- After reading these 3 reading helping me to understand what is a creative nonficition and be aware of the types, differences and tips to get through this style of writing successfully .
- Here are my 3 summaries of these readings: Picturing the Personal Essay (Tim Bascom) / What is Creative Nonfiction? (Lee Gutkind) / How to Write a Narrative Essay Using Scenes.
1. Picturing the Personal Essay: A Visual Guide by Tim Bascom
The process of writing is described as an organic shape which each curve describe the process the writer goes through exploring thoughts until he/she arrives at the real structure which was intended. When writing an essay the process is end it up with many different outlines that determinate the figure that each writer has, its his or her own structure and unique personal form. However it’s important to recognize the basic and essential construction in addition to the personal touched by the writer. The author mentions six different kinds of essays.
Narrative intends move forward and upwards by telling chronological events that recreate the past bringing tension to the story that is reached by the reader through the climax. It’s like going up to the stairs. It’s a sequence of scenes that bring question and allows the reader to look for answers within the reading. The next option, The whorl of reflection is a circling approach that permits the writer goes around the subject until arriving to the side of what was expected. It’s one of the processes that represent clearly the mind’s creative process because it comes along with variety of perspectives. The formal limits of focus, in this case the writer try to limit the reader’s focus deleting or separating the scenes which play a singular complete idea, but those need to be attached in order to understand them. Each idea or story goes by itself like wholeness where enclosing selected portion of each story or event creates a particular chronological mess that limits the reader’s attention. Dipping into the well, let the writer pause the forward motion of the essay, and make an vital dip into a detail or comment that eventually pull the reader away from the flow of the top, developing an essential second layer and catching the attention of the reader as well. Braided and layered structures, this type of the essay is when two or more story lines interact and weave together as a complete story. This kind breaks into another type of essay called the lyric essay, which is dedicated more to image than idea, more to attitude than concept. It is there to be experienced, not simply thought about like poems. It’s like waves on the sea. The last type brings ends to beginnings. It comes with the effect of returning to the start point as a symbolism of completion of the main scene.
2. What is creative nonfiction? By Lee Gutkind
Creative nonfiction is defined as true stories well told. It’s a mix of ideas and techniques mixed together in an essay, or journal, article, or research paper, a memoir or a poem. The name itself describe the form, where creative refers to use techniques and scriptwriters to present nonfiction, its how the writer embellishes the writing without leaving behind the honesty of the facts; nonfiction is being accurate about real people and events, vivid facts that are the heart of the story. Nowadays this genre has grown and spread pretty fast becoming in the most popular genre in the literary and publishing communities. Another type of literature is Memoir craze, where the author makes their private life public by confessing secrets and connecting the world in a meaningful way. Referring to memoir craze as a private, personal creative nonfiction leads us to the opposite kind the public type of this; it is well known as journalism. The difference between both is simple as the name inferred; memoir is a personal story that the writer owns it, closing the viewers to a particular audience. In contrast, the public type is someone else’s story and anybody owns it, what has a larger audience.
Blocks that represent the scenes and stories of each story build creative nonfiction; those are the foundation and anchoring elements of creative nonfiction. Writing in scenes represents the difference between showing and telling. This is how the story is memorable by actions through scenes.
3. How to write narrative essays using scenes by David Miller.
Writing a narrative essay depends on the ability of creating a scene, which is a simple and single event. A narrative essay is always moving because it starts with action, then breaks down the scene with descriptions or details. Nonetheless, the movement between scenes and the writer thoughts is connected by transitions that allows the reader creates effects of time, and demands the reader to make quick jumps in and out of the story smoothly. However, the event doesn’t need to be dramatic. Weaving scenes is easier after the writer has general ideas of the event, what lead easier to create details. The idea of the narrative essay is create a sense of movement through the story and in different directions but always moving forward.