Strategies of Creative Nonfiction

The strategies of creative nonfiction are very much like the strategies of fiction. Gutkind stresses that the basic objective of creative nonfiction is to teach (he refers to it as “the mission of the genre”), but the point is to do it in such a manner ‘that the most resistant reader will be interested in learning more” (1997, 2).

To use a term borrowed from traditional journalism, the point is to handle the subject – whatever it might be – as a “human interest” story.

What this means is simply that a good piece of creative nonfiction has a personal voice, a clearly defined point of view, which will reveal itself in the tone, and be presented through scene, summary and description, as it is in friction. All its strategies are designed to reach out to the readers and draw them in – again, as in friction – without losing track of the facts.

These strategies are the following

• approach
• point of view
• tone
• voice
• structure
• a strong beginning
• rhetorical techniques
• character
• concrete and evocative details
• scene
• a convincing ending

One way of looking at what happens in a work of creative nonfiction is this: it is a personal account of a quest. The point is the discovery, the triumph of the quest. It is this discovery, this insight, which the reader looks for when he agrees to participate in the adventure. Presenting it as a quest – an exciting exploration – and not just as a bare listing of events or facts or steps or developments or trends – this is the challenge faced by the writer of creative non-fiction.

- from Creative Nonfiction: Manual for Filipino Writers by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, UP Press

Creative Nonfiction Writing: Getting Started

Before you get down to actually writing an essay or story, a certain amount of preparation is in order.

Planning the Project

1. Selecting a Topic

Material for writing is everywhere.

Where do subjects or topics come from? From everywhere.

The following, as Jacobi puts it, can be sources or springboard for topic in creative nonfiction writing:

• From walking
• From talking
• From listening
• From observing
• From doing
• From reading
• From believing
• From disagreeing
• From dreaming
• From scheming
• From asking
• From having an open mind

You should begin with something close to home, but that shouldn’t stop you from reaching out to the rest of the world.


You would do well to choose a subject you are familiar with and interested in, or which you are curious about and can readily gain more information on because you have access to the sources.

A kind of expertise is necessary to win the trust of your readers. But you should also make sure that the subject has some appeal – or that you can make it appealing – to a larger audience.

2. Determining the Audience

What is going into the essay or article, how it is to be handled, and how it is to be organized will depend to a large extent on who the target audience is. Even the language to be used – i.e., the choice or words, the length of sentences, the images, the allusions – should keep prospective readers in mind.

The amount and type of information that the essay or article should contain will also depend on the audience’s capacity to absorb it, and will therefore determine how much and what sort of research you need to do.


Doing Research

An important thing to remember is: no matter how great your way with words, or how engaging the personality you project, the bottom line is: how much do you know about your subject?

Before you begin gathering your information, observe the following:

• Consider what kind of information you need
• Determine where is the best place to get it. Your investigation will tell you what work has already been done on your subject. This is very important.
• Keep current and you need to keep up with the competition. The creative nonfiction writer who wishes to be published in magazines is “selling” a product. Therefore he or she is in competition with everyone else who also has product to sell.
  
  

Writing is impossible for anyone who doesn’t read extensively, even voraciously. But research doesn’t just consist of reading. Research can be done in the library, on the net, through interviews, through immersion.

Access and immersion are key words. Remember that it isn’t enough to know something about your topic. You need to know more. And you need to be willing to spend some time acquiring that knowledge.

From Creative Nonfiction Manual Reader by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, UP Press