Creative Nonfiction: Types and Forms

Essential Learning Outcomes

• Different types and forms of Creative Nonfiction are identified through a written test.
• Different forms and types of creative nonfiction are compared and contrasted using a Venn diagram.
• A script is created for use in the production of a nonfiction podcast.

Creative Nonfiction

• Creative Nonfiction (CN) includes types of writing like food, travel, memoir, personal reflections, essays, and hybridized forms.
• Literary techniques are used to create elegant language and characters.
• The stories should be heartwarming and relatable.
• Creative nonfiction seeks to find the truth and explore the human side of triumphs and tragedies.
• Writing creative nonfiction reveals the uncovered aspects of life.

Autobiography

• The autobiography is a story of a person's life written by that person.
• Autobiographies are written in the first person since the author is the main character.
• Autobiographies are written to portray the life experiences and achievements of the author.
• Autobiographies are usually written later in the subject's life.
• Autobiographies are nonfictional accounts of a person’s life written in book form as a narrative.
• The author is a personality, a historical or public figure, or a writer.
• Autobiographies are written in chronological order.
• The emphasis is on the author's developing self.
• The author is the subject and narrator of the story.

Biography

• The biography is an account of someone's life written by someone else.
• Writing a biography includes gathering notes, letters, diaries, and historical data to document the subject’s life factually and completely.
• Biographies include key events in the subject’s life and their birthplace, education, work, and relationships.
• Biographers use research sources like interviews, letters, diaries, photographs, essays, reference books, and newspapers.
• While biographies are usually written, they can be produced in other formats, such as music.

Personal Narrative

• The personal narrative is a writing form in which the writer relates one event or experience from their life.
• It share life with others and allows them to experience the writer's feelings and actions.
• Personal narratives are often written from the perspective of "lessons learned in life.”
• Narrative storytelling is used to reflect and share new learning with readers through personal experience.
• An essay's narrative structure includes the introduction, body, and conclusion.
• An essay's introduction should let the reader know the nature and point of view of the writing.
• The scene is set by answering "when", "where", and "who."
• The body needs to provide a clear idea of what happened and how it made you feel.
• The facts can either be told chronologically or grouped together by importance.
• The essay's conclusion will wrap up and tell the point of the story like a lesson, idea, or learning experience.

Literary Journalism

• Literary journalism combines factual reporting with narrative techniques and stylistic strategies associated with fiction.
• It is sometimes called "immersion journalism."
• It requires a closer, active relationship with the subject and the people.
• A literary journalism piece should be well-researched, focus on a brief period, and concentrate on what is happening outside of the writer's small circle of personal experience and feelings.
• The genre combines research with the techniques of fiction writing in reporting stories about real-life events.

Reflective Essay

• The reflective essay examines his or her experiences in life.
• Those experiences are written about, exploring how he or she has changed, developed, or grown.
• Writing a reflective essay provides a platform for recounting a particular life experience.
• Writing this essay also explores how he or she has changed or learned from those experiences.
• Questions for writing a Reflective Essay:
  • What have you learned about yourself as a result of the experience?
  • Have you developed because of this experience? How?
  • Did it have any positive or negative bearing on your life?
  • Looking back, what would you have done differently?
  • Why do you think you made the particular choices that you did?
  • Do you think these were the right choices?

Travelogue

• It is a truthful account of an individual’s travel experiences.
• It is usually told in the past tense and in the first person.
• It is a diary of a person’s journey to another place.
• It is both narrative and factual.
• It describes personal experiences.
• Shares a collection of factual details that other travelers would find useful.
• Practical advice, vivid descriptions, actionable information, and genuine emotion are included.
• Travel writing walks readers through a trip with words, images, and even videos.
• A good travelogue is gripping like a story, practical like a guidebook, and visually and emotionally alluring like a magazine article.
• Travel writing includes writing about must-visit places and discussing the seasonal changes in a location.
• Travel writing includes transportation Options, Detailed Elaboration and Cultural Information.

Blog

• A blog is a shortened version of "weblog".
• It is an online journal or website displaying information in reverse chronological order, with the latest posts at the top.
• A platform where an individual or group of writers share their views on a subject.
• Blogs started in 1994 as personal diaries shared online.
• People saw an opportunity to communicate information differently.
• Common features of a typical blog: header with navigation, main content area, sidebar with social profiles, and footer with relevant links.

Testimony

• Testimony is defined as an oath in a court of law or the sharing of information about a religious experience.
• In the law, testimony is a form of evidence obtained from a solemn statement or declaration of fact.
• For testimony to be admissible in court, written testimony is usually witnessed under penalty of perjury to ensure it is authentic.
• Within the Evangelical Christian tradition, "testifying" is "to tell the story of how one became a Christian".
• Testimony may refer to a specific event in a Christian's life in which God did something deemed particularly worth sharing.
• Christians often give their testimony at their own baptism or at evangelistic events.