A Look At Creative Nonfiction Writing

Two things that you may not equate with one another are creativity and nonfiction. However, creative nonfiction writing is alive and well. Most every type of nonfiction is creative in some way. Some exceptions would be technical writing, textbooks, manuals and the like. Pieces like essays, articles, nonfiction books and other works can be very creative even if the subject matter is nonfiction. Many of the very same principles of fiction writing are used, as well as other techniques to make nonfiction an interesting thing to read.

First let's look at the creative writing essay. An essay is a piece of prose centered around a true event, person, idea or concept. An essay can be anything from what you did over the summer to how you dealt with the death of a family member. Essays can be comedic, tragic, informative, literary, all the things fiction can be. As a writer, my first published essay was a humorous look at surviving a stomach virus while caring for a baby and a toddler. Other essays may focus on activism, calling attention to a certain cause through the power of the prose.

The article is another piece of creative nonfiction. Articles can be about anything, depending on who you are writing for and what your assignment is. Some writers work for magazines or ezines and are told what to write about, others write on speculation then submit their articles to appropriate periodicals and/or websites. There are so many different slants you can take on one topic. Your own unique voice will come out even when writing factual information and the way you organize and structure the article is a work of creativity itself. Articles are like essays, they can be light, heavy, informative, entertaining, however you choose to write them.

Then of course there is the book. Nonfiction books can be the most creative of all, as the author has pages and pages in which to let their creativity run wild within the subject matter. For example, consider the many biographies of Marilyn Monroe. Each one contains factual information, often the same information, however each book is different because the authors are. Creative nonfiction writing can be just as fulfilling as writing fiction, if not more so for writers who have a soft spot for writing nonfiction. For some writers, nonfiction is more enjoyable and easier for them to write than fiction.

 


 

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Wonder, Discovery and Big Ideas: The World of Radiolab - LiveScience.com

Palm Beach Post
Wonder, Discovery and Big Ideas: The World of Radiolab
LiveScience.com
The son of a scientist and a doctor, Jad's interest in science actually came later, after studying creative writing and music composition at Oberlin College in Ohio, then writing film scores and becoming a reporter. The program launched in 2002, .
'Radiolab' hosts talk about their experimental showSun-Sentinel

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Museum gets state grant to bring art to local school
The Katonah Museum of Art has received grants from Target and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) to support "Young Artists and Writers: Thinking Through Art," a program bringing together the visual arts and poetry to develop creative and critical thinking in students at Lewisboro Elementary School...


Lethal Language: Ben Marcus Urges Writers to March on the Enemy - The Millions

The Millions
Lethal Language: Ben Marcus Urges Writers to March on the Enemy
The Millions
At that point I had no idea what the book would be, but I must have been craving order, some formal simplicity. Of course I quickly found a way to muck it up, but for a little while it was like writing with a new body and the whole experience woke me .

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Cincinnati Police announce anti-bullying art contest
Cincinnati Police and Cincinnati Public Schools officials held a press conference Tuesday morning to announce an anti-bullying art contest...


Produced by the people: Mainers crowd-fund their creative endeavors - The Forecaster

The Forecaster
Produced by the people: Mainers crowd-fund their creative endeavors
The Forecaster
"There are already specific groups in Maine that do great advocacy work and write about it," she said. "They get their work in the news. This is a smaller publication to feature local voices and local ideas." Pope-Welch works at a Portland nonprofit .

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