Creative Nonfiction

Creative Writing

Try This (WNB)

Write about a person you feel strongly about. This could be a positive feeling or a negative one.

You don’t have to use names, but you can. This will be in your writer’s notebook.

What is creative nonfiction?

Creative Nonfiction: DefinedThis form of creative writing encompasses all prose that is not “untrue.”

In his book, Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life, Philip Gerard notes that nonfiction is named “not by what it is,” but by “what it is not.”

Creative Nonfiction: DefinedTells a true storyIs an essay enlivened and made more meaningful usingImagery VoiceCharactersSetting

Creative Nonfiction: Defined

“The nonfiction act satisfies our hunger for the real and our need to make sense, make order, out of chaos.”

Ron Powers

Creative Nonfiction: Defined

Is writing that includes the personal, but wants to say something bigger, something that allows the reader in.

Why write it?

Discover new aspects of ourselves and our world

Share our stories/ beliefsForge surprising comparisonsCreate artistic order out of life’s chaos

Stretch our writing muscles in new ways

Types

-Personal essay

-- Memoir

Personal Essays

Personal Essays: Webster says…PersonalOf, or relating to, a particular person

Therefore, the word “I” will appear quite often.

EssayBased in factReader expects it to be truthful

Comes from the French for “try” Attempt to:

Be accurate Be interesting Offer a

perspective

Personal Essay

Origin is in something that has happened in the writer’s life, but may be more recent (i.e. this morning)

May be an exploration of an area of interest

Personal Essay

Based in honesty and humility

Includes thoughts, ideas, and personal input of the writer, and is therefore a journey shared by the writer and the reader that depends on reflection

WARNING!

No one wants to read a completely self-referential piece of writing.

Personal essays should contribute information to others about the subject, not be completely self-absorbed.

In other words, remember: there’s an audience.

Forms

Narration & ReactionDescription Comparison/ContrastHow-ToCause & EffectDefinitionPersuasive

For Example…

“Everything that’s wrong with Facebook” - Phil TrinhSee handout.What event was this piece born out of?

What interest is this an exploration of?

How does Trinh feel about this topic?

What Could You Write About?

Let’s brainstorm ideas.

Brainstorming

Begin with the most conventional way of titling a piece.

On __________. Make a list of at least six things that represent things you like to write about, things that interest you and that you feel confident you know something about. These may be abstractions or specifics: On Liberty or On Jen’s Saddle.

Brainstorming Cont’d

Make a list of six subjects you do not want to write about, and wouldn’t show anybody if you did. (On _________.)

Brainstorming Cont’d

Make a list of six titles in which “On” makes the title a pun: On Speed, On the Net, On My Feet.

Brainstorming Cont’d

Make a list of six titles dealing with subjects about which you know “nothing at all.” For me, such a list might include: On Brain Surgery, On Indian Food, on Hardcore Music.

Next Step

If you choose to write an essay from the first list, you are embarking on an honorable enterprise.

If you choose to write an essay from the second list, you are very brave.

Next Step

If you choose to write from list three, you’ll probably have a good time--and remember that you should deal with both aspects of the pun. On My Feet should deal with toenails, calluses, and pain, but also with poise and presence.

Next Step

The last list offers the wildest ride and may turn up something original, comic, or unexpectedly true. Remember that your intent is not to deceive—signal or confess your ignorance when appropriate.

Any of the four lists may, like quickwrites, unlock subject matter you didn’t know you had in you.

Research (A Possibility in CNF)

Internet, booksPeople

InterviewsObservationDetective work

Your Turn…Choose A or B.

A: Select one of the topics brainstormed in today’s activity. Write a 2-3 page personal essay ON one of those topics.

How-To

B: Take on something you’ve never described how to do before and think of it as a title: “How to Lose a Good Friend” or “How to Avoid Bieber Fever”, for instance. Figure out the steps in accomplishing that goal and write your way from step one to the final step. Include specific equipment needed (a FB page for gossiping, a gallon of cookie dough ice cream, etc.) End by discussing how you realize the goal has been met.

Either way:

Write 2-3 pages (double-spaced).

Be truthful.Base in experience. REACT.