Bringing Facts to Life (Creative Nonfiction Paper)

Creative nonfiction is not something that can be given one exact definition. Yes, it is a genre of writing, but not just any genre. It has its own way of taking literary styles and methods to create a factual based story. Creative nonfiction can go by many names such as “The Art of Fact” or “Literary Journalism”. Some people are appalled by the name creative nonfiction because it is like calling other forms of nonfiction uncreative, but it is not that at all. It is just the latest and newest form of fact-based writing that is becoming of much interest to a large audience.
This is only my outlook on the new genre from what I have learned, but many people have their own ways of explaining creative nonfiction. “Creative nonfiction braids narrative telling with fictional and poetic techniques; Combines portraiture and self-reflection with reportage and critical analysis" (Steinberg). “It is based on actual events, characters, and places; it is written with a special concern for language; and it tends to be more informal and personal than other types of nonfiction writing" (Minot).
As for the record of creative nonfiction, although the genre itself has only recently been identified and taught as its own separate genre, the roots of creative nonfiction run deep into literary history. It is told to have emerged from the New Journalism movement of the 60’s and 70’s. There is a novel that is told to have been the originator of the genre itself. This novel is called In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.
I have had the opportunity to read two books this semester that are great examples of creative nonfiction. These books are All Around the Town and The Curve of Binding Energy. Personally, I was not at all interested in reading either one of these books because the topics just weren’t for me, science and old time New York history, I’ll pass. But due to the way these factual books were written, these subjects that I was not interested in before suddenly became fascinating. This is all due to the form of writing the author uses. For example, when reading a newspaper article or reading a manual, you immediately find out all the main facts. The three W’s come into play along with hard facts. But with creative nonfiction, all the important facts fall into a story line. The people become characters, the place becomes the setting and the hard facts just go into telling a true story. This makes for a factual tale that makes a dull piece of information turn into something that can be quite enjoyable.
This goes to show the main difference between journalism and creative nonfiction. Although the information is there in both forms of writing, one form is much more imaginative then the other, which intrigues readers. Creative nonfiction I feel is useful to us writing papers in college. The form of creative nonfiction is somewhat of an aid for students to write achieving papers. Just as the creative nonfiction authors grab the attention of readers with a factual story, you can also grab someone’s attention with your paper as well. The papers that are written in college do not all have to be the same informational research paper. With creative nonfiction you have that chance to take specifics and make them come to life.