Creative Non-fiction

There are many different genres of literature, as there are of movies, plays, etc... One interesting genre of literature is called creative non-fiction. Non-Fiction, for starters is any type of literature that is not made up. The events, or characters are real, they exist. Some examples of nonfiction are newspaper articles, technical writing or journalism perhaps. Fiction on the other hand is any piece of literature that has imaginary aspects to it, like novels and short stories for example. The characters can be made up, or the whole entire story can be made up by the author. It is the creative aspect of creative nonfiction that makes these true stories more interesting for the reader. This is also known as literary or narrative nonfiction. It is a genre of writing which uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. It differs from these simple nonfiction pieces, because it can be very appealing to read. These are actual stories which provide facts as well as a secure authority for claims that are made. Therefore they may send specific messages and back up their arguments, using character and literary elements to convey the message.
One of these stories could make use of all the same literary elements and techniques authors of fiction novels could use. This can be a tricky task considering the fact that you must abide by the actual events of real life. Therefore the objective of these stories so to speak is to provide information like a news reporter, but in a way that appeals to the reader like a fiction book. Some literary works that resemble this form of writing are personal essays, food writing, a simple biography, or perhaps a memoir. This is a fairly new genre or style of writing, and not many authors have made much use of it till this date.
A woman by the name of Barbara Lounsberry, a literary critic, wrote a book called The Art of Fact, where she suggests four characteristics of this specific genre. The first she says is “Documented subject matter chosen from the real world as opposed to invented from the writer’s mind.” By this she is saying that all the events displayed in the text exist and can be verified. The second characteristic she calls “Exhaustive Research”, which she says allows the writer to “gain a novel perspective on his or her subject and permits him to establish the credibility of his narrative with many references for support. The third characteristic she calls, “The Scene.” This is where the author describes the context of the events in a more vivid way that and journal or newspaper would do. The fourth characteristic she calls “Fine writing: a literary prose style”. This is where the writer shows off his talent and ability. Combine all of this and you have a good creative nonfiction story.
In recent years, many of the well publicized works have been severely questioned in the United States for their truthfulness and factual standards. Some people have accused writers of “glorification of interpretation,” and even fabrication. When you fabricate something you use small little white lies so to speak to change the truth. Authors of the genre argue that we are reading literature, allowing for our own interpretation of a topic and our own opinion on a subject matter from our own perspective. The book we just read, The Curve of Binding Energy by John McPhee is a perfect example of creative nonfiction. John McPhee has other works of this genre as well; he is one of the authors who like to write in this new genre of literature.