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Elements of Creative Nonfiction

 

Personal Presence

            Most creative nonfiction pieces are personal to the writer.  Readers are taken on a journey through the writer’s mind, feelings, and personality.

                 

Self-Discovery and Self-Exploration

            Creative nonfiction enables the writer to explore while writing, not knowing what will happen. It allows the writer to be tentative, reflective, and capable of revealing a mind at work. It frees the writer to go on a journey of self-discovery. 

 

Flexibility

            There are no structural limitations in creative nonfiction. The writer can be inventive from the sentence level all the way to the architecture of an entire piece.

 

Veracity

            Creative nonfiction is factual. The writing is based on a real experience, whether it was lived or observed.

 

Use of Literary Devices

             Scenes, flashbacks, plot, dialogue, characters, suspense, and lyrical language are just some of the literary devices that creative nonfiction writers use.

 

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