Creative Non-Fiction 12

Forms and types of Creative Non Fiction

What is creative non-fiction?
Creative nonfiction
 Merges the boundaries between literary art (fiction, poetry) and research
nonfiction (statistical, fact-filled, run of the mill journalism). It is writing
composed of the real, or of facts, that employs the same literary devices
as fiction such as setting, voice/tone, character development, etc. This
makes if different (more “creative”) than standard nonfiction writing.
 Sometimes called literary journalism or the literature of fact, creative
nonfiction merges the boundaries between literary art (fiction, poetry) and
research nonfiction (statistical, fact-filled, run of the mill journalism). It is
writing composed of the real, or of facts, that employs the same literary
devices as fiction, such as setting, voice/tone, character development, etc.

Different “types” of creative non-fiction writing:

1. Autobiography
 Story of a person’s life, written by that person.
 1st person point of view
 Usually book length
 Includes journals, diaries, letters, and memoirs
2. Biography
 Story of a person’s life told by someone else
 In 3rd person point of view (he/she/they)
 The writer is called the biographer
 Same elements as fiction (conflict, setting, etc.)
3. Memoir
 Focuses on an event or series of events that evoke a change of
view or feelings in an entertaining way. It helps the audience to
understand one single person, the author.
 The Basics
 Choose a topic you care about, a “snapshot” of your life.
 Seek a deeper theme within the simple description of an
event a reader can connect to.
 Use your own unique voice in writing
4. Literary Journalism
 Uses the techniques of journalism such as interviews and reviews
in order to look outside of the straightforward, objective world that
journalism creates. It uses literary practices to capture the
scene/setting of the assignment or the persona of the person being
interviewed. It can often be narrative or heavily imagistic.
5. Personal Essay
 Focuses on a topic through the lens of the personal experience of
the narrator.
6. Essay
 Short piece written on ONE subject
 Usually found in newspapers & magazines (and in Language Arts!)
 Purposes
 a) To share opinions
b) Entertain or persuade
c) To describe
7. Travelouge/Travel Writing
 Records the experiences of travelers in some interesting places
and circumstances. It includes vivid descriptions, illustrations,
historical background, and possibly maps and diagrams.
8. True Narratives
 is a story, based on actual events. The form of the true narrative is
undefined; the purpose in telling the story is to express a point or
observation.
 The typical prompt or assignment for the narrative essay will ask
you to describe an event that affected or changed your life. In other
words, in the narrative essay prompt, you are being asked to tell a
story.
9. Food Writing
 Focuses on communicating information about food. It lets readers
experience the relationship of food to man, to agriculture, nature,
climate, nation-building, culture, tradition, and even religion.
10. Profile
 Takes us behind the scenes of familiar places and gives a glimpse of
the inner workings of a person. The writer conveys an interpretation
or perspective. It introduces unusual professions, hobbies, and
personalities.
11. Movie Review
 Provides a short description of a film and includes the reviewer’s
opinion about it. It assesses the movie’s overall quality and
determines whether or not the film is worth recommending. A film
review can be formal or informal. When talking about an academic
writing assignment, a scholarly film review should definitely use
formal language.
12. Interview
 Conversation in which one person asks questions of another for the
purpose of obtaining information.
13. Blogging
 is an abbreviated version of "weblog," which is a term used to
describe websites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information.
A blog features diary-type commentary and links to articles on other
websites, usually presented as a list of entries in reverse
chronological order. Blogs range from the personal to the political,
and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.
14. Writing in the Digital World
 The Internet is a gold mine for writers. You can find countless
resources to improve your writing and advance your writing practice.
For instance, on the Internet, you can do the following:
a) Find writing prompts that inspire your creativity
b) Search for freelance writing jobs
c) Create a free blog where you can post your writing and
create a writing platform
d) Join an online writing community/ writing group
 e) Find out how to submit to writing contests or literary
publications such as Tin Hous
f) Read and learn how to write poetry, short stories,
personal essays, and more
g) Enroll in online creative writing courses
h) Purchase books on creative writing
i) Create a web presence and writing platform with social
media
j) Learn how to self-publish your fiction or creative nonfiction
k) Read poetry, short fiction, personal essays from popular
literary journals
15. Testimonio
 a Spanish term understood as “witness account”, embodies a
narrative research methodology rooted in Latin American history
(against the backdrop of social inequality that has plagued the region
since the 1950s).
 A testimonio is a first-person account by the person (narrator) who
has faced instances of social and political inequality, oppression, or
any specific form of marginalization. As opposed to other forms of
narrative research, where the researcher helps mold the narrative or
becomes a conduit to voice the stories, in testimonio it is usually the
narrator her/himself who is the research tool, with an interest in telling
the story from that individual perspective which, in turn, represents a
larger, collective story that took place in the community that the
narrator inhabits.

THE ESSAY’S
MONOLOGUE-LIKE APPROACH

Monologue
 Is a speech that expresses the thoughts or feeling of one character
 Monologues share much in common with several other literary devices
including soliloquies, apostrophes, and aside. There are, however,
distinctions between each of these devices.

Types Of Monologues
1. Soliloquy - the latter involves a character relating his or her thoughts and
feelings to him/herself and to the audience without addressing any of the
other characters
2. Dramatic Monologue - A speech that is given directly to the audience or
another character. It can be formal or informal, funny or serious; but it is
almost always significant in both length and purpose.
3. Internal Monologue - The expression of a character’s thoughts so that
the audience can witness (or read, in literature) what is going on inside
that character’s mind. It is sometimes (depending on the style in) referred
to as “stream-of-consciousness.”

Related Terms
 1. Aside - is when a character briefly pauses to speak directly to the
audience, but no other characters are aware of it.
2. Dialogue - is a conversation that occurs between two or more characters.

Choosing a Monologue
 Monologues can be found in many forms:
1. Complete Play: Whether it’s a full length or a one-act, most plays
have at least one monologue worth performing.
2. Movie Monologues: Some drama teachers, like me, won’t allow
students to select a speech from a film.
3. Monologue Books: There are hundreds of books filled with nothing
but monologues. Some are marketed to professional actors, while
others cater to high school and middle grade performers. Some
books are collections of original, “stand alone” monologues.
4. A "stand alone" monologue is not part of a complete play. It tells its
own brief story. Some drama teachers allow them, but some
instructors, like me, prefer students to select monologues from
published plays so that the performer can learn more about the
character’s background.

Rhetorical Modes
 (also known as modes of discourse) describe the variety, conventions,
and purposes of the major kinds of language-based communication,
particularly writing and speaking.
 There are several ways the concerns of a monologue or an essay are
explored and voiced out.
a) Narration – is a rhetorical mode or writing style that accounts for
what happened in an event or a sequence of events
b) Summarization – is the condensed account of a larger chunk of
information
c) Exposition – is an explanation or an elaboration of facts and
additional information
d) Introspection – is the articulation of one’s internal thoughts and
reflections about the people, places and events being discussed
e) Recollection – combines introspection with summarization or
narration for an account of a memory
f) Description – is the use of words to create a mental image of a
person, place, object, action or event
g) Persuasion – is the process of making someone see things your
way

Rhetorical Modes in Action in an Essay

 Exploring the thematic preoccupations of our essays effectively. Used in
concert with one another to chart the progression of this examination
 Literary Reportage

 Literary Reportage – is the art of blending documentary

 Reportage - style observations, with personal experience, perception, and anecdotal
evidence, in a non-fiction form of literature.

 Literary Journalism – is the creative nonfiction form that comes closest to newspaper
and magazine writing
- “immersion journalism”

Types of Literary Journalism

1. Print Journalism
- is the practice of investigating and reporting of events in newspaper,
magazines or in printed form to a broad audience.
2. Investigate
- aims to find out about the facts and presenting them in an unbiased
form to the public.
3. Broadcast Journalism
- is a type of news reporting presented to the public electronically or by
radio instead of being published in newspapers.
4. Reviews Journalism
- are partly opinion and partly fact based.
5. Feature Writing
- involves long blogs about the scope, depth or interpretation of any
event, object or any subject of concern. It brings the topics and
viewpoints to which were previously unseen to the limelight.
6. Column Journalism
- are like a personal blog where the writer gets to express his views on
any subject of his choice.

 Traditional/Conventional
- refers to mainstream media journalism, where journalistic authority is
based on the institution.

Prepared By:

Shendy M. Acosta
Subject Teacher