11Background_Creative Non-Fiction
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The voice employed in creative nonfiction often sounds like conversation or musing.
The voice gives personal authority to the writing and pulls the reader in - whether the "I" is the center of the text or on the sidelines.
Generally the nonfiction writer uses the first person. At the end of the essay, the reader will believe the author "believes so and so."
The writer promises the reader to be as honest as possible about the "events, emotions, and beliefs that the piece reports"
A commitment exists to use a full range of story-telling devices, dialogue, description, metaphor, anecdote, and character development.
Freedom in form and language goes wherever meaning and imagination take you.
Often, writers will state their thesis or theme. In other cases, they will tell the reader exactly what the piece means.
Creative nonfiction is still most effective when it does a great deal of showing.
The process of thinking is emphasized. Often, the writer's mind at work, struggling to understand, is as interesting as the subject matter.
The voice gives personal authority to the writing and pulls the reader in - whether the "I" is the center of the text or on the sidelines.
Generally the nonfiction writer uses the first person. At the end of the essay, the reader will believe the author "believes so and so."
The writer promises the reader to be as honest as possible about the "events, emotions, and beliefs that the piece reports"
A commitment exists to use a full range of story-telling devices, dialogue, description, metaphor, anecdote, and character development.
Freedom in form and language goes wherever meaning and imagination take you.
Often, writers will state their thesis or theme. In other cases, they will tell the reader exactly what the piece means.
Creative nonfiction is still most effective when it does a great deal of showing.
The process of thinking is emphasized. Often, the writer's mind at work, struggling to understand, is as interesting as the subject matter.
Nonfiction Characteristics*
Common Problems in Creative Nonfiction
Poor Storytelling occurs as a result of lack of detail, poor selection of events or detail, awkward dialogue, and too much telling.
Alice was a timid young woman. She was short and skinny, with brown hair with small eyes and face. She always peeked
inside the doorway before entering a party. "I just need to know who's there," she would say.
The description above is not, in itself, faulty. We just don't see Alice as a complete character; all we see is her timidity. If later descriptions follow the same scheme, the story languishes. Additionally, the description and dialogue does not occur in real time.
Failing the Reality Test happens when truth is altered in the telling process, usually inadvertently. Can the following three events occur simultaneously?
While I drank my tea, I pressed the seashell to my ear as I anxiously opened one of mother's bibles to the first page.
Alice was a timid young woman. She was short and skinny, with brown hair with small eyes and face. She always peeked
inside the doorway before entering a party. "I just need to know who's there," she would say.
The description above is not, in itself, faulty. We just don't see Alice as a complete character; all we see is her timidity. If later descriptions follow the same scheme, the story languishes. Additionally, the description and dialogue does not occur in real time.
Failing the Reality Test happens when truth is altered in the telling process, usually inadvertently. Can the following three events occur simultaneously?
While I drank my tea, I pressed the seashell to my ear as I anxiously opened one of mother's bibles to the first page.