writing creative nonfiction fiction techniques for crafting great nonfiction writing & journalism

[...]... Nonfiction, the New Journalism, Parajournalism, Literary Nonfiction, the New Nonfiction, Verity, the Nonfiction Novel, the Literature of Fact, the Literature of Reality, and—the name we know best Creative Nonfiction? Creative nonfiction tells a story using facts, but uses many of the techniques of fiction for its compelling qualities and emotional vibrancy Creative nonfiction doesn’t just report facts,... book, Techniques of Fiction Writing I am forever in his debt—and you, too, will soon be Surmelian wrote about these methods as applied to fiction, but I’ve since found that they may be the missing link that binds fiction to nonfiction, the link that makes some nonfiction more creative than some other nonfiction and thus increases the potential of journalistic nonfiction to aspire to art A creative nonfiction. .. sticking to the facts This book discusses how creative nonfiction differs from traditional journalism and how techniques used in fiction characterization, writing dramatically, using scenes, compressing information (“clumping”), developing character portraits and including character snapshots, using active instead of passive verbs—contribute to good creative nonfiction Excerpts from the work of many fine... of the eyewitness The creative nonfiction writer aims to be an eyewitness on the scene If that’s impossible, the writer researches a past event in much greater depth than the daily reporter has time to do The creative nonfiction writer may then write a credible scene in present tense, making the past seem present Of course, this places a great responsibility on the creative nonfiction writer; the reader...8 Character Development 134 9 Structures 147 10 Special Techniques 175 11 Research Methods 195 12 Ethical Considerations 221 Appendix Applications of Creative Nonfiction 237 selected bibliography 275 author–title Index 280 general index 287 1 e Creative Nonfiction When I wrote the first edition of this book, in the mid-1980s, creative nonfiction was a fairly new kid on the block Since then, much... predominates The former almost certainly has some summary material between scenes, but the method remains predominately dramatic Most creative nonfiction writers today blend the two methods, but with more scenes than the traditional journalist As we’ll see in a later chapter, this business of writing scene by scene is one of the many techniques borrowed by the nonfiction writer from the fiction writer Writing. .. that this kind of writing is well on its way to greater acceptance in daily journalism And why shouldn’t creative nonfiction still be gaining in popularity? In addition to the fact that there is a broad interest today in reading factual material presented in a vivid, dramatic, and entertaining way, readers also turn to nonfiction because it’s often stranger than fiction Who needs fiction in a world... very little or no conversation Many nonfiction pieces start out with conversation In nonfiction, as in fiction, when people appear, and particularly when they begin to converse, the story comes to life Until then, it’s largely promise Knowing this about fiction inspires many creative nonfiction writers to open with conversation The reader comes down the aisle looking for his or her seat while taking in... our best nonfiction writers make even their summary writing vivid, lively, imagistic, visual They try to get as close to purely dramatic writing as is possible through summary alone The summary method, using various techniques I’ll soon describe, serves extremely important ends One of its greatest strengths is its ability to telescope time, something the dramatic 20 / writing creative nonfiction method... Descriptive summary uses two descriptive techniques: informative description and suggestive description (shortened here to informative and descriptive) 22 / writing creative nonfiction Informative and Suggestive Description Informative description tends toward analysis, lists, numbers, categories It intends completeness It allows no interpretation It presents just the facts Informative (sometimes called technical) . class="bi x0 y0 w0 h0" alt="" Writing Creative Nonfiction