CNF, Part 2

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your three day weekend, and that you've made it through the first half of your week without style. I believe in you!

As we continue our series, A Study in Genre, we now take a look at what can be done with creative nonfiction, what kinds of stories are best for this genre, and a few pointers I have for making your stories work to the best of their ability.

The Triple How-To of CNF

1. What's best?

Obviously, CNF needs to be something that's at least mostly true. It needs to be a story that's based on real life, likely something that's happened to you. Of course, if you want to write about someone else's life, all you have to do is get their written permission and consent. If any of you are interested in doing that, let me know — I'd be happy to send you a copy of my consent form, to use for your own purposes.

Now then. I find that the best CNF stories are ones that seem the most like fiction. That's the beauty of creative nonfiction, you see. It's supposed to be a great deal like fiction, to the point that you'll draw fiction readers to your work.

So, my suggestion is to pick an event that isn't quite so average in your life, or pick something average and expound upon it to show how significant it became in your life. Treat it like fiction. Write a story that you think would make a good fiction story — it just has to be something that came from your life, not that of a made up character. 

2. What POV?

I've read a lot of creative nonfiction in my day, mostly because I took so many classes on the subject, but I'll tell you right now that any creative nonfiction written in second person, does not work. I've only read a few of them, and I think there's a legitimate reason for that. They just don't make sense.

First person is the standard for CNF, because these tend to be biographical stories, and therefore it makes the most sense for them to be in first person. However, third person is also acceptable if you handle it well. Just make sure your story doesn't sound false, from the sheer act of its being in third person.

For the record, I've written one CNF story in third person, and I've found that it has about a 50% success rate as to whether or not people actually believe it's CNF.

3. What tense?

I'm picky when it comes to tense. I really don't like present tense. I don't trust it, it's hard to hold (for any writer — many a popular book has broken tense, and I can't read them for the simple fact of it), and it gets annoying very quickly. However, for creative nonfiction, I have a very legitimate point when it comes to writing in past tense.

Creative nonfiction, by definition, is a story about something that actually happened. That means that it can't be going on right now, which is what present tense tries to do. These are things that happened in the past. So it doesn't really make sense to write them in present tense, and it's a lot easier for your reader to believe and understand you when CNF is kept to past tense.

You wouldn't read a present tense biography, would you?


Check back in on Friday to see my top three don'ts when it comes to CNF!

[love]

{Rani D.}