Note: I had a difficult time defining CNF, so I just wrote about other classifications to get started, They are saved here for posterity mostly because I thought it was funny how I had to do that.
“Artists tell lies to tell the truth,” is a line from V for Vendetta that always rung particularly true for me. Creative nonfiction, however, cannot be considered a lie. The things that creative nonfiction writers write is essentially true, but they use the same kinds of techniques as fiction writers to create interesting, engaging stories out of real events. There are some things that make creative nonfiction different from regular nonfiction and fiction itself.
Nonfiction
Nonfiction is true, but boring. Nonfiction is straight facts and while the facts themselves can be engaging and interesting, the work itself is focused on the facts and not on making those facts interesting to the reader. How many people read textbooks for fun? Well, besides me that is. Nonfiction is not something that people write to be enjoyed, or to be read and looked at for style. There is little room in nonfiction for cleverness, or for things like dialogue and plot.
Fiction
These are the lies. Fiction is not a true story, and the characters, plots and in some cases the world of the stories are inventions of the author’s mind. Fiction writers have freedom. If they want to write about vampires, they can because they don’t need to adhere to the rules of the real world. There are rules to fiction, but basically those rules are about making a false reality or situation real to the reader. These rules are things like having believable dialogue and consistent, complex characters. Style is important in fiction, how you write effects how people will digest the story itself. Fiction tends to be, in my opinion, more vibrant and engaging than nonfiction because of this attention to language and careful plotting.
Creative Nonfiction
Creative Nonfiction is essentially true, but the techniques of style and plot that are seen in fiction are used to create vibrant stories out of real-life experiences. The other thing that separates creative nonfiction from regular nonfiction is that creative nonfiction focuses on ideas rather than giving out facts. To write creative nonfiction, the writer must first take the experience they are using and dig through it to find what, exactly that experience says about the world and (usually) the human condition. Creative nonfiction is not just about a good story, as much of what is available in the world of fiction is, but about what is behind that good story. I could tell a million great true stories about my family, myself, my friends, but unless I have an idea that pulls it out into a broader spectrum, they are not creative nonfiction, but something else entirely. I don’t know what I would call that, but it wouldn’t be creative nonfiction. I also think that Eric was right in his blog, when he said that creative nonfiction is people-oriented, because the stuff I have read that can be classified as creative nonfiction are things like memoir. Creative nonfiction is about experience, relationships, the self, others, and many other things that would make a psych major extremely happy.
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