EXPLORING

CREATIVE
NONFICTION
Ms. Sheryl Anne Lugtu
Derived from the seminar-workshop
of:
Danilo Francisco M. Reyes
Ateneo de Manila Univerisity
CREATIVE NONFICTION
 It involves writing from personal
experience and/or reporting on
other peoples’ experiences.
 Also called as literary nonfiction or
narrative nonfiction, it is a genre
of writing that uses literary
styles and techniques to
create factually accurate
narratives.
CREATIVE NONFICTION
 Contrasted to fiction (something made-up or
imagined)
 An experience which really happened
to you
 Shaped and shared as a story
 You cannot embellish or add to it
 The account lets readers know more about
you
 A true story
 Different from journalism
 Meant to entertain and to instruct
ELEMENTS OF
CREATIVE
NONFICTION
 1. STRUCTURE AND
DESIGN
 Focusing through:
 THEME: There is a central idea that is weaved
through the essay or work. Often, the theme
reveals a universal truth.
 PLOT: The arrangement of events that form
the story.
 SYMBOLS: It is a person, animals, elements,
things, place or colors that represents an
abstract idea or concept that stands for
something beyond itself or other things.
 2. CHARACTER
 CHARATER: It is a person who is
responsible for the thoughts and
actions within a story, poem or
drama.
 CHARACTERIZATION: It is a
literary element or device that
presents a character through
description, action, speech or
thoughts, directly or indirectly
revealed.
 3. DIALOGUE

 DIALOGUE: These are the

conversations spoken
between people.
 4. SETTING AND
ATMOSPHERE
 SETTING: It is the geographic
location and time period in which
a story takes place.
 ATMOSPHERE: It is an element of
literature that concerns the tone,
emotion or mood created by a
literary text based on the details
of the description and narration.
 5. POV AND ANGLE
 POINT OF VIEW: In non-
fiction, the writer often
uses the first person “I.”
 ANGLE: It involves the
scope and focus in writing
about real events.
TECHNIQUES
IN WRITING
NONFICTION
 TECNIQUES
1. Dramatizing,
Suspense, and
Authenticity
2. Narration
3. Constriction and
Expansion
4. Scene and Summary
1. DRAMATIZING, SUSPENSE
AND AUTHENTICITY
 Show and tell
 Involves the 5 senses (See, hear,
smell, taste, touch, and feel)
 Being concrete all the time
 Fleshing out evocative details
and situations to drum up the
story
 Creating dialogue and making it
realistic
1. DRAMATIZING, SUSPENSE
AND AUTHENTICITY
 Exciting or titillating your reader
 In view of the story’s ending, teasing
out the sense of uncertainty and
playing it to the hilt
 Delaying the ending a little more
(outcome)
 Intense, playful, last-minute
withholding
 Artful, clever setting up
1. DRAMATIZING, SUSPENSE
AND AUTHENTICITY
 GOAL: what you want to have
 CONFLICT: an unexpected obstacle to your goal
 DISASTER: further complication, a terrible
development that seemingly keeps you away
from your goal
 REACTION: your raw and immediate response
to disaster
 DILEMMA: ensuing agony caused by conflicting
choices
 DECISION: a bold moment of clear choice and
fearless risk-taking
1. DRAMATIZING, SUSPENSE
AND AUTHENTICITY
 REFLEX: raw action; no conscious
thought; “natural” response to
stimulus
 ACTION: conscious response
prodded by thought or reason
 SPEECH: putting into words your
conscious thought
WHAT IS YOUR STORY?
 Meeting harm or
 Growing up
danger
 Keeping  Rebelling
something/someon  First times
e
 Being saved
 Guarding a secret
 Doing something
 Going away
wrong and redeeming
 Moving on yourself
 Winning or losing  Soul work: feeling
the spirit
 2. NARRATION
 An engaging account or portrayal
of an event that you have been
through
 Requires a narrator (POV)
 Introduces us to characters
 Takes place in a vivid setting
 Rendered through scene and
summary
 2. NARRATION
 Follows a structure for organizing
the experience
 Presents dialogue
 Embodies techniques of drama
and suspense
 Provides the relief of closure or
resolution
 Presents windows for reflection
3. CONSTRICTION AND
EXPANSION
 CONSTRICTION: downplay or mute
“loud” story materials that point to
self-aggrandisement
 EXPANSION: play up or detail what
seems an unremarkable moment, until
the reader discovers how richly
dramatic it is; a highly refined
perception strives to value and evoke
something deeply for what it is truly
worth
3. CONSTRICTION AND
EXPANSION
 In writing, the self as subject
inspires contempt
 “What makes your life more
remarkable, more story-worthy
than mine?”
 Embodies the writer’s capacity for
irony
 Irony as the highest virtue (wit,
humor, self-deprecation, wisdom)
 4. SCENE AND
SUMMARY
 SCENE: detailing, fleshing out a
situation or moment in the
narrative with attention and care,
through narration and description
 SUMMARY: condensing or
stripping a complex event into
bare, essential, and direct
statements
 5. GOALS AND
LIMITS
 The simplest and most compelling
way of telling your story
 To create suspense
 To tell the tale in the most concise
way
 Subtraction or condensation: you
cannot stage too much
 WORKSHOP ON
CHARACTER
Using 1st-person narration, write a character
sketch of yourself. Using your 5 senses,
dramatize your thoughts and feelings and your
personality. Use action and speech. Don’t state
the concept directly. Offer descriptive details to
suggest the entire situation, leaving it to the
reader to figure out what is happening.
You are in a bus/car, going on a long trip:
 You are young/woman/man
 You are very hungry/very dizzy
 You find some other passenger interesting
enough
 WORKSHOP ON
SETTING
You are in a place you’ve been before. Use your
5 senses to describe the place. More
importantly, use the details of place and time to
suggest something about yourself. Indirectly,
use the telling details of place and time to
evoke any of the following:
You are in a bus/car, going on a long trip:
 You miss someone
 You are scared
 You want to stay in there for good
 You hate that place
 5R’S OF
CREATIVE
NONFICTION
ACCORDING TO
LEE GUTKIND
  Real Life: The writer personal
essay writes about real people
5R’S OF CREATIVE

and true events.

NONFICTION

 Reflection: The writer needs to

analyze and assess what he/she
has collected, after gathering
information and he must evaluate
it and expression his thoughts,
views, opinions.
 Research: The writer needs to
conduct research to learn about
the topic.
  Reading: Reading while conducting
research is not sufficient. The writer
5R’S OF CREATIVE
must read the work of the masters of
his profession.
NONFICTION

 Writing: Writing creative nonfiction is

both an art and craft. The art of
creative nonfiction requires that the
writer uses his talents, instincts,
creative abilities, and imagination to
write memorable creative nonfiction.
The craft of creative nonfiction requires
that the writer learns and deploys the
style and techniques of creative
nonfiction in his/her work.
UNIT 3 FORMS
AND TYPES OF
CREATIVE
NON FICTION
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
A written account
of the life of a
person written by
that person.
 BIOGRAPHY
A written account in
a detailed
description or
account of another
person’s life.
 TRAVELOGUE
A story of the
experiences
encountered by
someone while
touring a place for
the pleasure of travel.
FORMS OF TRAVELOGUE
 Step-by-step procedure to
the place
 Suggestive Things
 Descriptive form
 Itinerary form
 TESTIMONIO
It is a solemn attestation as
to the truth of a matter. The
term “testimonio” refers to
a kind of writing which
comes from Latin America
dealing with experiences of
human rights.
 PERSONAL
NARRATIVE
It is a form of writing in which the
writer relates one event, incident,
or experience from his/her life to
other people’s experience. An
essay about a true story of
something that happened to
someone usually told to illustrate
an insight; is based on
autobiographical events.
TRUE NARRATIVE
The writer is required to
compose a true narrative
essay about an incident
that you experienced and
observed. The purpose in
telling the story is to
express a point or
observation.
REFLECTIVE ESSAY
A form of writing that
examines and observes
the progress and
meaning of a writer’s
individual experiences
like a journal about the
thoughts on a certain
topic.
 BLOG
It is also called as web
blog.
A website containing
short articles called
posts that are changed
regularly.
 MEMOIR
The writer constructs a true
story about a time or period
in his/life, one that had
significant personal
meaning and a universal
truth. The writer composes
the story using the first
person “I.”
 FOOD
WRITING
The writer crafts
stories about food
and cuisine using
literary devices.
 REPORTAGE
It is a kind of literary
journalism that reports on
an event, history or an
actual case based on direct
observation, investigation
or thorough research and
documentation.
 LITERARY
JOURNALISM
It is the creative
nonfiction form that
comes closest to
newspaper and magazine
writing. It is fact-driven
and requires research
and, often, interviews.
 DIFFERENCES OF LITERARY JOURNALISM
AND JOURNALISTIC WRITING

AREAS OF LITERARY JOURNALISTIC

DIFFERENCE JOURNALISM WRITING
S
PURPOSE To entertain and To inform quickly
inform
CONTENT May not be timely Should be timely
STRUCTURE Chronological, Inverted Pyramid
Logical
STYLE Subjective Objective
PARAGRAPH Length acceptable Direct and
S Concise
PREPARATIO Writers should provide concrete
WHAT KIND OF PERSONAL
STORY DO YOU WISH TO
TELL?
 Funny  Intelligent/wise

 Romantic  Futuristic
 Horrifying/terrif
 Dramatic
ying
 Nostalgic
 Soulful, full of
 Sensuous spirit