Getting Started
with
Creative Nonfiction
Themes and Techniques
in Creative Nonfiction
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What is
Creative Nonfiction?
Creative Nonfiction
● focuses on story, which has a narrative plot with
an inciting moment, rising action, climax and
denouement, just like fiction
● Nonfiction only works if the story is based in
truth, an accurate retelling of the author’s life
experiences
Creative Nonfiction
✓ borrows some aspects, in terms of voice, from
poetry; poets generally look for truth and
write about the realities they see
✓ depends on the writer’s ability to render their
voice in a realistic fashion, just as poetry so
often does
Creative Nonfiction
✓ Writer Richard Terrill, in comparing the two
forms, writes that the voice in creative
nonfiction aims “to engage the empathy” of the
reader that, much like a poet, the writer uses
“personal candor” to draw the reader in.
Types and Forms of
Creative Nonfiction
1. Biographical Narratives
1.1. Biography
– is basically the narrative of a person’s life written by
someone else
1.2. Profile
– is a kind of biographical narrative that normally
concentrates on a single aspect featured person
1. Biographical Narratives
1.3. Character Sketch
– is a form of biographical narrative that is
shorter than a profile
- can be described as a cameo or miniature life
story.
1. Biographical Narratives
1.4. Interview Story
– is a kind of biographical narrative with the
length of a typical newspaper or magazine article
2. Autobiographical Narratives
2.1. Autobiography
– is an account of one’s own life
- can also be defined as the biography of oneself
narrated by oneself
2. Autobiographical Narratives
2.2. Memoir
– is a form of autobiographical writing dealing
usually with the collections of one who has been
part of or has witnessed significant events
2. Autobiographical Narratives
2.3. Diary
– is a form of creative nonfiction that is a quotidian or
day-to-day record of specific events that have transpired
in the life of its author and is ideally kept on-a-daily basis
2.4. Journal
– is generally more intimate than a diary
- is typically very expressive and confidential, a
receptacle of the author’s innermost thoughts and feelings
3. Literary, Familiar, Personal or Informal Essays
3.1 Literary Reportage
– presents verifiable data and well researched
information, like a film or TV documentary
- is hybrid between responsible journalism and
imaginative literature
3. Literary, Familiar, Personal or Informal Essays
3.2 Descriptive Essay
– is a kind of creative nonfiction whose main intention
is to represent the appearance of something
- main rhetorical device or strategy used is description
using the sensory details to portray a person, place or
thing
3. Literary, Familiar, Personal or Informal Essays
3.3 Reflective Essay
– is a kind of personal narrative essay whose
main intention is to analyze the significance of
a past event through serious thought or
consideration from the vantage point of the
present
4. Special Types of Writing
4.1 Travel Writing
– is a kind of creative nonfiction that describes
the narrator’s experiences in local or foreign
places
4. Special Types of Writing
4.2 Food Writing
– is a type of creative nonfiction that focuses on
the gustatory delights or disasters while
simultaneously narrating an interesting story, as
well as sharing an insight or two about the human
condition
4. Special Types of Writing
4.3 Nature Writing
– can also be considered as an offshoot of travel
writing
- highlights the beauty and majesty of the
natural world
5. Emerging Forms of Creative Nonfiction
5.1 Testimonio
– is an emerging form of creative nonfiction
- can be defined as a published oral or written first-hand
account of human rights violations and abuses of the
powers-that-be in oppressive societies
5. Emerging Forms of Creative Nonfiction
5.2 Blog
– short for web log, can be defined as an online diary that
looks like a web page
- content combines texts, digital images, memes, as well as
external links to other blogs.
5. Emerging Forms of Creative Nonfiction
5.3 Facebook Status Report
– the most accessible internet platform for self-
expression for the millennial generation and beyond
Analyzing Themes in
Creative Nonfiction
Theme
● is essentially the central idea in your story
● the overarching narrative of emotional or
symbolic resonance in your story and usually
answers the question, “What is your story
about?”
Creative nonfiction works are used not only to
entertain, to teach a moral lesson or to convey
meaning, but more importantly, to make the
reader be aware of some aspect of the human
condition through stories based on factual bases.
Through their work, writers creatively share
their ideas and express themes that are timeless
and universal.
Literary
Techniques
Literary techniques and devices as figurative
language are the techniques that composers use
in their written texts to help convey or heighten
meaning.
With a specific purpose in mind, the author
carefully crafts themes using literary tools. By
employing literary tools, the author embeds the
theme or meaning into separate elements that
make up the totality of the literary piece.
Here are the common tools: character
development, setting, mood, plot, point of view,
figurative language, allegory, symbolism, irony,
alliteration, metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia,
personification, rhyme, and repetition
Part of literary analysis is the careful
examination of these tools and how they are
being used in a text. Critically thinking about
how they relate to one another to construct
the expression of theme, the reader pushes
beneath the surface details to discover the
literature’s deeper meaning.
