Creative Nonfiction

Amitendu Bhattacharya
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

GS F241 CREATIVE WRITING
BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus
BITS Pilani
K K Birla Goa Campus
CREATIVE NONFICTION
CREATIVE: Relating to or involving the use of
the imagination or original ideas to create

something
NON-FICTION: Prose writing that is
informative or factual rather than fictional.
What is Creative Nonfiction?

The words creative and nonction describe
the form
The word creative refers to the use of literary
craft, the techniques ction writers, playwrights,
and poets employ to present nonction
Factually accurate prose about real people and
events in a compelling, vivid, dramatic manner
The goal is to make nonction stories read like
ction so that the readers are as enthralled by
fact as they are by fantasy
Creative nonfiction is true stories well told
Criticism of the Term Creative

Nonfiction
Some reservations persist about the usage of

the word creative in close proximity to the word
nonfiction
Misunderstanding of the word creative:
pretend, exaggerate, concoct, embellish, LIE
Honesty & at the same time creative
representation of facts not impossible
Cardinal rule of creative nonfiction writing: You
simply cannot conjure up things
Also known as literary nonfiction or narrative
nonfiction
Things to Remember About Creative

Nonfiction
Fact-based narratives
Uses literary style (as opposed to
technical, business, or conversational
style)
Distinguished from other nonfiction, such
as, technical writing and journalism
Craft is important
Communicate information but in a riveting
way: spice up drab facts & details
Some Types of Creative Nonfiction
Biography
Autobiography
Memoir
Diary
Travelogue
Food writing
Literary Journalism
Chronicle
Personal Essay
Poem (very rare)
What Will We Study?
Personal Essay
Memoir
Literary Journalism
Lyric Essay
Personal Essay
A type of creative nonfiction
Short autobiographical prose
Expresses personal experiences, thoughts &
opinions
Characterized by a sense of intimacy
A conversational manner
Can be written on any subject under the sun
No structure is proscribed
Convey a personal experience/opinion in a
convincing way
Persuade the reader about the significance of an
event or thought
Personal Essay Contd.
What one feels, what one thinks about a

given topic.
Fragments of reflective autobiography
Look at the world through the keyhole of
anecdote and description
Biography
The history of particular mens lives.

A relatively full account of a particular
persons life
Attempts
to
set
forth
character,
temperament, and milieu, as well as the
subjects activities and experiences
Both the ancient Greeks and Romans
produced short, formal lives of individuals
Medieval authors wrote generalized
chronicles of the deeds of a king
Biography Contd.
Medieval authors also produced hagiographies:
the stylized lives of Christian saints, often based
more on pious legends than on fact
Secular biography appeared in the 17 th century
The 18th century in England saw the emergence of
the full-scale biography as a special literary genre
Nowadays, biographies of notable men and
women have become one of the most popular of
literary forms
Autobiography
Biography written by the subject about

himself/herself
Always written from the first person point of
view
Other than the formal type, autobiographical
works also include letters, diaries, journals,
memoirs, etc.
An autobiography may be placed into one of
four very broad types: thematic, religious,
intellectual and fictionalized
Memoir
Sub-category of autobiography; first person point
of view
Written account of ones past experience, an
experience one has personal knowledge of
Remembered
experienceReminiscencea
story someone tells about something that
happened in the past
Differs slightly from the autobiography in that the
emphasis in the memoir is not on the authors
developing self but on the people and events that
the author has known or witnessed
Memoir Contd.
Memoir has narrow focus on time & events

Autobiography vs. Memoir:
An autobiography is the story of a life,
whereas a memoir is a story from a life
Memoirs=Autobiography (a cluster of
memoirs make up an autobiography)
Autobiography is the summary of a whole
life; so an individuals written life account is
never
mentioned
in
the
plural
(autobiographies memoirs )
Literary Journalism
Literary pertains to the language, style &

structure that are found in works of literature
Journalism is the profession concerned with
the collection, processing, assessment,
presentation and dissemination of news
Literary journalism is the kind of writing that
comes closest to newspaper & magazine
writing
LJ combines factual reporting with narrative
techniques & stylistic strategies
Literary Journalism Contd.
LJ=Journalistic Writing + Fine Writing

In LJ, the artist & the journalist come together
Characteristics of a literary journalism piece:
Should be well-researched
Should focus on a brief period of time
Written mostly about routine events & facts
Should concentrate on what is happening outside
the writers small circle of personal feelings and
experiences
Marked by subjectivity, honesty & empathy

Not detached like traditional journalism which is
based on actual and confirmed facts
Provides interpretation, has a point of view,
experiments with narrative structure &
chronology
Journalism emphasizes institutions, whereas LJ
deals with ordinary events and picks up both
ordinary and extraordinary people as subjects
LJ broadens the range of personal essays

by incorporating historical facts, statistical
data, interviews, cultural details & political
issues
Because literary journalism requires a

closer, more active relationship to the
subject and to the people the author is
writing about, it is also referred to as
Immersion Journalism.
Shorter and terser than formal or personal
essays
Lyric Essay
Writing that straddles between prose & poetry

Association with music: musicality in prose
Regarded as High Art
Readers need to work out the meaning
As in poetry, readers participation is
necessary
Also called poetic essay or essayistic poem
because it employs poetic language
Experimental/clever style: emphasis on
artfulness, rather than conveying information
Lyric Essay Contd.
It does not elaborate or expound

Like poetry it can be both personal & nonpersonal
The lyric essay partakes of the poem in its
density and shapeliness, its distillation of
ideas and musicality of language. It partakes
of the essay in its weight, in its overt desire
to engage with facts, melding its allegiance
to the actual with its passion for imaginative
form.
Lyric Essay Contd.
Confusion in defining and categorizing

different types of creative nonfiction applies
to lyric essays too
Lyric essays suffer from an identity crisis
Many readers and listeners are deaf to the
cadence or music of language
Result: they read them as normal essays
The purpose of composing lyric essays then
falls flat!
***

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What are the main types of creative nonfiction discussed?

What are the main types of creative nonfiction discussed?

What are some characteristics of literary journalism?

What are some characteristics of literary journalism?

Amitendu Bhattacharya

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus

CREATIVE: Relating to or involving the use of

the imagination or original ideas to create

BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus

What is Creative Nonfiction?

Criticism of the Term Creative

Some reservations persist about the usage of

Things to Remember About Creative

Some Types of Creative Nonfiction

What Will We Study?

BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus

Personal Essay Contd.

What one feels, what one thinks about a

BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus

The history of particular mens lives.

BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus

Biography written by the subject about

Memoir has narrow focus on time & events

Literary pertains to the language, style &

Literary Journalism Contd.

LJ=Journalistic Writing + Fine Writing

Literary Journalism Contd.

LJ broadens the range of personal essays

Literary Journalism Contd.

Because literary journalism requires a

BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus

Writing that straddles between prose & poetry

BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus

Lyric Essay Contd.

It does not elaborate or expound

Lyric Essay Contd.

Confusion in defining and categorizing

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