the validity of Capote's book as non-fiction and the validity of faction as a non-fiction subgenre have been subject to debate.

Examples of creative non-fiction

Let's take a closer look at some key works of creative non-fiction, so we can see the creativity at work.

Essay: A Room of One's Own (1929) by Virginia Woolf

This is how Virginia Woolf describes a thought at the beginning of her feminist essay, A Room of One's Own (1929):

Alas, laid on the grass how small, how insignificant this thought of mine looked; the sort of fish that a good fisherman puts back into the water so that it may grow fatter and be one day worth cooking and eating. I will not trouble you with that thought now, though if you look carefully you may find it for yourselves in the course of what I am going to say.

- Part One.

Woolf's essay is bursting with metaphors and imagery like this. The thought that she refers to is likely the thesis at the centre of her essay: that for a woman writer to be successful, she needs money and a room of her own. She invites the reader, in this very visual way, to 'catch' her thesis, making the reading experience exhilarating and joyful.

Woolf likens the wasted potential of women, who were unable to become writers due to gender inequality, to rust, creating vivid imagery :

and then the thought of that one gift which it was death to hide--a small one but dear to the possessor--perishing and with it my self, my soul,--all this became like a rust eating away the bloom of the spring, destroying the tree at its heart.

The use of vivid imagery, metaphors and symbolism in Woolf's essay builds a convincing case for gender equality.

Autobiography: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) by Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first of seven autobiographies written by African American author Maya Angelou about her traumatic childhood and experiences of racism.

The prologue to the autobiography ends with the following quote:

If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat.

It is an unnecessary insult.

The use of a rusting blade metaphor here effectively communicates the psychological and emotional impact of Angelou's experience of racism.

Poetry: Citizen: An American Lyric (2014) by Claudia Rankine

Citizen belongs to the genre of creative non-fiction, as Rankine draws on real experiences and events of racism in the United States; such as the killing of Trayvon Martin, a young black man who was killed by a neighbourhood watch volunteer who thought he looked suspicious.

It is difficult to categorise Citizen by Claudia Rankine. It is a work of poetry, more specifically prose poetry , but it can also be read as a collection of essays on race written as poetry. To complicate questions of genre further, the book also incorporates images and works of art among the writing.

Prose poetry

Prose poetry is poetry written in sentences and paragraphs, instead of verse , without line breaks. Like conventional poetry, prose poetry is centred around vivid imagery and wordplay, rather than narrative.

Rankine's book is a collection of personal anecdotes and anecdotes from other black Americans about what it is like to be a black person in America in the contemporary moment. Rankine uses a powerful metaphor to describe slavery's long-lasting impact on the lives of black Americans:

The world is wrong. You can’t put the past behind you. It’s buried in you; it’s turned your flesh into its own cupboard.

As with the other examples we've looked at, the use of metaphor in creative non-fiction provides an intimate insight into the author's subjectivities and experiences.

Brief history and context of creative non-fiction

The New Journalism is a collection of creative journalistic writing put together by Tom Wolfe and published in 1973. This collection showcased and promoted a new style of journalism that encouraged the use of literary devices and styles .

Truman Capote , who wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and one of the first ' faction ' novels, In Cold Blood (1966), was a contributor, alongside Hunter S. Thompson, who started the 'Gonzo journalism' movement. Gonzo journalism placed the journalist's personality and experiences at the centre of the story.

The blending of non-fiction with fictional devices has also increased due to the influence of Postmodernism.

Postmodernism

In literature, postmodernism is a late 20th-century movement t hat was characterised by a rejection of ideas of truth and objectivity, as well as neat identity and literary categories. These included the division between non-fiction and fiction.

Creative non-fiction prioritises creativity over objectivity, blurring the divisions between creativity and fact.

Creative Non-Fiction - Key takeaways

• Creative non-fiction is a subgenre of non-fiction. It refers to the imaginative representation of reality through the use of literary devices, styles and techniques, through which the author provides thoughtful insights into their subject, life and the world.
• The main principles of creative non-fiction are that the writing must 1) be about the real world and 2) it must make observations about the real world.
• The key techniques of creative non-fiction are figurative language (imagery, similes, metaphors and symbolism), and narrative and character arcs.
• The key forms of creative non-fiction are life writing forms, such as biography , autobiography, memoir, personal essay and travel writing. Non-fiction novels, also known as 'faction', can also be considered a form of creative non-fiction but this is contested.
• Some of the examples of creative non-fiction texts we have looked at are A Room of One's Own (1929) by Virginia Woolf, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) by Maya Angelou, Eating Animals (2009) by Jonathan Safran Foer, and Citizen (2014) by Claudia Rankine.

Flashcards in Creative Non-Fiction 10

• Descriptive and figurative language
• Point of view

Maya Angelou uses the metaphor of a rusty razor to describe how the alienating effects of racism feel like a hurtful insult. Angelou communicates the psychological and emotional impact through creative elements.

Creative non-fiction is the imaginative representation of reality through the use of literary devices, styles and techniques.

Figurative language and narrative and character arcs.

Rankine describes the bodies of African Americans as 'cupboards' of the past of slavery. This provides an insight into how black Americans like Rankine and those whose perspectives informed her book experience racism in their day to day life.

• Non-fiction novel or 'faction'.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Creative Non-Fiction

What is the meaning of creative non-fiction?

What are the elements of creative non-fiction?

Creative non-fiction often has the basic storytelling elements present in fiction, such as point of view, character, descriptive and figurative language, style, tone, setting and structure.

What are the principles and techniques in creative non-fiction?

The principles of creative non-fiction are 1) the author must be writing about reality, and not about an imagined subject or event; 2) the writing should make thoughtful observations on its subject, life and the world.

What are examples of creative non-fiction?

The famous extended essay A Room of One's Own  (1929) by Virginia Woolf is an example of creative non-fiction text that uses figurative language and imagery to deliver its feminist message. Another example is Claudia Rankine's 2014's book-long poem, Citizen: An American Lyric,  which represents real stories about racism in the United States through anecdotes, also relying heavily on imagery and figurative language.

How do you review creative non-fiction?

One way that you can approach reviewing creative non-fiction texts is by paying attention to their literary elements, such as imagery, similes, metaphors and symbolism. You can focus on how the author uses these techniques as tools for reflecting on reality and how these capture the significance and emotional impact that real-world events had on the author.

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The English Department and Writing Program offer a number of courses that support writers' development in a variety of genres and contexts. For First-Year students, we offer Academic English & Academic Inquiry seminars. For all undergraduates, we offer a variety of Communication Intensive  and other courses in areas such as:

• rhetoric & writing studies
• language & linguistics
• professional/technical communication
• literature, film & media studies
• creative writing & journalism

Each semester, the English department publishes detailed course descriptions , which include additional information about the courses being offered. For a complete set of department courses, please consult the General Bulletin or the Student Information System (SIS) , using course codes ENGL (English), WRIT (Writing & Rhetoric), AIAE (Academic English), and/or AIQS (Academic Inquiry).

For personalized writing support,  ENGL 180: Writing Tutorial (1 credit) is a weekly tutorial with a consultant from the Writing Resource Center that is designed to meet the specific writing goals of each student.

Sample courses from our literature, professional/technical communication, non-native speaker, language and linguistics, and creative writing offerings are described below. Many of these courses also count as Communication Intensive (CI) courses in the CWRU  Unified General Education Requirements (UGER) . In addition to the courses described below, we offer topical seminars  that highlight the diverse scholarly interests of our students and faculty. 

Sample Literature Courses

• ENGL 200: Literature in English (CI) -  This course introduces students to the reading of literature in the English language. Through close attention to the practice of reading, students are invited to consider some of the characteristic forms and functions imaginative literature has taken, together with some of the changes that have taken place in what and how readers read.  
• ENGL 257A: Reading Fiction (CI) -  This course introduces students to prose narrative forms in English by exploring their intersecting histories and their contemporary developments. We will introduce and develop the key terms, concepts and practice of literary studies. The specific focus of the course may vary. Recommended preparation: Academic Inquiry Seminar or SAGES First Seminar.  
• ENGL 257B: Reading Poetry (CI) -  This course will help you to read and enjoy poetry by introducing you to the history of poetic forms in English. We will introduce and develop the key terms, concepts and practice of literary studies by turning to poems for our test-cases; examples may include the sestina, sonnet and villanelle, ghazal, pantoum, haiku, and open forms. The specific focus of the course may vary. Recommended preparation: Academic Inquiry Seminar or SAGES First Seminar.

Sample Professional & Technical Writing Courses

• ENGL 217A: Business & Professional Writing (CI) -  An introduction to professional communication in theory and practice. Special attention paid to audience analysis, persuasive techniques in written and oral communication, document design strategies, and ethical communication practices.   
• English 217B: Writing for the Health Professions (CI) -  This course offers practice and training in the professional and technical writing skills common to health professions (e.g., medicine, nursing, dentistry). Attention will be paid to the writing processes of drafting, revising, and editing. Typical assignments include: letters, resumes, personal essays, professional communication genres (e.g., email, reports, patient charts, and histories), and scholarly genres (e.g., abstracts, articles, and reviews).  

Sample Courses Designed for Non-Native Speakers of English

• ENGL 146: Tools, Not Rules: English Grammar for Writers -  This course provides an introduction to English grammar in context for academic writers. It focuses on the study of language in use, including parts of speech, sentence grammar, paragraph structure, and text cohesion.  
• ENGL 147: Writing Across Disciplines (CI) -  In this course, students will develop their genre knowledge and metacognitive skills to prepare for the advanced writing, reading, and research tasks required in upper-level writing and disciplinary courses across the university. Through individual and group inquiry, students will analyze and discuss the conventions of academic genres to understand the textual and linguistic features and disciplinary expectations of each form of writing. Then, students will apply these generic conventions through the production and revision of writing within each genre. Throughout the semester, students will engage in workshops and discussions that foster skills in the areas of seminar participation, collaboration, rhetorical awareness, and critical thinking.  

Sample Rhetoric, Language & Linguistics Courses

• ENGL 255: Rhetoric and the Art of Public Speaking (CI) - This course uses the lens of classical rhetoric to explore contemporary political debate. While the word "rhetoric" is often used today to deride precisely what's wrong with political discourse, it more properly denotes the techniques of effective persuasion. By learning how rhetorical devices are used, we can empower ourselves to analyze policy debates and to make our own contributions.   
• ENGL 301: Linguistic Analysis -  Analysis of modern English from various theoretical perspectives: structural, generative, discourse analytical, sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, and cognitive linguistic. Some attention to the major dialects of American English.   
• ENGL 310: History of the English Language -  An introductory course covering the major periods of English language development: Old, Middle, and Modern. Students will examine both the linguistic forms and the cultures in which the forms were used.   

Sample Creative Writing Courses

• ENGL 203: Introduction to Creative Writing -  A course exploring basic issues and techniques of writing narrative prose and verse through exercises, analysis, and experiment. For students who wish to try their abilities across a spectrum of genres.  
• ENGL 213: Introduction to Fiction Writing -  A beginning workshop in fiction writing, introducing such concepts as voice, point of view, plot, characterization, dialogue, description, and the like. May include discussion of literary examples, both classic and contemporary, along with student work.  
• ENGL 214: Introduction to Poetry Writing - A beginning workshop, focusing on such elements of poetry as verse-form, syntax, figures, sound, tone. May include discussion of literary examples as well as student work.

References provide the information necessary for readers to identify and retrieve each work cited in the text .

Check each reference carefully against the original publication to ensure information is accurate and complete. Accurately prepared references help establish your credibility as a careful researcher and writer.

Consistency in reference formatting allows readers to focus on the content of your reference list, discerning both the types of works you consulted and the important reference elements (who, when, what, and where) with ease. When you present each reference in a consistent fashion, readers do not need to spend time determining how you organized the information. And when searching the literature yourself, you also save time and effort when reading reference lists in the works of others that are written in APA Style.

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