Narrative nonfiction combines creative writing with factual reporting, creating an entertaining and well-constructed narrative. This genre includes biographies, essays, memoirs, personal essays, and certain types of journalism. The use of figurative language and a narrative style can determine whether a piece is considered nonfiction or narrative nonfiction. Biographies and memoirs may alter details, but this alone does not qualify as narrative nonfiction.
Narrative nonfiction is a genre of writing sometimes known as creative nonfiction because it combines elements of creative writing with the reporting of facts necessary to create a work of nonfiction. This genre is fact-based writing, but written with a creative element that lends itself to enhancing the fluidity and appeal of the writing itself. Narrative nonfiction can take the form of a biography, essay, memoir, personal essay, or certain types of journalism. This genre is fairly new compared to simple non-fiction, and the scrutiny with which this type of writing is analyzed has become stronger as the genre has grown.
Many fiction non-fiction writers aim to combine factual narration of events or analysis combined with writing more akin to creative fiction. The narrative may include figurative language that is often avoided in other types of non-fiction; metaphors and similes can be used, and the writer will pay more attention to writing in an entertaining and well-constructed way to get an effective narrative of events and a creative presentation. A person writing a memoir, for example, will essentially tell the events as they happened, but may use a more narrative style, including using dialogue, analyzing events, telling the story from a certain point of view to create a hybrid story that falls under the category of narrative nonfiction.
A travel writer may tell the story of his travels through a certain part of the world, recounting the events as they happened, but how the writer presents these events will determine whether it will be considered nonfiction or narrative nonfiction. If the writer chooses to relate facts in a story-like way, writing themselves as if they were characters in their fiction, the writing is more likely to fall into the narrative nonfiction category. If, conversely, that writer chooses to write the piece in such a way that only the facts are presented in a more documentary style, the writing is more likely to be classified simply as non-fiction.
Biographies and memoirs may present actual accounts of events, but in some cases names, places, and other details of the story may be altered for a variety of reasons. This alone does not qualify the writing as narrative nonfiction, although if other story elements are combined with this, the writing could end up falling into this category. If the sequence of events is truncated or changed slightly to fit the overall narrative, the writing can be labeled a creative work of non-fiction, or even fiction.
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