If you’ve started looking into agents, publishers, and literary journals, you’ve probably come across the phrase “creative nonfiction.” It might show up in “Looking for creative nonfiction!” or “Open to submissions of short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.” So it’s pretty clear that there’s a market for it. But what is it? And how is creative nonfiction different from regular nonfiction?
There’s a good chance you’re already writing creative nonfiction without realising it. We’ll guide you through everything you need to know about how to identify, develop, and finally submit this popular literary genre.
What is “creative nonfiction”, exactly?
Creative nonfiction—often abbreviated as “cnf”—is a type of writing that uses creative approaches to tell a true story. This can include memoirs, autobiographies, personal essays, and more. Creative nonfiction writers use literary devices and storytelling elements to engage their readers, just like novelists. The only difference is that creative nonfiction is largely factual.
While the creative nonfiction umbrella can encompass a number of different approaches (more on that below), there are types of books that wouldn’t be considered creative nonfiction; for example, cademic texts, cookbooks, reference books, and reviews.
The easiest way to define creative nonfiction from other nonfiction writing is this: all creative nonfiction, from book length works to single-page commentaries, tell some sort of story. If there’s no sense of narrative, it’s probably not creative nonfiction.
The addition of the word “creative” to nonfiction was initially controversial, but eventually helped to elevate the status of nonfiction in the literary world. Creative nonfiction has evolved to become a recognized literary genre, often referred to as the fourth genre alongside poetry, fiction, and drama.
Types of creative nonfiction
There are a number of different ways writers can explore the creative nonfiction genre. Here are the main types of creative nonfiction you can use to tell your story.
Memoir
Memoirs are probably the most popular type of creative nonfiction. These pieces tell a true story from the author’s perspective. Unlike an autobiography (that’s next), memoirs focus on a very specific experience. It could be something like a memorable road trip, an interesting job, a messy divorce, and so on.
Memoirs can be full-length books, or as short as 100 words. While full-length memoirs will usually cover a period of a few years, shorter memoirs can be used to explore one singular moment that left a real impact. These can be a great way to immortalize a memory, introduce readers to a new culture, or even highlight an important social theme.
Autobiography
Autobiographies are often conflated with memoirs, but they’re not quite the same thing. For starters, an autobiography is always book length. It would be hard to write an autobiography in just 100 words! But the biggest difference is that while a memoir focuses on a single experience, an autobiography is the story of your entire life.
A true autobiography tells the writer’s story from early childhood all the way up to the present day. Most autobiographies are by famous people, because those are the ones that will sell. But if you’ve had an amazing life with a unique story to tell, there’s nothing to stop you from writing an autobiography of your own.
Biography
A biography, as you may have sussed out from the similar words, is very similar to an autobiography. The difference is that while an autobiography is written from the author’s point of view about their own life, a biography is about someone else.
Many biographies are about historical figures, but you can also write them about living people (with their permission, of course!). These tell the full story of the person’s life, illustrating how they grew into the person they are today. Biographies give readers a peek behind the curtain as you explore how an ordinary person became extraordinary.
Personal essay
A personal essay is a short form piece of creative nonfiction, generally around 2,000 to 5,000 words. These can take a lot of different forms. Your personal essay could function like a memoir, recounting a specific formative experience; or, you might use it to explore your feelings about a pressing social event.
The important thing to remember is that unlike an academic essay, these essays are subjective. They’re written in your own voice, highlighting your own ideas, experiences, and beliefs. The reader should have a sense of you on the page, and that no one but you could have written it.
Visual essay
A visual essay is a bit like a scrapbook. It uses photos, drawings, receipts, to-do lists, ticket stubs, and other paper paraphernalia to tell a story.
Visual essays are a great way for writers to expand their thinking and challenge themselves in new ways. You might also create a visual essay to shape a story before writing it and generate new ideas.
Lyric essay
The lyric essay is a hybrid medium that merges creative nonfiction with elements of poetry and song. Like all creative nonfiction, it’s based on or inspired by real-life events; but, this form allows for experimentation.
This type of creative nonfiction has a lot in common with prose poetry. If you’re writing a lyric essay of your own, don’t feel beholden to any particular structure or form—breaking the rules is what lyric essays are all about! You might vary between traditional paragraphs and sonnets, or format the experience through the lens of a one-act play. The sky’s the limit.
Travel writing
Travel writing, as the name suggests, explores the experience of traveling to an unfamiliar place. But, don’t fall into the trap of writing solely about a new place and nothing else (that’s not narrative nonfiction—that’s a guidebook). Great travel writing explores why a place is so important to the author and what they learned from it.
This type of creative nonfiction lends itself particularly well to metaphor and theme. For example, a memoir about moving to Paris following a divorce isn’t really about Paris. It’s about finding oneself after a period of difficult upheaval. Think of the travel as a backdrop for the real story.
Epicurean writing
Then there’s epicurean writing, or creative nonfiction about food. Similar to the example we looked at above, be careful not to start epicurean writing and end up with a cookbook. Instead, explore what the food means on an emotional and cultural level.
Epicurean or food writing is one of the best mediums for conveying different cultures and themes of family and heritage. A recipe will mean a lot more to the author (and the reader!) if it’s been handed down through generations, or if it was the first thing you learned to cook when you moved out on your own. Food should be the lens through which you tell a story—not the entire story by itself.
Literary journalism
Literary journalism, or literary nonfiction, blends factual reporting with storytelling techniques. This might include sensory descriptive language, dialogue, and characterization to bring a scene to life for the reader.
You’ll often see this in political or legal coverage, where the writer takes a literary approach to highlight their point of view. They may describe the people involved as if they were in a movie. This makes the audience feel like they’re reading a short story or novel, even though it’s all real life.
Autofiction
Finally there’s autofiction, which is a bit of a wildcard in the genre. Autofiction is short for “autobiographical fiction,” and it means blending fictional and nonfictional elements together.
Autofiction is a spectrum, rather than a definite convention. The amount of fiction and nonfiction can vary from one writer to another. One might tell a completely true story using different names (to protect the guilty), while another might use real-life scenes alongside fictional ones to tell a new story. This can be a great way to use memories and experiences as a jumping off point for new ideas.
Examples of popular creative nonfiction
Now that we know the different forms creative nonfiction can take, let’s look at a few examples from authors who have done this particularly well.
Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run by Peter Ames Carlin
Tonight in Jungleland is a biography, but not of a person—of an album. Peter Ames Carlin uses literary techniques and factual reports to show how Bruce Springsteen’s groundbreaking, career-making Born to Run came to be.
It’s important to note here that while Carlin’s book is entirely grounded in fact, the fact almost seems to take a back seat to telling a good story. At one point he remarks, “Everyone seems to remember it differently. I’ve spoken to at least ten people who were there, including Bruce, half the E Street Band, Mike and Stephen Appel, Jimmy Iovine, [… ] From what I’ve been able to put together, the following is either true or close enough.”
This biography illustrates the creative approaches you can take, while still remaining true to the subject.
The Blues: A Visual History by Mike Evans
Mike Evans’ exhaustive book on the history of blues music blends visual essays with academic research and personal reflection. Published in 2020, this book was likely conscious of the “Instagram generation” and the marketability of visual work.
Throughout the nine chapters, each representing an era of music, Evans uses text alongside photos, drawings, lyrics, articles, concert posters, advertisements, album covers, even sheet music. The text also varies in size, with the author choosing to use a variety of headings and block quotations to reiterate ideas.
The goal of this approach is to present information in as many different ways as possible, and to keep each turn of the page surprising and fresh. This appeals to modern readers who may have grown up with shorter attention spans, and helps introduce old music to a new audience.
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl edges the line between autobiography and memoir. Distilled into its core purpose, it’s a memoir about Brownstein’s punk band Sleater-Kinney (remember, memoirs are about a specific topic from the author’s life). But she also incorporates anecdotes from her childhood and formative years to add additional context to her choices and experiences.
Carrie Brownstein understands that we are all a product of our upbringing and our exposure, so she felt it was important to include some autobiographical elements into her memoir. This is a great reminder to creative writers that there are no hard and fast rules to writing creative nonfiction—just guidelines for shaping the story you want to tell.
How to get started writing creative nonfiction (in 7 steps)
Ready to start your very own creative nonfiction project? We’ll take you through it step by step.
Step 1: Choose a format
Start by looking at the types of nonfiction above and choosing one for your project. This might change later on in the process, so don’t feel like you have to stick to this convention; it just gives you a jumping off point.
The format will dictate the length (a full-length autobiography, or a mini-memoir), as well as the medium (text, images, lyric essay). If you’re writing creative nonfiction for the first time, it’s best to start small and develop your creative muscles.
Step 2: Choose a subject
Then, think about what you want to write about. You may find it helpful to brainstorm a big, messy list of possible topics and then choose your favorite (this can be less intimidating than trying to pull a perfect idea out of thin air).
The more specific you can be, the better. The best creative nonfiction is unusual enough to attract attention, but universal enough that the average reader can relate.
Step 3: Build raw story material
Then, it’s time to start exploring the topic with a creative eye. Aim to overwrite, then pick out the best parts later.
If you’re writing a visual essay, look for photos and collage elements that might work with your idea. If you’re writing about formative memories and experiences, write down everything you remember in as much detail as possible. Try to use all the senses. At this point, the events don’t need to be in any kind of order.
This is the act of creating raw material to work with, or shoveling sand into a box so you can make sandcastles. Try to focus on honesty in your narrative; this helps to maintain credibility and engage readers.
Step 4: Assemble a rough draft
Now that you have your pieces, it’s time to put them together into a story. No matter how big or small your project, try to give it a narrative arc with a beginning, middle, and end.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be in chronological order (although this is easiest for new writers); but, it should open by introducing important ideas, develop them, and build to a satisfying conclusion. You may find it helpful to write out a rough outline of how you want the story to progress, and then fill those points in with your story.
Step 5: Take a break
If you’ve gotten this far, congratulations! Now it’s time to take a breather and set the project aside.
This is a good idea in any writing project, but especially creative nonfiction—because you’re so close to the story, and it’s so personal, that it’s challenging to examine it with a critical eye. Taking some time away will help you recalibrate and emotionally disentangle yourself so you can come back to it for the next step.
The longer the rough draft, the more time you should give yourself for a break. Aim for at least 48 hours, up to about a month for a 100,000-word autobiography. If you skip this step, you’ll find it more difficult to edit objectively.
Step 6: Revise, revise, revise
Once you’ve had some time to clear your head, edit mercilessly. Ensure that your ideas are presented clearly, that you’ve used literary devices like imagery, symbolism, and characterization to bring the story to life for your readers. Keep an eye out for overused words or clichés.
It’s important to remember that you’ve lived this entire story; your readers haven’t. So something that seems clear to you, because you remember it, might not be clear to your readers just from reading what you’ve written. This is where beta readers and peer feedback can be really helpful. By asking for help from other writers, you can get input from an outside perspective.
Step 7: Send your masterpiece into the world
If you’ve made your story the very best it can be, it’s time to release it into the wild. Shorter creative nonfiction pieces can be placed in literary journals and magazines, while full-length memoirs and autobiographies can be sent to literary agents or publishers.
This can be an intimidating process, but don’t worry. We have tons of resources on writing a stellar query letter and finding a home for your writing. You’re not in this alone!
Turn your life experiences into fine art
Writing about your personal life can be intimidating at first. But, everyone has a unique story to tell—and you’d be surprised how many people will read it and think,that’s just like my life! Narrative nonfiction gives you the tools to examine the experiences that have made you you. And the only limit is your creativity.
