Department of Education

NEW GENERATION INTERNATIONAL, SCHOOL INC.

Topic:CREATIVE NONFICTION: ELEMENTS AND NATURE OF CNF

Creative Writing Non-Fiction
Guillermo S. Alvarez
Week 1 Lesson 1 (January 4, 2021)
Quote for the day :

“The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have
passed at home in the bosom of my family.” Thomas Jefferson

Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART

Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
Learning Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, you will be able to:

1. Understand the elements and nature of the creative non-
fiction;
2. Differentiate non-fiction and the literature elements; and
3. Produces written out put of a creative writing non-
fiction.

Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART

Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
 Where did the term come from?

No one really knows.

First there’s nonfiction. On
It’s safe to say that creative nonfiction was written the surface, that term seems
before the name was termed — in other words,
it’s a largely academic term to rope off whole wings of
fairly self-explanatory: that
prose writing, as opposed to fiction and poetry. which is not, or the opposite
I don’t mind the academic term personally; it’s my
hiring slot here at the College, after all, But I think
of fiction.
it’s important you get some background

on the name itself.

Something that’s true.

Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART

Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
But, seriously, what is true, what is truth?

One person’s truth is There are some things we can

another person’s myth. see as facts — dates, times,
names, but there are others
One person’s bad that are more prone to taste
childhood is a mother’s and judgment and that most
subjective of terms, memory.
joyful time with a son
or daughter.

Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART

Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
 Continuation
Phillip Lopate calls the
Then there’s creative. This, again, is term as “slightly
an academic buzzword. We’ve all bogus.” “It’s like
patting yourself on the
probably heard of “creative writing.” back and saying, ‘My

Many people aren’t happy Non-fiction is

with the term creative
creative.’ Let the
nonfiction, and it begins
with this word, creative. reader be the judge
of that.”
EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART
Email Address: [email protected]
Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
 Continuation

Fair enough. But we should keep in mind that the

naming and classification impulse, the necessity to
graft the word creative onto nonfiction, comes not
only from academic and education circles, but also
from human nature, an impulse to organize.
A Heart-breaking Story

Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART

Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
Continuation

It may not help in describing the aesthetic and artistic

impulses that go into writing creative nonfiction, but it
does have a necessary function with everything from
course and lesson plans to grants for writers.

Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART

Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
 Continuation

Other descriptors that have been

used and are still used in place of
creative nonfiction: Creative, however, has
New journalism some meanings that
literary nonfiction are directly
first-person antithetical to
nonfiction nonfiction that is, the
personal narrative truth.
prose
Email Address:nonfiction
[email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART
Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
Description

To create means not only to portray

that is, to re-create, but to make
something up, to make something out
of nothing.
Creative nonfiction could be
interpreted as one of those great “jumbo shrimp,” “diet ice cream,”

oxymorons, the stuff of a cheesy “business ethics,” or “military

Jay Leno monologue punchlines: intelligence.”

Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART

Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
 The idea of “creative” does draw
attention to the idea of creation and
also what Gutkind refers to, rather Does it matter when
dazedly, as the “sham of objectivity.” a story is told?
Can any story be told, or object or
person portrayed, completely truthfully
and objectively?
Or who is reading the story?
Does it matter who tells us the story?

Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART

Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
Should a story keep in mind its
audience, the background of the
subjects as well as the teller?

If there is drama involved, or if the

story or person portrayed has
some kind of inner life that the
writer can only guess or speculate No. We don’t.
is happening, does the writer
merely report the exteriors (“just
the facts, ma’am”) and leave it at
that?
Email Address: [email protected]
Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982
EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART
NGIS
 We humans, in our real lives,
are capable of guessing,
empathy, intuition, dreaming, Though only recently
poetry, and drama. identified and taught as a
distinct and separate literary
genre, the roots of creative
We research. We ask questions.
nonfiction run deeply into
We create. literary tradition and history.

We speak our truth.

Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART

Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
 For centuries, writers have asked
questions and have written
stories drawn from real life.
Usually, writers start with —who
else?— themselves.
“Cogito ergo sum,” “I think, therefore I am.”

— René Descartes

Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART

Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
 “I give thanks to
thee, O Lord of
heaven and earth,
giving praise to
thee for that first
being and my
infancy of which I
have no memory.
For thou hast that he should come to self
Saint Augustine’s
Confessions, for
granted to man
example.
Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART
Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
 knowledge through the
knowledge of others, and that he
Creative nonfiction writers
should believe many things say yes, it does matter
about himself on the authority of who is telling the story, it
the womenfolk. Now, clearly, I does matter who is
had life and being; and, as my experiencing what is
infancy closed, I was already happening.
learning signs by which my
feelings could be communicated
to others.”
Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART
Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
 Take, for example, the
branch of creative
nonfiction called “literary
journalism” or the
“literature of fact.”

These works employ literary techniques and artistic vision

usually associated with fiction or poetry to report on actual
persons and events.
Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART
Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
 The term has since
evolved, and includes
everything from
nature and travel
writing, the personal
memoir and essay, as
well as “new
journalism,” “gonzo Gonzo Journalism
journalism,” and the
“nonfiction novel.”
Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART
Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
 New Journalism Nonfiction Novel
Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART
Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
 •All of these terms refer to reporting in which
the reader senses a specific person narrating
and guiding the story.

• Thank you for listening!

Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART

Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART
Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS
Email Address: [email protected] EDUCATION WITH THE CULTURE OF HEART
Tel. No.: (046) 419-2272 / 419-1982 NGIS