Truth versus imagination.  Nonfiction or fiction?  What are the guidelines when writing under one genre versus the other and where does creative nonfiction fit in?   In nonfiction, the author writes truthfully and accurately when representing real people, real places and real events, as opposed to writing a fictional story pulled from imagination.  Nonfiction can include news articles, cook books, academic papers, biographies, auto-biographies, speeches, essays, blog posts, technical pieces and other narratives based in fact. It can also include memoirs and creative non-fiction, which is a blend of fiction and non-fiction- sort of!

Before ultimately narrowing the focus to one of the latest trends in creative nonfiction- the memoir, let’s first break down the genre families for clarification.  Unlike fiction, in which the author is permitted, and in fact, expected to make up people, places and events;  to pretend, fabricate, invent, stretch truths and to basically fib, nonfiction and creative nonfiction carry stricter rules to which the author is expected to observe.

Although the two opposing classifications are indeed related, each one a member of the writing family, with their own appeal and place on the family tree, each with their own extender branches, there are traits that set them apart.  In fiction, towns can be made up (like Stephen King’s Derry, Maine based on his hometown of Bangor, Maine), people are fake, and events can occur as fabricated daily life activities; animals can behave and talk like humans, dystopian governments might oppress their citizens, civil wars might break out between fantasy worlds- all existing first in the author’s mind before coming alive on the page.  The fiction author has open reign over what she conjures up for her readers. There is no accountability to truth, no trust to be broken, and no risk of being called out as a liar.  She is essentially above the “writing –world” family law.

This is not the case for nonfiction, in which stretching the truth, fabricating or fibbing is prohibited.  Non-fiction pieces live in a monochrome world of straight facts.  No dressing up truths to look like glamorous actors or impossible scenarios; no sprinkles of fairy-tale dust thrown in for extra effects.  It is straight forward black and white in the non-fiction world; the narrative is either true or false.  No blurry in-between grey areas to fool or entertain the reader.  Such and such happened on this date, in this place and had this real consequence.  

With that being said, there is the increasingly popular extender branch of creative non-fiction that allows for some deviation- with a tiny dose of literary sparkle and disguise.  Not enough to alter a fact, or break any rules, but just enough to make the evidence look shinier, more enjoyable or compelling.  Just enough to ignite the writer’s flame and spark the reader’s interest

In the March 2024 edition of Writers.com, Poet/ Storyteller/ Screenwriter Sean Glatch describes creative nonfiction as a form of storytelling that employs the creative writing techniques of literature, such as poetry and fiction, to retell a true story. Creative nonfiction writers don’t just share pithy anecdotes; they use craft and technique to situate the reader into their own personal lives. …. There are very few limits to what creative nonfiction can be, which is what makes defining the genre so difficult—but writing it so exciting. 

Unlike the nonfiction narrative’s fictional cousin – always trying to take center stage, hogging the lime light, demanding extra attention and stealing the show,  nonfiction work will uphold the sacred contract of reality between writer and audience, to stick to the truth and nothing but the truth. No lying, no cheating, no stealing, or manipulating allowed in this orderly arena. 

However, within the creative nonfiction branch of the family, a dash of ornamental literary tactic is allowed, to disguise the story’s legitimacy only enough to make the factual narrative look more flattering.  Although fictional storytelling elements are included (writing exposition followed by rising action, climax, falling action and resolution, adding plot, narrator, point of view and setting), the truth is not sacrificed. You are still writing about facts, and doing your research, but you are permitted to flower up the narrative a smidgen and add your own reflection.

To elaborate on this notion further, Aminatta Forna: writes in the 2018 Literary Hub: The Truth about Fiction Versus NonFiction: As a novelist and essayist I see the two forms as conjoined twins, sharing themes and concerns, which all come out of the same brain, but flow into two separate entities.

The writer of creative nonfiction and the writer of fiction have much in common. Both employ the techniques of narrative, plot, pace, mood and tone, considerations of tense and person, the depiction of character, the nuance of dialogue. Where the difference lies is that the primary source of the fiction writer is first and foremost their imagination, followed by their powers of observation and maybe a certain amount of research. The primary resource of the writer of creative nonfiction is lived experience, above and beyond all, memory; add to that observation and research.

I ask my students of both fiction and nonfiction, but most of all those who wish to write personal memoirs (perhaps because of all the forms of writing it is the one most often confused with therapy): Why do people need to hear this story? Not, Why do you want to write this story? i.e Not what’s in it for you. What’s in it for them?

 She adds that Don DeLill once quipped that a fiction writer starts with meaning and manufactures events to represent it; the writer of creative nonfiction starts with events, then derives meaning from them.

Forna mentions the memoir here, which is a creative nonfiction piece of work written by an individual who seeks to share her own life experience, usually focusing on a particular time period in her life rather than on her life as a whole, while borrowing some of the creative storytelling bells and whistles from fiction. Memoirs can be about essentially any topic, from overcoming adversity to handling grief, guilt or anything else. The memoir’s dual purpose includes the therapeutic satisfaction from writing it, and the universal emotional connection it delivers to the reader.

 As noted by Forna in her article, ‘lived experience’ and memory act as the primary resource in memoirs and autobiographies, which are two very different types of non- fiction.  Autobiography tells the story from birth to present or death, whereas the memoir slices a piece of life off to depict an important time or theme in the author’s life.

Highlighting this idea to remain focused and mindful when writing your memoir, Sarah Van Arsdale, Author, and contributor to The Writer warns in her August 2019: No one wants to hear your whole story:  Just because your life started in childhood doesn’t mean your memoir should. Memoir is different from autobiography, which starts at the beginning, goes through your whole life, and ends near when you do– 

A good example to illustrate this advice is in Writer Digest contributing author Elizabeth Sims’,  2019 Truth and Consequences article, in which she suggests to take a “small slice and go deep”.  To explain this she refers to Tennessee Williams and his play “The Glass Menagerie”, which centers on three characters, all of whom are fragile, wounded, yearning, connected, and trapped. Williams based the main characters on himself, his mother and his disabled sister.  But he didn’t spew out the whole family story; he told about a particular, desperate time when the possibility of a suitor for the sister arises, then is withdrawn.  The story drilled brilliantly into the bedrock of toxic family, responsibility versus individual development, and the pursuit of happiness.

Writing creative nonfiction memoir, although a powerful avenue in which to probe and heal a wound, share a lesson or reveal a meaningful experience, can also be a problematic area in which the writer risks becoming lost.  To the memoirist, her life is everything.  She is the main character- the hero, the antagonist, and the victim, all at once.  In general, it is okay to write your life story as an autobiography if you are famous, or passing down your legacy to family, but for the most part, the rest of the world is too busy living as the hero/villain/victim in their own life stories to really be interested in yours. However, with the right blend of fact, focus, imagination and creativity, the creative nonfiction memoir has the ability to lure the reader away from her own potentially dull or difficult life story, at least for a temporary escape, to yours.

And here we are, dear reader, at the end of another year, with my last blog of 2024, written appropriately about the creative nonfiction memoir – the real life story we live and write, and the many individual slices of that story that contribute to who we are.  Whether you aspire to be the creative nonfiction memoirist, or you are simply the author of your own life story,  remember to create each chapter with mindfulness, gratitude and creativity, and honor the life with which you have been blessed;  the good times shared with those you love, the adversities you fought through and overcame, the sad and difficult times that strengthened you, the accomplishments you landed that changed you  in some way, the laughter, the tears, the  experiences, the new friends you made and the old ones you lost-  who added so much to your life during the seasons of which they were a part, and always-the lessons you  learned and the love you  gave and received.

I thank you for joining me this year on our writing/reading journey and  I wish you and your families and friends the healthiest and happiest of  holidays, as I look ahead to sharing more blogs on writing and life next year with you.