what is the difference between creative nonfiction and creative writing

What Is Creative Nonfiction? The 4 Elements of Creative Nonfiction

You’ve encountered creative nonfiction countless times—in conversation, on social media, and on the written page, but could you define or explain it if asked? Here, we’ll look at the kinds of writing and speech that make stories, podcasts, and countless other media come to life, all while sticking to the truth.

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What is creative nonfiction?

Creative nonfiction is a genre of writing that combines factual accounts found in nonfiction with literary techniques found in fiction and poetry. In other words, it’s a true story with a touch of literary flair. Certain genres of nonfiction are often written as creative nonfiction, such as memoir, personal essays, literary journalism, and travel and food writing. An effective creative nonfiction story both informs and entertains its readers.

4 elements of creative nonfiction

The key difference between traditional nonfiction and creative nonfiction is the use of literary devices and techniques. While the characters and events in a work of creative nonfiction should be factually accurate, they are presented in a way that is purposely engaging to the reader .

Some elements that you’ll find in creative nonfiction include:

1 Scene setting

Writers focus on the tangible details about a time and place to immerse their readers in a scene. This can be achieved through literary devices such as imagery , simile, and metaphor .

2 Character development

Real people are fleshed out with backstories, mannerisms, and motivations, just like in real life. Some literary techniques that you might find in creative nonfiction are flashbacks, direct characterization , and dialogue .

3 Narrative

Much like novels, creative nonfiction stories have a beginning, middle, climax, and end. The order in which these events unfold is the story’s narrative . By using different narrative structures, the writer can control the pace at which events unfold and draw the reader further into the story.

4 Subjectivity

In traditional nonfiction, the writer keeps a distance from the subject. But in creative nonfiction, the writer’s perspective, emotions, and insights can be part of the story. This is particularly true of personal essays, which are often written from a first-person point of view .

In terms of structure, creative nonfiction borrows elements from fiction such as chapters, acts, nonlinear timelines, and pacing. In creative nonfiction, writers shape events into stories, in a way that flows naturally and keeps readers engaged from start to finish. But facts are still primary.

Forms of creative nonfiction

Common forms of creative nonfiction include memoir, personal essays, literary journalism, travel writing, food writing, and more.

A memoir is a type of creative nonfiction in which the author writes about past experiences and events from their own life. Memoirs are typically longer narratives that involve extensive reflection, character development, dialogue, scene descriptions, and other literary techniques to share the author’s memories and insights. The goal is to craft an accurate but engaging life story.

Personal essay

The personal essay is a short prose composition in which the author explores a specific topic, experience, or idea from their personal point of view. Personal essays use literary tools like descriptive language, humor, and philosophical musings to share thoughts and reflections with readers. Events and topics are drawn from the author’s life and can range from the absurd to the mundane and everyday.

Literary journalism

Also known as narrative journalism, literary journalism combines factual reporting and research with vivid scenic descriptions, character profiles, dramatic pacing, and rich sensory details. In traditional journalism, there is a structure known as “the inverted pyramid,” which describes the way journalists place the most important information at the beginning of the story, and then work their way down through the details until they reach a pointed conclusion. Literary journalism allows the journalist to abandon this structure to tell the story in the way they think will be most compelling to readers.

Other forms

Some other forms of creative nonfiction are travel writing, food writing, and oral histories. Sometimes these genres overlap, like in Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love (travel writing and memoir) or My Life in France by Julia Child (food writing, travel writing, and memoir).

Nonfiction and fiction vs. creative nonfiction

Most of the time, the difference between fiction and nonfiction is straightforward. True stories are nonfiction; invented stories are fiction. Once in a while, you’ll come across a piece of writing that reads like fiction but is based in fact. You’ve found a piece of creative nonfiction. So what is the difference between fiction, nonfiction, and creative nonfiction?

Nonfiction simply aims to convey factual information or arguments in a clear, straightforward way. It generally lacks extensive descriptive language, character development, or narrative elements. Examples of straightforward nonfiction are scientific research papers, police reports, textbooks, traditional journalism articles, and some biographies.

Fiction invents characters, settings, and plots that are ultimately products of imagination. The author is free to alter events and outcomes to serve the story. Fiction may be inspired by true events, but if any part of the story is untrue, altered, or unverifiable, then the story is considered fiction.

Creative nonfiction lives in between these two genres, merging factual accuracy with literary flair. Nothing is made up, but the use of literary elements might make the story read more like a mystery, drama, comedy, or other genre of fiction.

Creative nonfiction examples

Eat, pray, love by elizabeth gilbert.

This memoir chronicles a year that the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, spent traveling the world after a difficult divorce. She uses a three-part narrative structure based on the three different countries she visited that year. Though the events and characters are rooted in her experiences, her use of nontraditional narrative structure, flashbacks, imagery, and first-person point of view make it a work of creative nonfiction.

The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

The Orchid Thief is a work of literary journalism that threads together three distinct storylines.

Orlean uses extensive research, interviews, character studies, and her own experiences to generate the nonfiction material. She then breaks the story into three distinct threads and braids them together, using a nontraditional narrative structure and pacing adopted from dramatic fiction.

Irons in the Fire by John McPhee

To report Irons in the Fire , John McPhee traveled with a cattle brand inspector through rural Nevada, researching and taking notes on every interaction and conversation he had along the way. His long-form article is full of rich character dialogue, descriptive scene setting, and even elements of suspense and mystery as McPhee relays story after story of cattle disputes in the Wild West.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Truman Capote’s famous work of creative nonfiction, “In Cold Blood” tells the true story of the murder of a Kansas farm family. Rather than simply presenting the facts gathered through police reports and interviews, as a traditional journalist might, Capote shifts perspectives and uses flashbacks to build up the lives of his subjects.

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib

In an essay titled “It Rained in Ohio on the Night Allen Iverson Hit Michael Jordan With a Crossover,” Hanif Abdurraqib recounts in granular detail a three-second play during a basketball game. The play did actually happen, but the insights he gleans and the language he uses splinter away from a straightforward play-by-play.

Creative nonfiction FAQs

Creative nonfiction is a genre of fact-based writing that uses literary techniques to tell true stories in a compelling way.

How is nonfiction different from creative nonfiction?

Regular nonfiction focuses on just conveying facts and information without much literary flair, while creative nonfiction uses storytelling devices to engage readers.

What are the different kinds of creative nonfiction?

Some common forms of creative nonfiction include memoirs, personal essays, literary journalism, travel writing, food writing, and humor writing.

What Is Creative Nonfiction? Definitions, Examples, and Guidelines

by Kaelyn Barron | 4 comments

The term “creative nonfiction” tends to puzzle many writers and readers. If nonfiction is supposed to be about the facts, how is there room to get “creative” with it?

It turns out, there are many ways to present real facts and events besides boring reports and charts. In fact, the best journalists and writers are often the ones who can present accurate information while also telling a riveting story.

Creative nonfiction combines 100% factual information with literary elements to tell real stories that resonate with readers and provide insight to actual events.

This is what your favorite memoirists, travel writers, and journalists do every day, and you can, too. Even if you don’t intend on publishing your work, learning to be an effective storyteller can enrich both your writing and communication skills.

What Is Creative Nonfiction?

Creative nonfiction is a genre of writing that uses elements of creative writing to present a factual, true story. Literary techniques that are usually reserved for writing fiction can be used in creative nonfiction, such as dialogue, scene-setting, and narrative arcs.

However, a work can only be considered creative nonfiction if the author can attest that 100% of the content is true and factual. (In other words, even if just a few details from one scene are imagined, the story could not be considered creative nonfiction.)

The label “creative nonfiction” can be applied to a number of nonfiction genres, including:

• Autobiography
• Literary journalism
• Travel writing
• Nature writing
• Sports writing
• Personal essay

What Is the Difference Between Nonfiction and Creative Nonfiction?

The primary difference between nonfiction and creative nonfiction is that regular nonfiction informs or instructs by sticking to the facts.

Creative nonfiction also informs readers, but it does so by building a narrative around the facts by introducing the scene and building the characters of real people so readers can better relate to them.

What Are the Elements of Creative Nonfiction?

Because creative nonfiction is still nonfiction , there are important criteria that a piece of writing must meet in order to be considered part of this genre.

The writing must include:

• Facts : Creative nonfiction must be rooted in facts. No part of the story can be made up or fabricated.
• Extensive research : Both primary and secondary sources should be used throughout the research process. It is the writer’s responsibility to conduct extensive research for the most accurate narrative possible.
• Reporting : The writer should use said research to accurately document events or personal experiences.
• Personal experiences or opinions : Though this is not a requirement, personal experiences or the opinions of others can help create a more complete picture.
• Exposition or explanations : The topic or experience(s) presented should be explained to the reader.

In order to build a narrative around a set of facts, creative nonfiction uses a set of elements that we usually associate with fiction.

These can include, but are not limited to:

• Storytelling/narration : Unlike a straightforward historical report, creative nonfiction should be told like a story, meaning that inciting incidents, goals, challenges, turning points, and resolutions are present.
• Characters : Every creative nonfiction piece should have a main “character,” even though they must be real and accurately presented. In a memoir, for example, the narrator is typically the protagonist.
• Setting/Scene development : The setting should be brought to life with vivid descriptions and scenes filled with action and dialogue.
• Plot structure : The story should have a plot , with key events that make up the story. There might be one event in a personal essay, or several significant events and turning points, as is common in memoirs.
• Figurative language : Figures of speech , such as similes or metaphors, can be used to create an interesting work of creative nonfiction.
• Imagery : A skillful use of imagery is essential in creative nonfiction in order to bring important scenes alive for the readers.
• Point of view: Point of view is important in this genre, as it affects the entire storytelling process. Most often, these stories are told in the first person (using “I” to narrate firsthand experiences and events).
• Dialogue: Dialogue can really help build the narrative and develop scenes. Rather than reporting with “he said/she said”, including scenes with dialogue helps to place the reader directly in the scene.
• Theme : Every essay and story should have a theme , or central idea that ties the whole work together. This can also be considered the main “message” of your work.

When Did Creative Nonfiction Start?

According to a Poets & Writers article published in 2009, Lee Gutkind is often credited with coining the term “creative nonfiction” as early as 1973, when he also taught a course at the University of Pittsburgh with those same words in its title.

However, Gutkind himself has admitted that this wasn’t really the case, and that he had heard the term before, but couldn’t remember where or from who.

Indeed, there is earlier written evidence of the term, as it appeared in a 1969 review by David Madden of Frank Conroy’s  Stop-Time .

Madden mentioned in the review, “In  Making It , Norman Podhoretz, youthful editor of  Commentary , who declares that creative nonfiction is pre-empting the functions of fiction, offers his own life as evidence.”

In that same review, Madden called for a “redefinition” of nonfiction writing in the wake of Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, and Jean Stafford, all writers whose style reflects the characteristics of what we defined earlier as “creative nonfiction.”

Examples of Creative Nonfiction

To gain a better understanding of this genre, let’s take a look at several examples of real books that can be considered creative nonfiction.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while he was still working on this book. At just 36 years old and about to finish a decade of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer.

With a wife and a young child, Kalanithi became “possessed…by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life.”

Through his narrative, Kalanithi documents the struggles, both internal and external, that he and his young family endured, but also offers inspiration to all of us for how life should be lived.

Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker

On a lighter note, journalist Bianca Bosker brings us Cork Dork , her firsthand account of the fascinating world of wine, sommeliers, scientists, and producers.

Follow her dive into underground tastings, exclusive restaurants, and mass-market factories as Bosker seeks an answer to the question many of us wonder about: What’s the big deal about wine?

With her insightful reporting and delightful storytelling, you may just find yourself becoming a “cork dork,” too.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer unfolds the story of Christopher Johnson McCandless, a young man who gave $25,000 in savings to charity and abandoned most of his possessions before walking alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley.

McCandless’s decomposing body was found four months later by a moose hunter. In this book, which also became a feature film, Krakauer explores how this young man came to die, and what led him on such a journey in the first place.

Through remarkable storytelling, Krakauer brings this pilgrimage out of the shadows and shines a light on McCandless’s motives with a rare understanding.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

Michelle McNamara, true crime journalist and creator of the site TrueCrimeDiary.com, became obsessed with finding the violent psychopath known as the “Golden State Killer,” a serial rapist and murderer.

McNamara studied police records, interviewed victims, and joined the online communities of people who were as obsessed as she was with this case.

This book offers a chilling account of a criminal mastermind, while also providing a portrait of Michelle’s obsession and pursuit of the truth.

Tips for Writing Creative Nonfiction

If you want to try your hand at writing creative nonfiction, it’s important that you know how to take great notes and practice your observation skills.

After all, your first responsibility is to present people and events accurately, so keeping a notebook or journal handy is important for scribbling down all those important details that you won’t want to forget.

You can also try out some of our creative writing prompts , which includes a section for writing memoirs and nonfiction to inspire you.

Do you have any favorite examples of creative nonfiction? Share them with us in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

• What Is Magical Realism? Definition and Examples
• What Is a Novel?
• What Is Creative Writing? Types, Techniques, and Tips
• The 16 Best Memoirs to Read Right Now

As a blog writer for TCK Publishing, Kaelyn loves crafting fun and helpful content for writers, readers, and creative minds alike. She has a degree in International Affairs with a minor in Italian Studies, but her true passion has always been writing. Working remotely allows her to do even more of the things she loves, like traveling, cooking, and spending time with her family.

Thanks for this. It really helps me a lot!

You’re very welcome, Rowena! Glad we could help :)

Creative Nonfiction …. Kaelyn Barron’s concise description of this genre brings clarity. Certainly fits what I am writing, where others pronounced it as memoir or biography…could have been my description? Barron’s article here on the subject, now has me enthusiastically headed in the proper direction!!

Thanks Bonnie, I’m so happy to hear you found my article helpful! Best of luck with your book :)

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Creative Nonfiction: What It Is and How to Write It

Sean Glatch  |  March 31, 2024  |  8 Comments

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

[…] writing a “Spring” scene today. I’ve mentioned before that my memoir is a work of creative non-fiction. Since much of the story takes place 2-5 decades ago, I don’t remember a lot of the […]

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Creative non-fiction

What’s the difference between narrative non-fiction, creative non-fiction, and literary non-fiction? Not a lot apparently; many instructive websites suggest that these phrases are synonymous. During discussions with people interested in writing for pleasure, and for professional purposes, I’ve noted that the word ‘creative’ causes confusion. Surely, ‘creative’ and ‘non-fiction’ are conflicting terms; a truthful account must be non-fiction, and when you’re being creative it must be fiction. If we draw a straight line between these two positions, I think we can put creative non-fiction somewhere in the middle, beside narrative non-fiction and literary non-fiction. In this ambiguous space we give ourselves licence to ‘play’, but we must also obey certain rules.

First, our writing must be predicated on facts.

Second, the reader must be confident in the writer’s honesty.

And, third, comprehensive research must be undertaken, and evidenced—this backs up the first two points.

Perhaps a definition from researcher and teacher, Bronwyn T. Williams, taken from A Companion to Creative Writing helps:

Creative nonfiction locates its power in our desires for knowledge and narrative (…) [It brings] together the relating of events, people, and places that are the province of journalists, historians, and biographers, with the narrative techniques and lyrical tools of novelists and poets. (p25)

The ‘creative’ part, then, is relevant to how we recount facts. Creative non-fiction writers aim to entertain and many techniques from fiction are employed, such as re-organising a time line, (it doesn’t have to be chronological), or incorporating pieces of introspection by the author/narrator, (the omniscient narrator rarely features in creative non-fiction). It’s also worth thinking about what to leave out as much as what to include. Many fascinating nuggets of research will be unearthed, but not all will interest the reader. So, by strict editing, the story is strengthened and we can bring about drama. My own experience proves this last point; I provided sixty thousand words of a book-length creative non-fiction work for my thesis and I have another document of similar length which contains all the words and ideas I edited out!

Veracity in Creative non-fiction

When I first came across the term ‘creative non-fiction’ I was perplexed by the aspect of truth. How much leeway does the writer have in this respect? To learn a bit more I read Truth in nonfiction , a selection of essays edited by a well-known champion of the form, David Lazar. Whilst it is not acceptable to make up facts, it is possible to imagine scenarios (so long as this is clearly marked as being so), but I was only partly reassured. One of the essays Lazar includes in the collection is written in the style of a fairy tale. How can this be creative non-fiction? Well, if Lazar suggests it is then I’m going to keep an open mind. More clarity is given in another of the essays, however, by memoirist, Vivian Gornick, who says personal narrative is ‘a tale taken from life’, and that it ‘has the same responsibility as the novel (…) to shape a piece of experience out of the raw materials of one’s own life so that it moves from a tale of private interest to one that has meaning for the disinterested reader.’ (p8) She states (in respect to memoir) that ‘without shape you have diary entries, analytic transcripts, police blotter descriptions: you do not have memoir’. (p9)

Additionally, poet and scholar Helen Mort puts forward a case for the imagination in her contribution to The Routledge Handbook of Place . She says that persuasiveness is valid, and that ‘we might understand a location as much through myth and legend as through measurable data or the more easily verifiable narratives offered by history’. And, coining the term ‘ghost-rhetoric’, Mort suggests that stories can ‘sit alongside—or, in some cases, even overwrite—historically accurate or quantitatively provable narratives.’ (p645) Permission to use anecdote, myth, or third-hand accounts, allows the creative non-fiction writer plenty of scope to produce interesting pieces of work. So, the fairy tale essay is not quite so absurd...

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Creative Writing PhD

For myself, I put my specialist genre of writing— Place Writing —in the creative non-fiction category. This is simply because my academic studies have taken me down this route. My Doctorate is a PhD in Creative Writing —a catch-all term. I would have preferred the qualification to be more specific and a PhD in Creative Non-fiction Writing would have suited me better because my writing sits in the non-fiction arena of life-writing, specialist subjects such as Place Writing , and personal essays.

There is very little critical commentary out there on Place Writing (hence my own research, and this Substack). The word ‘creative’ is really important as there is clearly quite a bit of licence to be imaginative in this form of writing, and this is not so obvious when you see the headings ‘narrative non-fiction’ or ‘literary non-fiction’.

What do you think?

Narrative non-fiction? Creative non-fiction? Literary non-fiction?

Do these terms confuse you?

Do you have a preference?

Do you notice any differences between them?

I look forward to chatting with you in the comments!

Notes & References:

I chose to write ‘non-fiction’ hyphenated though, as you see above, it can be written without the hyphen; consistency is crucial.

Photos are my own.

Here are the references for the books I mention. Affiliate links take you to my online bookshop but these books may be obtained elsewhere:

A Companion to Creative Writing (2013). Edited by Graeme Harper.

Truth in Nonfiction (2008). Edited by David Lazar.

The Routledge Handbook of Place (2023). Edited by Tim Edensor, Ares Kalandides and Uma Kothari.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, tap the heart to let me know! Thank you!

Discussion about this post

I think the history behind these terms is also interesting. Creative Nonfiction was coined by Lee Gutkind as a rebranding of New Journalism and it took hold. Also called long-form journalism or narrative nonfiction. I, too, share some of those concerns about veracity, including my own, which is part of why I am so drawn to it. It being creative nonfiction or whatever we want to call writing true stories.

Thank you for this thoughtful piece. I think the term creative non-fiction works well for readers and helps them know what to expect, while giving writers the freedom to be imaginative and bring a story alive with their words. For me the term literary non-fiction has little meaning I can grasp whereas narrative non-fiction works okay.

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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.

10 Types of Creative Nonfiction Books and Genres and How to Write It

• June 15, 2024
• Script Writing

Table of Contents Hide

What is creative nonfiction, 1. scene setting, 2. character development, 3. narrative, 4. subjectivity, #2. personal essay, #3. travel writing, #4. literary journalism, #5. features, #6. cultural criticism, #7. ekphrastic essays, #8. lyric essay, #9. hermit crabs & other borrowed forms, #10. flash nonfiction, how to write creative nonfiction: the 5 r’s, recommendation.

People always thought creative writing was all about fiction. Take a wild guess, what can be creative about nonfiction? It is already nonfiction and factual, so, no form of creativity is entertained, right?

You are absolutely wrong!

Creativity goes into fiction as much as it does in nonfiction.

In fact, I can argue that the creativity involved in nonfiction may be similar when juxtaposed. Well, that’s not the basis of this writing.

Moving forward, learn all about creative nonfiction, including its types, elements, and how to write it.

Creative nonfiction (CNF) is a way of telling stories that uses literary elements like poetry and fiction to tell real stories in a new way.

Creative nonfiction writers don’t just tell funny stories; they use craft and technique to pull the reader into their own lives. Poetic and fictional elements, like conceit and juxtaposition, as well as story arcs and character growth, work together to make a story that makes sense.

See also: How Many Word Count Are in a Novel? Word Count by Genre

4 Elements of Creative nonfiction

The main difference between creative nonfiction and regular nonfiction is the use of literary tools and methods. Creative nonfiction should have people and events that are based on real events, but it should also be written in a way that draws the reader in on purpose.

The following are elements of creative nonfiction:

To completely immerse readers in a scene, writers focus on certain features of a time and place. Metaphor, simile, and imagery are examples of literary elements that might help with this.

Genuine people, like real people, have goals, backgrounds, and distinguishing features. Dialogue, vivid characterization, and flashbacks are all common literary themes used in creative nonfiction.

As with books, creative nonfiction works have a beginning, middle, climax, and end. The narrative of the story is the order in which these events occur. Using different narrative models, the author can guide the reader’s attention and set the pace of the story.

In traditional nonfiction, the author keeps personal opinion a bay from the topic. Creative nonfiction, on the other hand, can infuse the writer’s point of view, feelings, and insights into the story. This is especially true for personal essays, which are usually written in the first person.

Creative nonfiction uses fiction’s chapters, acts, nonlinear timelines, and pacing as structural components. Writers of creative nonfiction blend events into narratives that flow naturally and keep readers’ attention from start to finish. However, the facts remain the most important element.

10 Types of Nonfiction Books and Genres

What are the types of nonfiction? Let’s examine common forms of the genre in detail.

Memoirs, one of the most popular types of creative nonfiction, describe the author’s personal experiences. Unlike autobiographies, memoirs do not need to be encyclopedic. Memoirs are one of the most straightforward types of creative nonfiction to write!

Memoirs, which narrate the author’s personal life, are one of the most popular types of creative nonfiction.

Memoirs are narrative works that frequently connect the author’s personal experiences to universal human concerns such as family, youth, and sadness.

Check out Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk, which explains the year she spent training a northern goshawk after her father died, to see what this means in practice.

But memoirs can be longer than articles. Memoir works are regularly grouped into essay collections and are a great starting point for a book project!

A personal essay, like a memoir, is based on the author’s own life and viewpoint and often provides the reader with a close-knit experience. However, personal essays are less narrative in form. Rather, the activity is usually inward-focused and mentally motivated.

Because of this, difficult-to-answer problems are commonly addressed in personal essays. The reader feels joy in watching the author attempt to handle difficult themes in a thought-provoking way. This is entirely in line with the meaning of “essay,” which is “to try.”

Personal essays are less narrative-focused. Rather, it is usually inward-focused and mentally motivated.

Memoirs hint at larger human themes, but personal essays create a direct link between societal narratives and the individual’s experience. In fact, personal experience is used as the stories and evidence. Personal essays use braiding, which is a structure that makes alternating from personal stories to a larger story possible when illustrating the connection between the person and society.

Nonfiction travel writing can take many different forms, including travel guides, blogs, journalism, and memoirs. Whatever the style, great travel writing allows readers to picture and interact with an unfamiliar environment.

Thus, travel writers employ sensory-engaging prose that transports you to a place you would not otherwise visit.

A well-written travel essay helps readers visualize and experience a strange place.

There are times when the writer’s mental trip takes precedence over the thrill of travel.

Literary journalism, sometimes known as “immersion journalism,” “narrative journalism,” or “new journalism,” is a type of nonfiction writing that combines reporting with creative writing methods and approaches, such as character development.

Literary journalists frequently write in the first or third-person limited viewpoint. Instead of simply delivering information, such works seek to spark a deeper conversation among their readers.

Literary journalism is a subgenre of nonfiction writing that blends reporting with creative writing methods and approaches, such as character development.

A feature is a longer style of journalism than a news story, with the main goal of informing the reader about recent developments in the story’s facts. Features can provide a different perspective on a current subject or more in-depth coverage. Most importantly, features do not need to cover breaking news. This style of writing is more interesting and usually incorporates different perspectives. The writer has more room to play with style and structure.

Literary writing does not always take the form of a feature, though it can. Feature pieces can take several forms, including news features, trend reports, profiles, immersive features, and “creative” features based on the author’s personal experiences. As a result, features appear in many media outlets, including literary journals and newspapers.

See also: Point of View vs Perspective: Differences and Examples for Writers

This type of nonfiction investigates and offers criticism on a cultural element or artifact.

Cultural criticism generally examines little things to draw connections between them and larger cultural contexts. This is not to say that writing about culture must be abstract or broad. In fact, many cultural critics use their personal experiences as a starting point for more in-depth cultural debate.

The Greek word for “description,” ekphrasis, is commonly used to describe poetry written about a work of visual art. However, in modern literature, ekphrasis can be used in nearly any type of writing, including poetry and prose.

Ekphrasis is the use of poetry or prose to explain another work of art .

There are many ways to write an ekphrastic essay. These could be analytical articles on art, memoirs on your experiences, or the more creative method of speculating about the components of an artwork.

The nonfiction prose used in the lyric essay is more poetic and concise.

The lyric essay is a relatively new genre that uses more poetic and condensed nonfiction writing. As a result, it is commonly referred to as a poetry-nonfiction hybrid. Although the definition of a lyric essay remains unclear, the following characteristics apply to this genre:

A focus on language and figurative means rather than argument.

a focus on experience and research rather than reporting. Even though lyric essays usually incorporate extensive research, they do so in a suggestive manner, leaving gaps for the reader to draw their own conclusions.

A tendency to meditate. Even though lyric essays frequently use study and direct experience, their emphasis is on contemplative writing skills rather than producing a coherent tale or storyline.

Examples of lyric essays include Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric, Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, Amy Leach’s Things That Are, and Kathryn Nuernberger’s The Witch of Eye.

The hermit crab, introduced in 2003 by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola in their book Tell it Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction, adds a wonderful variety to the nonfiction prose styles used in current creative nonfiction.

Coined in 2003 by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola in their book Tell it Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction, the hermit crab adds a delightful variety to the types of nonfiction prose in contemporary creative nonfiction. The essay The Hermit Crab repurposes everyday forms—things we don’t usually conceive of as “literary”—as formats for creative nonfiction. A hermit crab, for example, may use the structure of a crossword puzzle, recipe, FAQ, or how-to manual.

Such texts generally discuss delicate or prickly issues (thus the allusion to the soft-bodied hermit crab that hunts for shells to live in).

See also: What Is a Narrative Arc (or Story Arc)? All You Need to Know

Flash nonfiction essays run from a few hundred to two thousand words in length, however most publications only allow one thousand words. Precision and compression are stressed in flash nonfiction. It pushes the limits of how much you can hint at or how much plot you can tell in a few hundred words..

Lee Gutkind created a structure called the “5 R’s” of CNF writing. The five Rs work together to provide a solid foundation for all creative writing tasks. They are as follows:.

Write about real life: In creative nonfiction, write about actual people, real places, and genuine events that have happened or are now occurring.

Conduct extensive research: Learn everything you can about the problem in order to improve and broaden your ability to express it effectively.

(W)rite a narrative: Use storytelling strategies drawn from fiction, such as Freytag’s Pyramid, to structure the narrative of your CNF piece as a literary tale rather than a straightforward recount.

Include personal reflection: Give the narrative you’re reciting your own voice and view.

Learn by reading: Reading excellent creative nonfiction is the best way to improve your own writing style. Consume as much CNF as possible, paying close attention to how the author’s choices impact you as a reader.

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• Writers.com – types and elements of creative nonfiction
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What Is Creative Nonfiction?

Written By Garry   |   Nonfiction , Writing   |   0 Comments

Creative nonfiction blends true stories with literary techniques for an interesting read. Forms include memoirs, essays & literary journalism. It uses fiction's tools to make real-life events, people & places more captivating. Examples: "The Glass Castle", "The Year of Magical Thinking", & "Into the Wild"

What Makes Creative Nonfiction Different From Creative Writing?

Creative nonfiction and creative writing are related but distinct genres.

Creative nonfiction is a type of writing that uses literary techniques to make true stories more interesting and engaging.

It is based on real events, people, and places, but the author uses the tools of fiction writing to tell the story in a more compelling way. Examples of creative nonfiction include memoirs, personal essays, and literary journalism.

Creative writing, on the other hand, is a broader term that encompasses a wide range of genres, including fiction, poetry, and drama.

Creative writing is writing that is created from the imagination, and it is not necessarily based on real events or people. Examples of creative writing include novels, short stories, and plays.

Creative nonfiction is a specific genre of writing that is based on real events and uses literary techniques to make the story more engaging, while creative writing is a broader term that encompasses a wide range of genres that are created from the imagination.

What Are the Similarities Between Creative Writing and Creative Nonfiction?

Both creative writing and creative nonfiction use literary techniques to tell a story in an interesting and engaging way. Some similarities between the two include:

Use of literary techniques: Both creative writing and creative nonfiction use literary techniques such as characterization, plot, dialogue, imagery, and symbolism to make the story more interesting and engaging. For example, "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls, uses characterization to create interesting and complex characters, and uses imagery to create a vivid sense of place. "The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion uses similar techniques to create a compelling narrative and evoke emotions.

Emphasis on storytelling: Both creative writing and creative nonfiction place a strong emphasis on storytelling. Both genres use the elements of fiction to create a narrative that captivates the reader and makes them feel invested in the story. "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer is a good example of this, it tells a real-life story of a young man who ventured into the Alaskan wilderness and died, but it's told in a way that makes the reader feel invested in the story.

Use of imagination and creativity: Both creative writing and creative nonfiction require the use of imagination and creativity. In creative writing, the author creates a story from scratch, while in creative nonfiction, the author takes real events and uses imagination and creativity to make the story more engaging and interesting. Both "The Glass Castle" and "The Year of Magical Thinking" use imagination and creativity to convey the author's personal experiences in a way that makes them interesting and relatable.

The examples of "The Glass Castle" , "The Year of Magical Thinking" , and "Into the Wild" illustrates well how these similarities are used in practice.

Creative writing and creative nonfiction are similar in that they both use literary techniques to tell a story, place an emphasis on storytelling, and require the use of imagination and creativity. 

Mastering the Art of Creative Nonfiction: Understanding the 5 R's and 4 Golden Rules

The 5 R's of creative nonfiction are five elements that are essential to writing good creative nonfiction:

• Remembering: This refers to the process of remembering past events in order to write about them.
• Reflecting: This refers to the process of reflecting on past events in order to understand their meaning and significance.
• Researching: This refers to the process of researching additional information to provide context and background for the story.
• Recreating: This refers to the process of recreating past events in order to make the story more interesting and engaging.
• Revising: This refers to the process of revising and editing the story in order to make it the best it can be.

The 4 golden rules of writing creative nonfiction are:

• Show, don't tell: Instead of telling the reader how to feel, show them by using descriptive language and imagery.
• Use sensory details: Use details that appeal to the five senses to create a vivid and immersive experience for the reader.
• Avoid cliches: Instead of using cliches, be specific and original in your writing.
• Maintain objectivity: Maintain objectivity when writing about real-life events, even if they are personal experiences.

By following these 5 R's and 4 golden rules, you can write creative nonfiction that is compelling, engaging, and true to life.

How Does Creativity Contribute to Non Fiction Writing?

In conclusion, creative nonfiction is a unique and powerful genre of writing that combines the best of both worlds: the truth of nonfiction and the imagination of fiction.

By using literary techniques such as characterization, plot, dialogue, imagery, and symbolism, creative nonfiction writers can bring real-life events to life in a way that is both interesting and engaging.

But what really sets creative nonfiction apart is the role of creativity in the writing process.

Creativity is what allows writers to take real-life events and turn them into a narrative that is both true and captivating. It enables writers to use their imagination to bring characters to life, to create vivid settings, and to evoke emotions in the reader.

In creative nonfiction, creativity is not an optional extra, it is an essential part of the process.

It is what allows writers to take the raw material of their own experiences and turn it into something that is both true and beautiful.

By embracing creativity, writers can turn the ordinary into something extraordinary, and make the truth more powerful than ever before.

In short, creativity is what makes creative nonfiction writing unique and powerful. It allows writers to take real-life events and experiences and turn them into something that is both true and captivating.

So, if you want to write creative nonfiction that resonates with readers and stands the test of time, don't be afraid to let your imagination soar.

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