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Words to the Wise
Creative Nonfiction: A Tricky
Business
In
Creative Nonfiction: Isn't That an Oxymoron?, I introduced you to creative nonfiction,
that apparent oxymoron so beautifully explored by Brenda Miller
and Suzanne Paola in Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping
Creative Nonfiction (1st ed., 2005). Creative nonfiction poses particular
challenges; Miller and Paolo call it "a tricky business." On the
one hand, the writer is striving to turn real life into art. On
the other hand, she must deal with the issues that come attached
with that "real life." Can you, for example, when writing from
your own memory, place a character in an imaginative place
because you don't exactly remember the scene? Can you, in order
to set up the scene properly, simply create the characters you
need? Can you, because you don't remember the dialogue verbatim,
put words in a character's mouth? In short, how much of your
imagination can you use?
Tell It Slant
spends many pages on these basic questions of creative
nonfiction. Central to the issues is that, whatever you are
writing about, it is "the self that inhabits the prose of
creative nonfiction." This "I" picks and chooses among the
facts, re-creates the essential scenes, makes crucial decisions
about what to include and what to exclude, decides on the
opening line that will set up the voice of the piece. Say the
authors, "The 'I' gives the essay its personality, both
literally and figuratively."
But, as you create
this persona for your piece, you are establishing a relationship
between yourself and your reader, a relationship that goes to
the heart of creative nonfiction: "In creative nonfiction—more
so, perhaps, than in any other genre—readers assume a real
person behind the artifice, an author who speaks directly
to the reader." For this relationship to work, the writer must
establish a level of trust—a "pact with the reader." Your reader
will assume, because you are presenting your work as a piece of
nonfiction, that this is a "true story," rooted in the real
world. In return for this assumption—this faith in you as a
writer—you must "pledge ... both to be as honest as possible
with the reader and to make this conversation
worthwhile."
Reference:
Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola,
Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005.
Tell It Slant: Creating, Refining, and Publishing Creative Nonfiction is now in its third edition, published in 2019.
Words to the Wise on creative
nonfiction:
Creative Nonfiction? Isn't That an Oxymoron?
Creative Nonfiction: A Tricky Business
Creative Nonfiction Revisited
Taking the Risk—Writing About Those We Know
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