Creative Non-Fiction: Definition and Core Elements

Definition of Creative Non-Fiction

• Nonfiction includes compositions not based on anecdotal accounts.
• Creative nonfiction can be classified as history and biography, and might be instructional.
• It can offer publication, humor, and philosophical requests.
• Creative nonfiction is certified if it is not a made-up story.
• It is based on reality or truth.
• Creative nonfiction, also known as literary nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, literary journalism, or verfabula, uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives.

Core Elements of Non-Fiction

• Fact: The core of nonfiction contains factual information.
• Extensive research is conducted and gathered to provide accurate and reliable information.
• Reportage/reporting: Documentation of gathered information like interviews and reports helps for future usages.
• Personal experience and personal opinion can be used as the main source of contents, based from the personal experiences and personal insights of the writer.
• Explanation/Exposition: Explaining the story is expected. The outputs are often in essay format, such as procedural, personal, literary, and descriptive essays.
• Storytelling/narration: The goal, challenges, obstacles, turning points, and resolution of the story should be delivered to help the readers understand the flow.
• Character/Characterization: Characters are important, with the main character serving as the core or central idea of the storyline. The story revolves around the experiences of the main character with the help of the other characters.
• Setting, atmosphere, and scene: Action-oriented scenes include dialogue and contain vivid descriptions.
• Plot and plot structure are the main events that make up the story. Personal essays might have only one event, memoirs often have several.
• Figurative language provides aesthetics and vibrant effects.
• Imagery: The use of different sensory images adds color.
• Angle/Point of view: Nonfiction often uses the First Person Point of View.
• Dialogue makes the story run within the characters.
• Theme: It is the central idea or universal truth.

Lee Gutkind's "The Five R's of Creative Nonfiction."

• Creative nonfiction uses real life elements.
• The writer uses vital and real information about the subject, which can be associated on close attributes of the real experiences.
• Creative nonfiction allows the writer to engage on personal reflection about the subject.
• After gathering information, the writer needs to scrutinize and analyse the gathered information by Assessing ideologies and beliefs to be more factual based.
• Creative nonfiction instructs the author to conduct complete research by searching for relevant and vital information, investigating and weighing information that will be included in the story, auxiliary examinations ensures the data is honest and genuine. For instance, looking into an individual diary, or meeting a companion or relative.
• Reading while conducting research is not enough; the writer must recall the components through reading to improve and make some modifications.
• Writing imaginative true to life is both a workmanship and specialty utilizing gifts, senses, innovative capacities, and creative mind.

Forms of Creative Nonfiction

• Personal Essay: Uses information based on personal experience or a single event that leads to a significant personal meaning or lesson, using the first person "I."
• Memoir: Creates a real story within a time or period of life that contributed a significant personal meaning and truth, using the first person "I."
• Literary journalism essay: An output on an issue or topic using literary devices, such as the elements of fiction and figurative languages.
• Autobiography: Writes their own life story, from birth to the present, using the first person "I."
• Travel Writing: Creates article narration about travel using literary devices and figurative languages.
• Food writing: Crafts stories about food and cuisine using literary techniques that may lead to a review and recommendation.
• Profiles: Constructs life stories of people using literary devices.

Central Ideas

• Central ideas are the most essential ideas of a text; the key points the author wants to make.
• Nonfiction works use supporting details to develop central ideas such as proving the concept since you must consider reality, explaining the central idea, defining the concept, showing examples and illustrations, and giving additional information.
• Often, the central idea is directly stated near the beginning, but readers may also have to infer the central idea.

Paragraphs in Nonfiction Text

• Each paragraph has its own main idea used to support the central idea of the whole text.
• The main idea must be associated with supporting information and evidences to strengthen the main idea.
• The details of the piece shall go along with the central idea to attain unity and coherence.

Topic and Question

• In prewriting, it helps to choose a topic and link possible questions to focus on areas to highlight.

Narrative Structure or Shape of a Story

• Narrative structure lets you discover the details of the story through narration.
• Five popular narrative structures or shapes:
  • Telling the story chronologically, from beginning to end.
  • Braided Structure: Weaving or combining two, sometimes three, narratives or stories.
  • Collage: Using a thematic and segmented approach that combines elements such as a quotations, poem, scene, metaphor, simile, allusion, personification, image, vignette, anecdote, a short, short, true story, with an epiphany.
  • Frame: Telling a story by opening with a particular scene or reflecting and closing with a particular scene or reflection.
  • Narrative with Flashback: Telling a story using scene, summary, reflection, and flashbacks.

Distinctive Elements

• Good writers have a distinctive voice and a unique style.
• An author's style incorporates decision of expression, sentence assortment, tone, perspective, utilization of illustration, and other abstract gadgets.
• The tone of the keeping in touch is conversational.
• Stories are regularly told utilizing the main individual perspective.