Nonfiction gets a bad rap for being dry and dull, but it doesn’t have to be. Many of the same liberties can be taken in creative nonfiction as in fiction. If you have something important to share with the world from your own life, this may be your category. Some literary flair can amp up your story and make it more approachable to your readers.

What Is Creative Nonfiction?

Creative nonfiction uses literary elements to tell true stories. Memoir is one of the more popular types of creative nonfiction, using artful storytelling from one’s own life. Essays are the short stories of the nonfiction world, transforming personal experiences into a digestible form for an audience. Essays are usually in the 2,000 word range, and typically no longer than 4,000.

Just as in fiction, creative nonfiction may use character, description, plot structure, and theme to fully express a story. There’s just one big caveat …

Creative Nonfiction Must Be True

Whereas fiction gets to ask “what if?” and then usually has to make sense, creative nonfiction has to be accurate—you’re less likely to ask “what if?”, and it’s also less likely to make sense. Of course, we’re all human and our memories aren’t perfect. Accuracy here is less of a scientific, measurable thing, and more of a “truth as you experienced it” thing. If you can weave in cold, hard facts like dates and historical events, those can help ground your story in nonfiction, becoming underpinnings to your creativity.

When thinking about story elements, character and description will have to be true to whatever happened. You get a little more wiggle room with plot and theme, where you can choose what best suits your story.

Character

Character’s names can be changed—that’s just respecting privacy! Otherwise, the characters should remain how they really are, pimples and all. The creativity comes in when you describe what they really look like to you and how they did the things they really did.

Description

My favorite way to introduce creativity is in description. Sensory details are an easy doorway to recall. What are the specific sounds, smells, and textures you associate with the story you’re telling? How can you make the moment as real to your reader it was to you? With a swish of silk, an acrid tang ..?

The trick is not to describe every single thing, but to pull out the handful of details that you noticed. If you ask two people what they remembered from an event, they will recall different things, but each of them can put you in their shoes with their specific memories.

Plot Structure

Your plot structure is here to serve you. The events that occurred unfolded in a particular way, but you get to decide how to reveal them to your reader. Consider the many ways to structure a story which can help you highlight the right areas.

Theme

Theme is never something you want to state directly. Rather, it will come out in the lessons you learned and where you place your emphasis and focus. Theme indirectly answers the question that drove you to share your story in the first place: why does this matter?

How to Write Creative Nonfiction

The best part about creative nonfiction is that you can start practicing right away. Freewrite a recent memory without editing or thinking too hard about it on the first pass. Describe the sensory details of an experience that resonated with you. Try writing from different points of view.

First: The wind bit hard into our unprotected skin, and we climbed the highest rocks to meet even colder gusts.

Second: The wind bit hard into your unprotected skin, and you climbed the highest rocks to meet even colder gusts.

Third: The wind bit hard into their unprotected skin, and they climbed the highest rocks to meet even colder gusts.

Pay attention to what changes in each POV. Writing exercises like these are a great way to build confidence. Then you can really start to dig into your craft and ask yourself …

What story do you need to tell the world?

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