how to start a literary nonfiction essay

A Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction

by Melissa Donovan | Mar 4, 2021 | Creative Writing | 12 comments

Try your hand at writing creative nonfiction.

Here at Writing Forward, we’re primarily interested in three types of creative writing: poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.

With poetry and fiction, there are techniques and best practices that we can use to inform and shape our writing, but there aren’t many rules beyond the standards of style, grammar, and good writing . We can let our imaginations run wild; everything from nonsense to outrageous fantasy is fair game for bringing our ideas to life when we’re writing fiction and poetry.

However, when writing creative nonfiction, there are some guidelines that we need to follow. These guidelines aren’t set in stone; however, if you violate them, you might find yourself in trouble with your readers as well as the critics.

What is Creative Nonfiction?

Telling True Stories (aff link).

What sets creative nonfiction apart from fiction or poetry?

For starters, creative nonfiction is factual. A memoir is not just any story; it’s a true story. A biography is the real account of someone’s life. There is no room in creative nonfiction for fabrication or manipulation of the facts.

So what makes creative nonfiction writing different from something like textbook writing or technical writing? What makes it creative?

Nonfiction writing that isn’t considered creative usually has business or academic applications. Such writing isn’t designed for entertainment or enjoyment. Its sole purpose is to convey information, usually in a dry, straightforward manner.

Creative nonfiction, on the other hand, pays credence to the craft of writing, often through literary devices and storytelling techniques, which make the prose aesthetically pleasing and bring layers of meaning to the context. It’s pleasurable to read.

According to Wikipedia:

Creative nonfiction (also known as literary or narrative nonfiction) is a genre of writing truth which uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as technical writing or journalism, which is also rooted in accurate fact, but is not primarily written in service to its craft.

Like other forms of nonfiction, creative nonfiction relies on research, facts, and credibility. While opinions may be interjected, and often the work depends on the author’s own memories (as is the case with memoirs and autobiographies), the material must be verifiable and accurately reported.

Creative Nonfiction Genres and Forms

There are many forms and genres within creative nonfiction:

• Autobiography and biography
• Personal essays
• Literary journalism
• Any topical material, such as food or travel writing, self-development, art, or history, can be creatively written with a literary angle

Let’s look more closely at a few of these nonfiction forms and genres:

Memoirs: A memoir is a long-form (book-length) written work. It is a firsthand, personal account that focuses on a specific experience or situation. One might write a memoir about serving in the military or struggling with loss. Memoirs are not life stories, but they do examine life through a particular lens. For example, a memoir about being a writer might begin in childhood, when the author first learned to write. However, the focus of the book would be on writing, so other aspects of the author’s life would be left out, for the most part.

Biographies and autobiographies: A biography is the true story of someone’s life. If an author composes their own biography, then it’s called an autobiography. These works tend to cover the entirety of a person’s life, albeit selectively.

Literary journalism: Journalism sticks with the facts while exploring the who, what, where, when, why, and how of a particular person, topic, or event. Biographies, for example, are a genre of literary journalism, which is a form of nonfiction writing. Traditional journalism is a method of information collection and organization. Literary journalism also conveys facts and information, but it honors the craft of writing by incorporating storytelling techniques and literary devices. Opinions are supposed to be absent in traditional journalism, but they are often found in literary journalism, which can be written in long or short formats.

Personal essays are a short form of creative nonfiction that can cover a wide range of styles, from writing about one’s experiences to expressing one’s personal opinions. They can address any topic imaginable. Personal essays can be found in many places, from magazines and literary journals to blogs and newspapers. They are often a short form of memoir writing.

Speeches  can cover a range of genres, from political to motivational to educational. A tributary speech honors someone whereas a roast ridicules them (in good humor). Unlike most other forms of writing, speeches are written to be performed rather than read.

Journaling: A common, accessible, and often personal form of creative nonfiction writing is journaling. A journal can also contain fiction and poetry, but most journals would be considered nonfiction. Some common types of written journals are diaries, gratitude journals, and career journals (or logs), but this is just a small sampling of journaling options.

Writing Creative Nonfiction (aff link).

Any topic or subject matter is fair game in the realm of creative nonfiction. Some nonfiction genres and topics that offer opportunities for creative nonfiction writing include food and travel writing, self-development, art and history, and health and fitness. It’s not so much the topic or subject matter that renders a written work as creative; it’s how it’s written — with due diligence to the craft of writing through application of language and literary devices.

Guidelines for Writing Creative Nonfiction

Here are six simple guidelines to follow when writing creative nonfiction:

• Get your facts straight. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing your own story or someone else’s. If readers, publishers, and the media find out you’ve taken liberties with the truth of what happened, you and your work will be scrutinized. Negative publicity might boost sales, but it will tarnish your reputation; you’ll lose credibility. If you can’t refrain from fabrication, then think about writing fiction instead of creative nonfiction.
• Issue a disclaimer. A lot of nonfiction is written from memory, and we all know that human memory is deeply flawed. It’s almost impossible to recall a conversation word for word. You might forget minor details, like the color of a dress or the make and model of a car. If you aren’t sure about the details but are determined to include them, be upfront and include a disclaimer that clarifies the creative liberties you’ve taken.
• Consider the repercussions. If you’re writing about other people (even if they are secondary figures), you might want to check with them before you publish your nonfiction. Some people are extremely private and don’t want any details of their lives published. Others might request that you leave certain things out, which they want to keep private. Otherwise, make sure you’ve weighed the repercussions of revealing other people’s lives to the world. Relationships have been both strengthened and destroyed as a result of authors publishing the details of other people’s lives.
• Be objective. You don’t need to be overly objective if you’re telling your own, personal story. However, nobody wants to read a highly biased biography. Book reviews for biographies are packed with harsh criticism for authors who didn’t fact-check or provide references and for those who leave out important information or pick and choose which details to include to make the subject look good or bad.
• Pay attention to language. You’re not writing a textbook, so make full use of language, literary devices, and storytelling techniques.
• Know your audience. Creative nonfiction sells, but you must have an interested audience. A memoir about an ordinary person’s first year of college isn’t especially interesting. Who’s going to read it? However, a memoir about someone with a learning disability navigating the first year of college is quite compelling, and there’s an identifiable audience for it. When writing creative nonfiction, a clearly defined audience is essential.

Are you looking for inspiration? Check out these creative nonfiction writing ideas.

Ten creative nonfiction writing prompts and projects.

The prompts below are excerpted from my book, 1200 Creative Writing Prompts , which contains fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction writing prompts. Use these prompts to spark a creative nonfiction writing session.

1200 Creative Writing Prompts (aff link).

• What is your favorite season? What do you like about it? Write a descriptive essay about it.
• What do you think the world of technology will look like in ten years? Twenty? What kind of computers, phones, and other devices will we use? Will technology improve travel? Health care? What do you expect will happen and what would you like to happen?
• Have you ever fixed something that was broken? Ever solved a computer problem on your own? Write an article about how to fix something or solve some problem.
• Have you ever had a run-in with the police? What happened?
• Have you ever traveled alone? Tell your story. Where did you go? Why? What happened?
• Let’s say you write a weekly advice column. Choose the topic you’d offer advice on, and then write one week’s column.
• Think of a major worldwide problem: for example, hunger, climate change, or political corruption. Write an article outlining a solution (or steps toward a solution).
• Choose a cause that you feel is worthy and write an article persuading others to join that cause.
• Someone you barely know asks you to recommend a book. What do you recommend and why?
• Hard skills are abilities you have acquired, such as using software, analyzing numbers, and cooking. Choose a hard skill you’ve mastered and write an article about how this skill is beneficial using your own life experiences as examples.

Do You Write Creative Nonfiction?

Have you ever written creative nonfiction? How often do you read it? Can you think of any nonfiction forms and genres that aren’t included here? Do you have any guidelines to add to this list? Are there any situations in which it would be acceptable to ignore these guidelines? Got any tips to add? Do you feel that nonfiction should focus on content and not on craft? Leave a comment to share your thoughts, and keep writing.

12 Comments

Shouldn’t ALL non-fiction be creative to some extent? I am a former business journalist, and won awards for the imaginative approach I took to writing about even the driest of business topics: pensions, venture capital, tax, employment law and other potentially dusty subjects. The drier and more complicated the topic, the more creative the approach must be, otherwise no-one with anything else to do will bother to wade through it. [to be honest, taking the fictional approach to these ghastly tortuous topics was the only way I could face writing about them.] I used all the techniques that fiction writers have to play with, and used some poetic techniques, too, to make the prose more readable. What won the first award was a little serial about two businesses run and owned by a large family at war with itself. Every episode centred on one or two common and crucial business issues, wrapped up in a comedy-drama, and it won a lot of fans (happily for me) because it was so much easier to read and understand than the dry technical writing they were used to. Life’s too short for dusty writing!

I believe most journalism is creative and would therefore fall under creative nonfiction. However, there is a lot of legal, technical, medical, science, and textbook writing in which there is no room for creativity (or creativity has not made its way into these genres yet). With some forms, it makes sense. I don’t think it would be appropriate for legal briefings to use story or literary devices just to add a little flair. On the other hand, it would be a good thing if textbooks were a little more readable.

I think Abbs is right – even in academic papers, an example or story helps the reader visualize the problem or explanation more easily. I scan business books to see if there are stories or examples, if not, then I don’t pick up the book. That’s where the creativity comes in – how to create examples, what to conflate, what to emphasis as we create our fictional people to illustrate important, real points.

Thanks for the post. Very helpful. I’d never thought about writing creative nonfiction before.

You’re welcome 🙂

Hi Melissa!

Love your website. You always give a fun and frank assessment of all things pertaining to writing. It is a pleasure to read. I have even bought several of the reference and writing books you recommended. Keep up the great work.

Top 10 Reasons Why Creative Nonfiction Is A Questionable Category

10. When you look up “Creative Nonfiction” in the dictionary it reads: See Fiction

9. The first creative nonfiction example was a Schwinn Bicycle Assembly Guide that had printed in its instructions: Can easily be assembled by one person with a Phillips head screw driver, Allen keys, adjustable wrench and cable cutters in less than an hour.

8. Creative Nonfiction; Based on actual events; Suggested by a true event; Based on a true story. It’s a slippery slope.

7. The Creative Nonfiction Quarterly is only read by eleven people. Five have the same last name.

6. Creative Nonfiction settings may only include: hospitals, concentration camps, prisons and cemeteries. Exceptions may be made for asylums, rehab centers and Capitol Hill.

5. The writers who create Sterile Nonfiction or Unimaginative Nonfiction now want their category recognized.

4. Creative; Poetic License; Embellishment; Puffery. See where this is leading?

3. Creative Nonfiction is to Nonfiction as Reality TV is to Documentaries.

2. My attorney has advised that I exercise my 5th Amendment Rights or that I be allowed to give written testimony in a creative nonfiction way.

1. People believe it is a film with Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson and Queen Latifa.

Hi Steve. I’m not sure if your comment is meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek, but I found it humorous.

My publisher is releasing my Creative Nonfiction book based on my grandmother’s life this May 2019 in Waikiki. I’ll give you an update soon about sales. I was fortunate enough to get some of the original and current Hawaii 5-0 members to show up for the book signing.

Hi, when writing creative nonfiction- is it appropriate to write from someone else’s point of view when you don’t know them? I was thinking of writing about Greta Thungbrurg for creative nonfiction competition – but I can directly ask her questions so I’m unsure as to whether it’s accurate enough to be classified as creative non-fiction. Thank you!

Hi Madeleine. I’m not aware of creative nonfiction being written in first person from someone else’s point of view. The fact of the matter is that it wouldn’t be creative nonfiction because a person cannot truly show events from another person’s perspective. So I wouldn’t consider something like that nonfiction. It would usually be a biography written in third person, and that is common. You can certainly use quotes and other indicators to represent someone else’s views and experiences. I could probably be more specific if I knew what kind of work it is (memoir, biography, self-development, etc.).

Dear Melissa: I am trying to market a book in the metaphysical genre about an experience I had, receiving the voice of a Civil War spirit who tells his story (not channeling). Part is my reaction and discussion with a close friend so it is not just memoir. I referred to it as ‘literary non-fiction’ but an agent put this down by saying it is NOT literary non-fiction. Looking at your post, could I say that my book is ‘creative non-fiction’? (agents can sometimes be so nit-picky)

Hi Liz. You opened your comment by classifying the book as metaphysical but later referred to it as literary nonfiction. The premise definitely sounds like a better fit in the metaphysical category. Creative nonfiction is not a genre; it’s a broader category or description. Basically, all literature is either fiction or nonfiction (poetry would be separate from these). Describing nonfiction as creative only indicates that it’s not something like a user guide. I think you were heading in the right direction with the metaphysical classification.

The goal of marketing and labeling books with genres is to find a readership that will be interested in the work. This is an agent’s area of expertise, so assuming you’re speaking with a competent agent, I’d suggest taking their advice in this matter. It indicates that the audience perusing the literary nonfiction aisles is simply not a match for this book.

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Non-fiction/Poetry ,

How to write creative nonfiction that engages your readers.

By Sonia Grant

When I read  Dancing in the Dark  by Caryl Philips, I wasn’t quite sure  what  I was reading, as it was unlike any novel I’d read previously. But I was curious how the author crafted the “voices” or dialogue , which were so finely tuned and authentic it made me feel as though I was in the thick of the plot as it unfolded. Eventually, it dawned on me that the book couldn’t solely be classified as a novel per se, as the story was based on “real life”; because of its biographical and historical context it sat comfortably within the genre of creative nonfiction. 

What Is Creative Nonfiction ?

The term creative nonfiction has been credited to American writer Lee Gutkin, who first coined the phrase in the journal he founded in 1993:  Creative Nonfiction . When asked to define what creative nonfiction is Gutkin says simply “true stories well told.”  

Expanding on Gutkin’s definition I would add that the main difference between creative nonfiction – also known as narrative nonfiction – and other genres is that in creative nonfiction the focus is on literary style, and it is very much like reading a novel, with the important exception that everything in the story has actually happened.  

Essentially, creative nonfiction incorporates techniques from literature, including fiction and poetry, in order to present a narrative that flows more like story than, say, a journalistic article or a report. In short, then, it is a form of storytelling that employs creative writing techniques including literature to retell a  true  story, which is why emphasis is placed on the word  creative . I would underscore that it is this aspect which distinguishes the genre from other nonfiction books; for instance, textbooks which are, as implied, recounting solely of  facts  – without any frills.

Types Of Creative Nonfiction

The good news is that the expanse of creative nonfiction as a genre is considerable and there is ample scope for writers of every persuasion, in terms of categorisation and personal creative preference. Some terms you may be familiar with, and some are essentially the same, as far as content is concerned – only the phrasing may be interchangeable.  

Memoirs are the most commonly used form of creative nonfiction. It is a writer’s personal, first-hand experiences, or events spanning a specific time frame or period. In it you are essentially trying to evoke the past… and by the end you will, no doubt, hope to have successfully conveyed the moral of your story. Not in a preachy kind of way but in a manner which is engaging, informative or entertaining.  

You should note that there are important differences between a biography and a memoir: in writing a biography you need to maintain a record of your sources – primary or secondary – that will stand the rigours of being fact-checked.  

A memoir, by contrast, is your recollection or memory of a past event or experience. While they do not necessarily have to be underpinned with verifiable facts in the same way as a biography, there’s more scope for your creative or imaginary interpretation of an event or experience. 

Literary Journalism

In the early days of the genre literary journalism hogged the headlines; it was, according to  The Herald Tribune , “a hotbed of so-called New Journalism, in which writers like Tom Wolfe used the tools of novelists — characters, dialogue and scene-setting — to create compelling narratives.” The way this fits into the creative nonfiction genre is that it uses the style and devices of literary fiction in fact-based journalism. Norman Mailer and Gail Sheehy were exceptionally skilled exponents, though, arguably, critics contended that both could, on occasion, be so immersed that some of their writing was tantamount to an actor who inhabited their character via method acting. 

Reportage And Reporting  

Ultimately, the primary goal of the creative nonfiction writer is to communicate information, just like a reporter. If you choose to pursue reportage it is imperative that you pay close attention to notes and record-keeping as reporting is not – as with other elements of creative nonfiction – based on your personal experiences or opinions and, therefore, has to be scrupulously accurate and verifiable.  

Personal Essays

Other types of creative nonfiction include personal essays whereby the writer crafts an essay that’s based on a personal experience or single event, which results in significant personal resonance, or a lesson learned. This element of creative nonfiction is very broad in scope and includes  travel writing , food writing, nature writing, science writing, sports writing, and magazine articles. 

Personal essays, therefore, encompass just about any kind of writing. They can also include audio creativity and opinion pieces, through podcasts and radio plays.  

The Five R’s Of Creative Nonfiction  

In Lee Gutkind’s essay,  The Five R’s of Creative Nonfiction , he summarised the salient points of successfully writing creative nonfiction and, if you followed these instructions, you’d be hard-pressed to go wrong: 

1. Real Life

I daresay this is self-explanatory although as a storyteller, instead of letting your imagination run riot you must use it as the foundation. Your story must be based in reality – be that subject matter, people, situations or experiences. 

2. Research

I can’t emphasise strongly enough that conducting extensive, thorough research is of paramount importance and, not to put too fine a point on it, this is not an area you can gloss over – you  will  be “found out” and your credibility is at stake. And, no, Wikipedia doesn’t count – other than perhaps as a starting point. Interestingly, by the company’s own admission:   “Wikipedia is not a reliable source for citations elsewhere on Wikipedia. Because it can be edited by anyone at any time, any information it contains at a particular time could be vandalism , a work in progress, or just plain wrong.” 

Not technically an “R” but we get his point… Put succinctly by William Faulkner:   “Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything good.”

4. Reflection

No-one can negate your personal reflections, but you should be aware, given that what you’re writing is based on “fact” that someone mentioned in your article or book may not necessarily agree with your perspective. The fallout can be devastating and damage irreparable. A case in point was the debacle following publication of  Ugly: The True Story of a Loveless Childhood  by Constance Briscoe. In the best-selling “misery memoir” the author accused her mother of childhood cruelty and neglect; her mother rejected the claims and said the allegations were “a piece of fiction” and sued both her daughter and publisher for  libel , and lost.  

It goes without saying that when writing about people who are still alive you need to be especially cautious. Of course, you’re entitled to your own unique perspective but, as Buckingham Palace responded to the Oprah Winfrey interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry – which may yet find its way in book form – “some recollections may vary”. 

It’s often said that the best writers are also voracious readers. Not only does it broaden your horizons but it’s a perfect way to see what works and what doesn’t. And, as William Faulkner admonished: “Read, read, read. Read everything –trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”  

How To Write Creative Nonfiction

We now know what kind of creative nonfiction exists, and what to bear in mind before writing, but when it comes to starting your story…where do you begin? 

While it may be tempting to jump straight in and start writing, you will save yourself a headache if you begin by deciding upon the structure or form you want your work to be based on. This doesn’t need big whistles and bells, you just need an outline to begin with, something to shape your thinking and trajectory. It’s always worthwhile to know what direction you’re headed in. Nothing is set in stone – you can always add to it or amend accordingly.  

For planning there are different models you can employ but I find it easiest to think along the lines of a three-part play: act one, I open by establishing the fundamentals of what I am going to present; act two, allows me to build upon the opening by increasing the dramatic effect of what’s unfolding; and act three, I bring my thesis together by pulling together different strands of the story to a logical, coherent narrative and, even better in some circumstances, a cliff-hanger. 

In your outline you should bear in mind the main elements of creative nonfiction and the fact that there are some universal literary techniques you can use:  

Plot And Setting  

There are many things from your past that may trigger your imagination. It could be writing about an area you grew up in, neighbours you had – anything which can be descriptive and used as a building block but will be the foundation upon which you set the tone or introduction to your piece. 

Artefacts  

Using what may seem like mundane artefacts can be used effectively. For instance, old photographs, school reports, records and letters etc. can evoke memories. 

Descriptive Imagery  

The most effective way to ensure your characters are relatable is to work on creating a plausible narrative. You must also have at the forefront of your mind “Facts. Facts. Facts.” I can’t stress enough how your work must be based on fact and  not  fiction. 

Dialogue  

Also referred to as figurative language, when using one of the most effective ways to set the tone of your work, the language used in dialogue must be plausible. You simply need to step back and ask yourself, “Does this sound like something my character would say?” There’s no greater turnoff for a reader than dialogue which is stilted.  

Characters  

If you want your readers to be engaged, they have to “buy what you’re selling” i.e.  believe  in your characters.  

Top Creative Nonfiction Writing Tips

Stick to the facts  .

Even a mere whiff of fiction in your writing will automatically disqualify it as creative nonfiction. To make sure you haven’t transgressed it’s easier to avoid doing so altogether. Although it’s fine to incorporate literary techniques which include extended metaphor, allegory, and imagery, among others. 

You will also need to make note of the references you have relied upon. Not only is this good housekeeping it is also what’s expected of a professional writer. There are a multitude of places you can begin your research: family recollections/oral history; my local library serves aspiring writers well with both a respectable catalogue of physical books and online resources such as the British Newspaper Archives; Ancestry; and FindMyPast, among them. These are invaluable tools at your disposal and the list is by no means exhaustive.  

Checklist  

So, to conclude, what are the takeaways from this guide?  

Firstly, methodically work your way through the checklist contained within the 5 R’s. Also, remember, whatever your interest, the extent of creative nonfiction dictates that there’s likely to be a market for your writing.  

But, at all costs, avoid falling into the cardinal sin of making things up! It may be tempting to get carried away with being  creative  and miss that the finished product absolutely must be anchored in  facts  – from which, no deviation is acceptable.  

Indeed, please ensure everything you’ve written is verifiable. You never know when someone is going to fact-check your thesis or challenge an assertion you’ve made. 

Best Of Both Worlds

All in all, creative nonfiction is a wondrous way of telling an important and real story. Never forget that even though you are writing about factual stories and scenarios, you can still do so in an imaginative and creative way guaranteed to bring your readers on a journey of exploration with you. 

About the author

Sonia Grant is a writer (primarily of nonfiction) and author; she is currently working on two historical creative nonfiction books. In addition to Jericho Writers, her other writing has been published by BBC History Revealed and Huffington Post. For more on Sonia, see her website or her Twitter .

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Introduction

Creative nonfiction is a broad term and encompasses many different forms of writing. This resource focuses on the three basic forms of creative nonfiction: the personal essay, the memoir essay, and the literary journalism essay. A short section on the lyric essay is also discussed.

The Personal Essay

The personal essay is commonly taught in first-year composition courses because students find it relatively easy to pick a topic that interests them, and to follow their associative train of thoughts, with the freedom to digress and circle back.

The point to having students write personal essays is to help them become better writers, since part of becoming a better writer is the ability to express personal experiences, thoughts and opinions. Since academic writing may not allow for personal experiences and opinions, writing the personal essay is a good way to allow students further practice in writing.

The goal of the personal essay is to convey personal experiences in a convincing way to the reader, and in this way is related to rhetoric and composition, which is also persuasive. A good way to explain a personal essay assignment to a more goal-oriented student is simply to ask them to try to persuade the reader about the significance of a particular event.

Most high-school and first-year college students have plenty of experiences to draw from, and they are convinced about the importance of certain events over others in their lives. Often, students find their strongest conviction in the process of writing, and the personal essay is a good way to get students to start exploring these possibilities in writing.

A personal essay assignment can work well as a prelude to a research paper, because personal essays will help students understand their own convictions better, and will help prepare them to choose research topics that interest them.

An Example and Discussion of a Personal Essay

The following excerpt from Wole Soyinka's (Nigerian Nobel Laureate) Why Do I Fast? is an example of a personal essay. What follows is a short discussion of Soyinka's essay.

Soyinka begins with a question that fascinates him. He doesn’t feel required to immediately answer the question in the second paragraph. Rather, he takes time to consider his own inclination to believe that there is a connection between fasting and sensuality.

Soyinka follows the flowing associative arc of his thoughts, and he goes on to write about sunsets, and quotes from a poem that he wrote in his cell. The essay ends, not on a restatement of his thesis, but on yet another question that arises:

This question remains unanswered. Soyinka is not interested in even attempting to answer it. The personal essay doesn’t necessarily seek to make sense out of life experiences; rather, personal essays tend to let go of that sense-making impulse to do something else, like nose around a bit in the wondering, uncertain space that lies between experience and the need to organize it in a logical manner.

However informal the personal essay may seem, it’s important to keep in mind that, as Dinty W. Moore says in The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction , “the essay should always be motivated by the author’s genuine interest in wrestling with complex questions.”

Generating Ideas for Personal Essays

In The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction , Moore goes on to explain an effective way to help students generate ideas for personal essays:

“Think about ten things you care about deeply: the environment, children in poverty, Alzheimer’s research (because your grandfather is a victim), hip-hop music, Saturday afternoon football games. Make your own list of ten important subjects, and then narrow the larger subject down to specific subjects you might write about. The environment? How about that bird sanctuary out on Township Line Road that might be torn down to make room for a megastore?..."

"...What is it like to be the food service worker who puts mustard on two thousand hot dogs every Saturday afternoon? Don’t just wonder about it - talk to the mustard spreader, spend an afternoon hanging out behind the counter, spread some mustard yourself. Transform your list of ten things into a longer list of possible story ideas. Don’t worry for now about whether these ideas would take a great amount of research, or might require special permission or access. Just write down a master list of possible stories related to your ideas and passions. Keep the list. You may use it later.”

It is this flexibility of form in the personal essay that makes it easy for students who are majoring in engineering, nutrition, graphic design, finance, management, etc. to adapt, learn and practice. The essay can be a more worldly form of writing than poetry or fiction, so students from various backgrounds, majors, jobs and cultures can express interesting and powerful thoughts and feelings in them.

The essay is more worldly than poetry and fiction in another sense: it allows for more of the world and its languages, its arts and food, its sport and business, its travel and politics, its sciences and entertainment, to be present, valid and important.

6 Best Practices for Writing Creative Nonfiction

People browsing books usually scan the cover for the title, author, and whoever wrote the foreword. Then they glance at the back cover.

If intrigued, they’ll turn to the first chapter.

Your first paragraph—from the first sentence—must compel your reader to continue.

The power of creative nonfiction comes from using a technique common in fiction—rendering a visual to trigger the theater of the readers’ minds.

Certain stories should be told exactly as they happened. Take it from a novelist who also writes nonfiction: You don’t have to resort to fiction to captivate readers. Creative nonfiction is often the best way to go.

• What is Creative Nonfiction?

Also referred to as literary or narrative nonfiction (and sometimes literary journalism), the term can be confusing. “Creative” is usually associated with make-believe. So can nonfiction be creative?

It not only can, but should be to gain the attention of an agent or publisher—and ultimately your readership.

Unlike academic and technical writing (and even objective journalism), creative nonfiction uses many of the techniques and devices employed in fiction to tell a compelling true story. The goal is the same as in fiction: a story well told.

Some nonfiction narratives carry a literary flair every bit as beautiful as classic novels.

My very favorite book ever, Rick Bragg’s memoir All Over but the Shoutin’ , won rave reviews all over the country. Bragg’s haunting, poetic prose was a byproduct of the point of his book, not the reason for it.

The Best Creative Nonfiction Writers Are…

1. avid readers..

Writers are readers. Good writers are good readers . Great writers are great readers.

Read everything you can find in your genre before trying to write in it.

You’ll quickly learn the conventions and expectations, what works and what doesn’t.

2. Focused on the heart, but not preachy.

Creative nonfiction consists of an emotionally powerful message that moves readers, potentially changing their lives. But don’t preach. True art gives your reader credit for getting the point.

Readers love to be educated and entertained, but move them emotionally and they’ll never forget it.

3. Precise.

Employing fictional literary tools doesn’t mean being loose with the facts. Become an avid researcher.

Your story should be:

• Interesting

Are you being objective or spinning your own angle?

Your research should contribute to real stories well told.

Remember to use your research to season your main course—the point of your book. Resist the urge to show off all you learned with an information dump.

4. Rule followers.

Writing a story is like building a house—if the foundation’s not solid, even the most beautiful structure won’t stand.

Experts agree that these 7 elements must exist in a story (follow the links to study further).

• Point of View

5. Not afraid to get personal.

Include your unique voice and perspective, even if the book or story is not about you.

6. Creative (pun intended).

Readers bore quickly, so don’t just review a Chinese restaurant—explain how they get that fortune inside the cookie without getting it soggy.

Don’t just write a standard business piece on a store. Profile one of its most loyal customers.

Autobiography: First We Have Coffee by Margaret Jensen, Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Biography: A Passion for the Impossible by Miriam Huffman Rockness, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, John Adams by David McCullough, Churchill: A Life by Martin Gilbert, Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir by Linnie Marsh Wolfe

Memoir: All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg, Cultivate by Lara Casey, A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, Out of Africa by Karen Blixen, Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

How-to: Reconcilable Differences by Jim Talley, the … For Dummies guides, The Magical Power of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris

Motivational: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, The Seven Decisions by Andy Andrews, Intentional Living by John Maxwell

Christian Living: Chasing God by Angie Smith, The Search for Significance by Robert McGee, The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts by Gary Chapman, Boundaries by John Townsend, Love Does by Bob Goff

Children’s Books: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant, My Brother’s Book by Maurice Sendak

Inspirational: Joni by Joni Eareckson Tada with Joe Musser, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, Undone: A Story of Making Peace with an Unexpected Life by Michele Cushatt, You’ve Gotta Keep Dancin’ by Tim Hansel

Expository: Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, Desiring God by John Piper, Breaker Boys: How a Photograph Helped End Child Labor by Michael Burgan, Who Was First? Discovering the Americas by Russell Freedman, The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

• Time to Get to Work

Few pleasures in life compare to getting lost in a great story . The stories we tell can live for years in the hearts of readers.

Do you have an idea, an insight, a challenge, or an experience you long to share?

Don’t let it rest just because of all the work it takes. If it was easy, anybody could do it.

Master the best practices I’ve shared above so you can do justice to the important stories you have to tell.

For additional help writing creative nonfiction:

• How to Write Your Memoir: A 5-Step Guide and How to Start Writing Your Memoir
• How to Write an Anecdote and Why Stories Bring Your Nonfiction to Life
• How to Write a Devotional: The Definitive Guide
• How to Edit a Book: 7 Steps for Becoming a Ferocious Self Editor
• The Best Creative Nonfiction Writers Are...

Are You Making This #1 Amateur Writing Mistake?

Faith-Based Words and Phrases

What You and I Can Learn From Patricia Raybon

Before you go, be sure to grab my FREE guide:

How to Write a Book: Everything You Need to Know in 20 Steps

Just tell me where to send it:

Literary Nonfiction | Definition, Examples & Essays

Bethany is a certified Special Education and Elementary teacher with 11 years experience teaching Special Education from grades PK through 5. She has a Bachelor's degree in Special Education, Elementary Education, and English from Gordon College and a Master's degree in Special Education from Salem State University.

Angela has taught middle and high school English, Business English and Speech for nine years. She has a bachelor's degree in psychology and has earned her teaching license.

What are some examples of literary nonfiction?

Examples of literary nonfiction include:

• Biographies such as Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• Autobiographies such as Clapton The Autobiography by Eric Clapton
• Memoirs like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Science writing like The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson

What does literary nonfiction mean?

Literary nonfiction is writing based on facts or realistic events and presented using writing styles and techniques most commonly associated with fiction (such as plot, characterization, setting, and figurative language).

What are the elements of literary nonfiction?

Literary nonfiction is fact-based writing characterized by fictional writing techniques such as:

• descriptive imagery
• figurative language

Table of Contents

What is literary nonfiction, types of literary nonfiction, lesson summary.

Written material can be divided into two basic categories: fiction, which is writing that reflects the author's inventions, and nonfiction, which is writing rooted in fact and real events. The field of nonfiction can be further broken down into two categories, informational and literary. Informational nonfiction is written to convey facts to readers, such as textbooks and instructional brochures. What is literary nonfiction? The literary nonfiction definition encompasses writing that is structured using literary styles and techniques while being rooted in reality, such as actual events, people, and facts. Creative nonfiction is another term that describes literary nonfiction.

Features of Literary Nonfiction

The literary nonfiction definition suggests that writing tactics more commonly associated with fictional storytelling are applied to true texts. The following table captures some features and story elements common to literary nonfiction.

The use of these writing features in literary nonfiction can make the text more appealing to a broader reader base.

Literary Nonfiction Examples

Literary nonfiction examples represent a wide variety of titles. Here are just a few texts that fit the literary nonfiction category.

• The Glorious American Essay: One Hundred Essays from Colonial Times to the Present by Phillip Lopate: This collection contains essays on a variety of topics from famous American figures. The essay format presents personal opinions and values.
• A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah: In this memoir, the author recounts his personal experience as a child soldier. A memoir is a real event written in story format.
• The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson: This text takes a scientific topic, the human body, and explores factual information in a narrative format.
• Robin Williams: The Life of a Comedian, a Biography by Justin Kirby: In this biography, the author tells the life story of a well-known actor and comedian.

These examples represent the fields of memoir, biography, science writing, and essay, four branches of the literary nonfiction genre.

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• 0:01 What Is Literary Nonfiction?
• 0:52 Autobiographical Nonfiction
• 4:15 The Essay
• 5:34 Lesson Summary

There are several general types of literary nonfiction: Nonfiction essays, personal narratives, science writing, narrative journalism, and narrative history. Examples of these types can be found in both adult and children's literature.

Nonfiction Essay

A nonfiction essay is a short text dealing with a single topic. A classic essay format includes:

• An introductory paragraph, ending in a statement of thesis (that is, the purpose of the essay).
• Body paragraphs that provide proof, details, and development for the thesis.
• A conclusion paragraph that wraps up the essay's information and restates the thesis.

Nonfiction essays serve three basic purposes:

• Expository essays provide an explanation, such as of an idea or process. Expository essays are generally formal in tone and structure.
• Personal essays are used to give the author's viewpoint and feelings, and may tell personal stories or experiences. Personal essays may be informal and have a flexible structure.
• Persuasive essays argue a point with the intent to persuade the audience to adopt a position or action.

Because these essays deal with factual content, they are considered nonfiction. The inclusion of elements such as plot, figurative language, and descriptive imagery puts these essays into the category of literary nonfiction.

Personal Narrative Nonfiction

A large sub-genre of literary nonfiction is that of personal narrative . Personal narratives relate true experiences and thoughts of the author or subject. Included in personal narrative nonfiction are:

• Autobiographies : In an autobiography, the author relates the story of their own life in narrative format. Autobiographies are generally meant to cover a large portion of a person's life. One example is Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela.
• Memoirs : A memoir is the author's recount of an important event or segment of their life. Memoirs differ from autobiographies in that the focus is on a theme or message and the life story is not comprehensive. A memoir example is Riding the Bus With My Sister by Rachel Simon.
• Diaries : Diaries are daily personal records of thoughts and feelings. Often not meant to be shared with the public, diaries represent snapshots of the author's personal impressions rather than a focused attempt to convey a message to an audience. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is an example of a diary that was found and published.
• Journals : Personal journals are daily accounts of a person's activities, experiences, and observations. Personal journals may be published to inform readers about an event, mission, experiment, or journey. Journals may also be kept for only an individual or a few friends or colleagues. A published journal example is My Arctic Journal: A Year among Ice-Fields and Eskimos by Josephine Peary.
• Letters : Letters are a personal narrative written by one person to another. Letters reflect the thoughts, opinions, or needs of the author, but are usually not intended to be shared broadly. Sometimes letters are recovered and used in historical research, and a few may be published for a wider audience. An example of published letters is Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children collected by Dorie McCullough Lawson.

Each of these personal narrative examples are autobiographical in style; that is, the author is telling their own story, opinions, or experiences. Biography , the story of someone's life told by another author, is also included under the general umbrella of personal narrative nonfiction. For example, George Washington: A Biography written by Washington Irving.

Science Writing

Imaginative science writing is crafted to convey scientific principles and knowledge through creative, relatable writing with an emphasis on non-technical language. The target audience for science writing is not trained scientists, but people with an average education who may or may not have a prior interest in the topic of the text. For example, in The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer , author Siddhartha Mukherjee relays the history of cancer using both scientific fact and detail and storytelling tactics, such as compelling characters.

Children's literature produces a variety of science writing in a creative style. In The Magic Schoolbus series, a teacher and her class take their school bus on unlikely field trips to learn factual science in a child-friendly fashion. Judy Allen's series of bug books, such as Are You a Spider? , contain true facts about insects presented in a conversational narrative format with bright illustrations on every page. These are just two of many examples available.

Narrative Journalism

Narrative journalism is the reporting of news and other current events using well-researched data and narrative techniques (such as plot, characterization, setting, etc.). Narrative journalism generally requires the reporter to use a less formal or less omniscient tone. Popular topics for narrative journalism include travel, food, and sports; however, narrative journalism can be used for other events as well.

Narrative History

In narrative history the author relates historical facts without invention, but in a story-telling style. Narrative history differs in style from analytical history writing, which seeks to determine the causes of and relationships between events. Narrative history also differs from expositional history writing, which adopts a more formal and factual tone.

Literary nonfiction , also called creative nonfiction , is writing rooted in fact but adopting writing tactics commonly associated with fiction such as plot, setting, characters, descriptive imagery, figurative language, and tone. Types of literary nonfiction include:

• Nonfiction essays : includes expository (explaining a topic), personal (sharing experiences or feelings), and persuasive (convincing the reader of a point); usually a brief text addressing a single topic
• Personal narrative nonfiction : written about an author's experiences; includes autobiographies (the author's life story), memoirs (highlights one theme/era/experience), diaries (daily record of personal thoughts/feelings not intended for publication), journals (daily record of experiences), letters (messages to a specific person), biographies (the only personal narrative written by a third party)
• Science writing : conveying scientific facts and principles through creative narrative writing
• Narrative journalism : factual data on current events, travel, sports, or food written using informal tone and narrative techniques
• Narrative history : factual historical events presented in story-telling style.

Literary nonfiction examples are found in both adult's and children's literature.

Video Transcript

What is literary nonfiction.

Nonfiction , which includes any writing based on real life events, encompasses a vast variety of writing. Two subcategories for nonfiction are informational and literary. Informational nonfiction includes writing with the purpose to describe or express facts. Literary nonfiction also contains facts, but is meant to entertain the reader. In this way, literary nonfiction reads like fiction and has story elements, like character, setting and plot.

Some examples of literary nonfiction include personal journals, diaries, memoirs, letters, and essays. Let's look at the characteristics of each of these.

Autobiographical Nonfiction

Much of literary nonfiction can be described as autobiographical , which is writing from the author's perspective. This type of writing is usually in first person point of view , which means the narrator is a character in the story. Since the author is the narrator, this means the author is the main character in the story. Most autobiographies are novel-length since they cover the subject's entire life. However, there are many shorter works that are still considered autobiographical.

The first such work is a personal journal , which is a daily written record of personal experiences and observations. This usually consists of short pieces of writing each day. For example, if you were assigned to design an experiment for a science project, you might keep a journal to describe what you did for that experiment every day until the project was due. A journal could be kept for a few weeks or even several years but always has a factual account of experiences of the author.

Another related autobiographical work is the diary . Similar to journals, diaries contain a daily account of experiences. The difference is diaries include personal thoughts and feelings. While a journal is more based on facts, a diary can have a person's deepest secrets and desires; as such, it is usually not meant to be shared with anyone. A great example is the book The Diary of Anne Frank . Anne Frank was a real Jewish girl who kept a diary while hiding from the Germans during World War II. She wrote about her personal thoughts and feelings about what was happening to her family. Years later, her diary was found and published by Anne's descendants to showcase the terrors of Nazi Germany.

A third type of autobiographical work is the memoir . Memoirs are extremely similar to journals and diaries in that memoirs relate the author's personal experiences. Like diaries, memoirs can also reveal the narrator's personal feelings. Memoirs are different because they are not written daily, are meant to be published and shared, and usually focus on one specific event or theme. A well-known memoir is Tuesdays with Morrie . In this book, the author, Mitch Albom, recounts his time spent with his aging sociology professor who is dying from ALS. This memoir is limited to that period of Albom's life. Other events of his life are not shown.

A final example of an autobiographical work of literary nonfiction is a letter . A letter is a written message addressed to a person or organization. Letters often contain personal thoughts and opinions, but they are directed at just one person. Letters are never really meant to be published and are usually discarded once the message is received. Emails can be considered a more advanced type of letter.

Journals, diaries, memoirs and letters are all examples of autobiographical nonfiction. One type of literary nonfiction that is not autobiographical is the essay . An essay is a short work of nonfiction that deals with a single subject. Essays can describe, inform, persuade, express or accomplish a number of other purposes. The key idea is to keep to one area of focus.

There are three types of essays. The first is an expository essay , which includes formal writing with a strict structure. Expository essays usually aim to explain information or an idea. The topics are serious subjects with an impersonal tone. An essay explaining the definition of global warming is an example of an expository essay.

The second type is the personal essay. These essays are informal and have a looser structure. The purpose is to express the thoughts, feelings and observations of the writer. You would be writing a personal essay if your essay expressed your thoughts on the existence of global warming.

The last type of essay is persuasive . These essays develop arguments and try to convince the reader to adopt a certain viewpoint. If your essay urges others to recycle in order to cut down on global warming, then you are trying to persuade.

Overall, nonfiction includes a wide variety of writing. Two subcategories are informational and literary nonfiction. Literary nonfiction is related to fiction in that it includes story elements.

Personal journals, diaries, memoirs and letters are all examples of autobiographical literary nonfiction. These are told in first person point of view, which means the author is the main character. Journals and diaries are both daily written accounts of personal experiences. Diaries, however, are not meant to be shared, since they contain very personal thoughts. On the other hand, memoirs are intended to be published and have one specific theme. Finally, letters are written messages meant to convey information. These may contain personal thoughts and opinions, but are discarded once the message is received.

A final example of literary nonfiction is the essay. An essay is a short written work on a single subject. There are three types of essays. Expository essays are formal and focus on providing information. Personal essays are informal and express thoughts, feelings or observations. Persuasive essays develop an argument and try to convince the reader to believe a certain idea. All of these types of literary nonfiction can help you to accomplish a variety of goals in your writing.

Learning Outcomes

After you have reviewed this lesson you should be able to:

• Name two subcategories of nonfiction
• Compare the different types of autobiographical nonfiction
• Discuss the three types of essays

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Writing Tips Oasis - A website dedicated to helping writers to write and publish books.

How to Write Literary Nonfiction

By CS Rajan

Literary nonfiction is a little difficult to define. Also called creative nonfiction, narrative nonfiction and literary journalism, this genre is essentially about describing the real world in a compelling and interesting manner.

It is a broad and expansive genre that encompasses different types of writing such as memoirs, personal essays, lyric essays, literary journalism, articles, and even research papers. The purpose of literary nonfiction is to make true stories and nonfiction content as interesting and engaging as possible by using literary devices. Settings, character development, tone and voice are all essential tools that are common in both literary nonfiction and fiction. However, in literary nonfiction, these tools are used to enhance the real world instead of a fantasy world.

Literary or creative nonfiction has recently gained in popularity among magazine and book publishers due several highly popular literary nonfictions books released

Some of the ways you can begin your literary nonfiction adventure are:

1. Read literary nonfiction

The best way to understand the unique world of literary nonfiction books is to read as many of them as possible. Blending creative writing with real facts is an art which needs some perfecting. Reading some of the greats in this area can help you to achieve this fine balance. There are many wonderful nonfiction books which are a far cry from the typical dull, dry, and fact-based nonfiction books. Some examples of popular literary nonfiction books are: The Glass Castle, Unbroken, The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, The Botany of Desire, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and Eat, Pray, Love.

2. Writing memoirs

Memoir writing is a great way to learn to use the creative tools to enhance a real story. Not to be confused with autobiographies , memoirs are lively and interesting stories of certain personal experiences, events, phases or stages in your life. A memoir can even be about people or pets who have made a difference in your life. For example, the wildly popular Marley and Me: Life with the world’s craziest dog is a moving true story of a journalist and his crazy but adorable Labrador. The story revolves around the author’s personal life, but the theme of the book is the pet and his influence on the author’s household.

3. Personal essays

A personal essay is similar to a memoir in some ways; however it focuses more on you, your experiences and thoughts, and your opinions. A single topic in your life (an event, an opinion, a viewpoint) is usually the theme of the personal essay. Also, while the memoir style is often narrative, the personal essay is usually non-narrative and takes on a more flowing and descriptive style.

4. Literary journalism

If looking within and writing about yourself makes you uncomfortable, there is a wealth of other topics to write about. Literary journalism involves writing about any actual public event, a person, or even an interview in a creative and narrative or descriptive manner. It essentially means that this is a form of journalism where you are not required to be objective or restrain yourself to reporting the facts. You can include your opinions, use personal examples to illustrate a point and employ any other tools you can think of to make the article engaging and interesting.

Image credit: Ken Hawkins on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0

CS Rajan is a freelance writer who loves to write on various topics, and is currently working on her first novel. 

Novlr is now writer-owned! Join us and shape the future of creative writing.

8 January 2024

How to Write Amazing Narrative Non-Fiction

Narrative non-fiction brings to life true stories like historic events and personal experiences. It uses the techniques usually associated with fiction writing, such as plot , character , and detailed scene-setting .

This very popular genre informs the reader with facts and detailed accounts of real-life events, but is written in an engaging and dramatic way designed to grip the reader’s attention and make the reading experience enjoyable. Narrative non-fiction is sometimes referred to as literary non-fiction or creative non-fiction.  

Why should you write narrative non-fiction?

What is interesting and exciting about narrative non-fiction is that it can cover just about any topic. You might see it shelved in almost any section of physical and online bookstores. For example, narrative non-fiction can explore an unknown perspective on a historical event based on research that’s only just been discovered. It can tell the story of an individual or a company’s dramatic demise or it can paint an eye-opening picture of a particular political or social current affair. 

What makes good narrative non-fiction?

Often written by investigative journalists, historians, and sometimes biographers, works of narrative non-fiction are informative but they are also entertaining to read because the storytelling element is so important. 

Conducting original and thorough research is a cornerstone of good narrative non-fiction writing. When researching their subjects, writers will often conduct interviews with key people, obtain access to private diaries, read old newspaper articles, and search historical records in order to get the most accurate information about a series of events. 

High-quality narrative

Another cornerstone of great narrative non-fiction is the quality of the writing. Just like in fiction books, writers use dialogue and characterization to reveal character relationships and story development. Choosing to tell the story through specific scenes instead of simply summarizing the events that took place is what separates this form of writing from other types of non-fiction like history, reports, news stories, and biographies.

The structure a writer chooses to tell the story in goes a long way to creating drama and suspense for readers. While straight histories or news reporting tend to tell events in chronological order, with narrative non-fiction you can be more playful. You can switch perspectives and timelines meaning that the story can be told in a more exciting and intriguing way.

For example, a lot of books open with a scene set in the present day to show the reader where the story is now, and then they will go back in time to show where the story began. Other books may start with a scene in the middle of all the action and then go back in time to tell the story from the beginning, catching up with the events the opening started with before going beyond them to finish the story.

The right balance between fact and fiction   

As this form of writing uses literary styles and techniques, writers sometimes use creative license to drive their story forward and make it more interesting. It’s hard to create a completely accurate representation of something that happened a long time ago unless you have ample records of the event, like a recorded conversation or eye-witness account. Often, writers might elaborate on some details, using conjecture to fill in the blanks in the narrative.

Finding the right balance between accuracy and creative license is important – you want to create a book that has integrity and is true to real life, but you also want to help the reader paint a picture of how something might have happened in the absence of concrete information. This should happen in an informed and subtle way, always noting where you’re using conjecture, rather than writing it as truth. 

A defined author presence

When using conjecture to drive the narrative, the perspective of the writer becomes an important element. In narrative non-fiction writing, there isn’t always a strong authorial voice driving the narrative, but it is still present.

The authorial presence and voice is especially important when there has been a lot of original research and witness interviews. Investigative reporters will often comment on characters who they have tried to speak with, who they might even be writing about, and will often have a personal connection to the story. As an example, they might explain how they received an anonymous tip from someone and will therefore include their own involvement in the story. They become part of the narrative.

Publication and audience

Narrative non-fiction is a very popular genre. Walk into most bookshops and you’ll see it represented on shelves and on feature tables. Typically this space has been dominated by male writers but it’s promising to see there are more and more female writers emerging in this space.

Narrative non-fiction tends to be published in a Hardback format because of its literary qualities and often very topical subjects. It’s a genre that is often very well reviewed in traditional media outlets like national papers. A year after the Hardback publication a Paperback format will typically be released. This new format will aim to reach more mass-market readers. Audio editions of narrative non-fiction tend to sell very strongly too, as readers who are interested in these kinds of narratives are usually big podcast listeners. 

Tips for writing narrative non-fiction 

If you’re developing a book proposal that classifies as narrative non-fiction, it’s helpful to ask yourself the following questions: 

• What is the best way to structure my book so that the story is dramatic and interesting?
• Am I describing scenes, events, and people in enough detail? If your reader didn’t know this story was true, might they almost mistake it for fiction? (It would be a good sign if they did –  often the highest praise for narrative non-fiction is ‘reads like a thriller’ or ‘a page turner I couldn’t put down’)
• Have you done enough research on the subject? How unique is your research? Is there more you could find out about the events of your subject from archival documents, contemporary diaries, or by interviewing characters or their families? 
• How can I prove that I am qualified to write this book? If you’re not an investigative journalist, historian, or professional writer by trade, how can you reassure the publisher and reader that you are qualified to write this book? It’s important to show how much research you’ve done on the subject and to use sample writing to show off the quality of your writing. 

Remember, this genre is all about research and storytelling. Your book should be well-researched and should account for real-life events as accurately as possible. It should be written in an engaging way that holds the reader’s attention. You should aim to tell your story in as dramatic and interesting a way as you can, while staying faithful to the truth. 

Bestselling books to read 

If you’re thinking about writing a narrative non-fiction book it’s a good idea to read some of the top-selling books in this area to help you get a flavour of the writing style and reading experience. Reading some of these books should also give you helpful insights into different ways you can hook your reader in, how to approach the narrative arc and structure of your book, and give you ideas on pacing. 

Agent Sonya by Ben MacIntyre 

This is the remarkable story of the greatest female spy in history, from one of Britain’s most acclaimed historians. A devoted mother-of-three, attentive wife, and friendly neighbour, Sonya Burton seemed to epitomise British domesticity. But far from an obedient homemaker, Sonya Burton was a dedicated communist, a decorated colonel, and a veteran spy who risked her life to keep the Soviet Union in the nuclear arms race.

In Agent Sonya , Ben Macintyre has created a page-turning work of non-fiction that has you hooked at every twist and turn, so much so that it almost reads like a thriller . Macintyre writes with the diligence and accuracy of the very best of journalists but the flair of a master storyteller .

He adds colour and incredible details to deeply researched reporting. Every sentence is rich with description and imagination but never at the cost of the truth. He is also wonderfully skilled at leading the reader down a rabbit hole about some seemingly insignificant event or detail that one might usually lose the thread of, only to weave it back into the main action with sophistication.

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou 

This is the inside story of the breathtaking rise and jaw-dropping collapse of Theranos, a multibillion-dollar biotech startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes, that promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood testing significantly faster and easier. Holmes was a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup, ‘unicorn,’ was backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and valued at more than $9 billion. There was just one problem: the technology didn’t work.

In Bad Blood , Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou tells the riveting story of one of the most shocking tales of corporate fraud ever, a story of ambition and hubris in Silicon Valley. Carreyrou unveils the many dark secrets of Theranos with nuanced and compelling reporting , presenting the scientific, human, legal, and social sides of the story with remarkable skill.

Carreyrou’s brilliance is in his ability to explain complicated science that would ordinarily be difficult to follow in a remarkably digestible way. Not many writers can make a very specialist subject feel universal and accessible to all , but Carrreyou achieves it. The level of research he has undertaken to get to the truth of this deeply secretive company is unparalleled. He also paints fantastic character portraits and has a way of building intrigue around people shrouded in mystery that leaves you on the edge of your seat.

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold 

An astonishing feat of historical detective work, The Five is the story of Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary-Jane, five women who never met but are famous for the same thing – being victims of Jack the Ripper. For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that ‘the Ripper’ preyed on prostitutes.

Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, but it has also prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told. Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, telling the untold stories of five women who wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, breathed ink-dust from printing presses, and escaped people-traffickers. This is an incredible new perspective on a well-known story.

What is so exciting and different about this book is that Rubenhold casts an entirely new light on a well-known story and in doing so makes a political statement about the treatment of women both then and now. The author’s rage is palpable in the writing. It’s a blistering counter-narrative that has all the ingredients of a fantastic narrative non-fiction book – original and surprising research , gripping plot, clever structure , rich description  – but also a strong political and social undercurrent that acts as the beating heart of the book.

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe 

This is the gripping and shocking story of three generations of the Sackler family and their roles in the stories of Valium and Oxycontin, by a prize-winning American investigative journalist. 

The Sackler name adorns the walls of many-storied institutions – Harvard; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Oxford; the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing Oxycontin, a blockbuster painkiller that was a catalyst for the opioid crisis-an an international epidemic of drug addiction that has killed nearly half a million people.

What makes Empire of Pain so exceptional is how Patrick Radden Keefe exhaustively documents jaw-dropping events over a long period of time to tell the story of a dynasty but also: a parable of 21st-century greed. It is a masterpiece of narrative reporting and writing, that draws conclusions no one had ever thought to make before and takes you from dodgy GP practices to the misfortunate hangouts of opioid victims, to glamorous fund-raisers to the inner echelons of power in modern-day America. 

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly 

Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South and the civil rights movement, Hidden Figures is the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program—and whose contributions have been unheralded, until now.

It tells the story of a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts by Jim Crow laws, these “colored computers,” as they were known, used slide rules, adding machines and pencil and paper to support America’s fledgling aeronautics industry, and helped write the equations that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.

Drawing on the oral histories, scores of personal recollections, interviews with NASA executives and engineers, archival documents, correspondence, and reporting from the era, Hidden Figures recalls America’s greatest adventure and NASA’s groundbreaking successes through the experiences of five courageous, intelligent, determined, and patriotic women.

One of the things you can’t help but admire in this book is how Shetterly manages to weave so many moving parts and themes to tell a cohesive story – moving from World War II through NASA’s golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the women’s rights movement, Hidden Figures tells a rich history of scientific achievement and technological innovation but also manages to recount the intimate stories of five women whose work forever changed the world.

Like Rubenhold, Shatterly is revisiting a moment or event in history – but rather than humanizing victims whose identities and stories were overlooked, Shatterly gives power back to the women who were actively written out of history books and who deserve credit for their enormous achievements, and in doing so helps to reframe how women are currently perceived in science and technology.

Note: All purchase links in this post are affiliate links through BookShop.org, and Novlr may earn a small commission – every purchase supports independent bookstores.

If you’re interested in writing non-fiction and want to get your work in front of a publisher, visit our  free non-fiction book proposal course   written by Lydia Yadi, Senior Commission Editor for Non-Fiction at Penguin Random House.

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When most people think of creative writing, they picture fiction books – but there are plenty of examples of creative nonfiction. In fact, creative nonfiction is one of the most interesting genres to read and write. So what is creative nonfiction exactly? 

More and more people are discovering the joy of getting immersed in content based on true life that has all the quality and craft of a well-written novel. If you are interested in writing creative nonfiction, it’s important to understand different examples of creative nonfiction as a genre. 

If you’ve ever gotten lost in memoirs so descriptive that you felt you’d walked in the shoes of those people, those are perfect examples of creative nonfiction – and you understand exactly why this genre is so popular.

But is creative nonfiction a viable form of writing to pursue? What is creative nonfiction best used to convey? And what are some popular creative nonfiction examples?

Today we will discuss all about this genre, including plenty of examples of creative nonfiction books – so you’ll know exactly how to write it. 

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What is Creative Nonfiction?

Creative nonfiction is defined as true events written about with the techniques and style traditionally found in creative writing . We can understand what creative nonfiction is by contrasting it with plain-old nonfiction. 

Think about news or a history textbook, for example. These nonfiction pieces tend to be written in very matter-of-fact, declarative language. While informative, this type of nonfiction often lacks the flair and pleasure that keep people hooked on fictional novels.

Imagine there are two retellings of a true crime story – one in a newspaper and the other in the script for a podcast. Which is more likely to grip you? The dry, factual language, or the evocative, emotionally impactful creative writing?

Podcasts are often great examples of creative nonfiction – but of course, creative nonfiction can be used in books too. In fact, there are many types of creative nonfiction writing. Let's take a look!

Types of creative nonfiction

Creative nonfiction comes in many different forms and flavors. Just as there are myriad types of creative writing, there are almost as many types of creative nonfiction.

Some of the most popular types include:

Literary nonfiction

Literary nonfiction refers to any form of factual writing that employs the literary elements that are more commonly found in fiction. If you’re writing about a true event (but using elements such as metaphor and theme) you might well be writing literary nonfiction.

Writing a life story doesn’t have to be a dry, chronological depiction of your years on Earth. You can use memoirs to creatively tell about events or ongoing themes in your life.

If you’re unsure of what kind of creative nonfiction to write, why not consider a creative memoir? After all, no one else can tell your life story like you. 

Nature writing

The beauty of the natural world is an ongoing source of creative inspiration for many people, from photographers to documentary makers. But it’s also a great focus for a creative nonfiction writer. Evoking the majesty and wonder of our environment is an endless source of material for creative nonfiction. 

Travel writing

If you’ve ever read a great travel article or book, you’ll almost feel as if you've been on the journey yourself. There’s something special about travel writing that conveys not only the literal journey, but the personal journey that takes place.

Writers with a passion for exploring the world should consider travel writing as their form of creative nonfiction. 

For types of writing that leave a lasting impact on the world, look no further than speeches. From a preacher's sermon, to ‘I have a dream’, speeches move hearts and minds like almost nothing else. The difference between an effective speech and one that falls on deaf ears is little more than the creative skill with which it is written. 

Biographies

Noteworthy figures from history and contemporary times alike are great sources for creative nonfiction. Think about the difference between reading about someone’s life on Wikipedia and reading about it in a critically-acclaimed biography.

Which is the better way of honoring that person’s legacy and achievements? Which is more fun to read? If there’s someone whose life story is one you’d love to tell, creative nonfiction might be the best way to do it. 

So now that you have an idea of what creative nonfiction is, and some different ways you can write it, let's take a look at some popular examples of creative nonfiction books and speeches.

Examples of Creative Nonfiction

Here are our favorite examples of creative nonfiction:

1. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

No list of examples of creative nonfiction would be complete without In Cold Blood . This landmark work of literary nonfiction by Truman Capote helped to establish the literary nonfiction genre in its modern form, and paved the way for the contemporary true crime boom.  

2. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast is undeniably one of the best creative memoirs ever written. It beautifully reflects on Hemingway’s time in Paris – and whisks you away into the cobblestone streets.  

3. World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

If you're looking for examples of creative nonfiction nature writing, no one does it quite like Aimee Nezhukumatathil. World of Wonders  is a beautiful series of essays that poetically depicts the varied natural landscapes she enjoyed over the years. 

4. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson is one of the most beloved travel writers of our time. And A Walk in the Woods is perhaps Bryson in his peak form. This much-loved travel book uses creativity to explore the Appalachian Trail and convey Bryson’s opinions on America in his humorous trademark style.

5. The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

 While most of our examples of creative nonfiction are books, we would be remiss not to include at least one speech. The Gettysburg Address is one of the most impactful speeches in American history, and an inspiring example for creative nonfiction writers.

6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Few have a way with words like Maya Angelou. Her triumphant book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , shows the power of literature to transcend one’s circumstances at any time. It is one of the best examples of creative nonfiction that truly sucks you in.

7. Hiroshima by John Hershey

Hiroshima is a powerful retelling of the events during (and following) the infamous atomic bomb. This journalistic masterpiece is told through the memories of survivors – and will stay with you long after you've finished the final page.

8. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

If you haven't read the book, you've probably seen the film. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is one of the most popular travel memoirs in history. This romp of creative nonfiction teaches us how to truly unmake and rebuild ourselves through the lens of travel.

9. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Never has language learning brought tears of laughter like Me Talk Pretty One Day . David Sedaris comically divulges his (often failed) attempts to learn French with a decidedly sadistic teacher, and all the other mishaps he encounters in his fated move from New York to Paris.

10. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Many of us had complicated childhoods, but few of us experienced the hardships of Jeannette Walls. In The Glass Castle , she gives us a transparent look at the betrayals and torments of her youth and how she overcame them with grace – weaving her trauma until it reads like a whimsical fairytale.

Now that you've seen plenty of creative nonfiction examples, it's time to learn how to write your own creative nonfiction masterpiece.

Tips for Writing Creative Nonfiction

Writing creative nonfiction has a lot in common with other types of writing. (You won’t be reinventing the wheel here.) The better you are at writing in general, the easier you’ll find your creative nonfiction project. But there are some nuances to be aware of.

Writing a successful creative nonfiction piece requires you to:

Choose a form

Before you commit to a creative nonfiction project, get clear on exactly what it is you want to write. That way, you can get familiar with the conventions of the style of writing and draw inspiration from some of its classics.

Try and find a balance between a type of creative nonfiction you find personally appealing and one you have the skill set to be effective at. 

Gather the facts

Like all forms of nonfiction, your creative project will require a great deal of research and preparation. If you’re writing about an event, try and gather as many sources of information as possible – so you can imbue your writing with a rich level of detail.

If it’s a piece about your life, jot down personal recollections and gather photos from your past. 

Plan your writing

Unlike a fictional novel, which tends to follow a fairly well-established structure, works of creative nonfiction have a less clear shape. To avoid the risk of meandering or getting weighed down by less significant sections, structure your project ahead of writing it.

You can either apply the classic fiction structures to a nonfictional event or take inspiration from the pacing of other examples of creative nonfiction you admire. 

You may also want to come up with a working title to inspire your writing. Using a free book title generator is a quick and easy way to do this and move on to the actual writing of your book.

Draft in your intended style

Unless you have a track record of writing creative nonfiction, the first time doing so can feel a little uncomfortable. You might second-guess your writing more than you usually would due to the novelty of applying creative techniques to real events. Because of this, it’s essential to get your first draft down as quickly as possible.

Rewrite and refine

After you finish your first draft, only then should you read back through it and critique your work. Perhaps you haven’t used enough source material. Or maybe you’ve overdone a certain creative technique. Whatever you happen to notice, take as long as you need to refine and rework it until your writing feels just right.

Ready to Wow the World With Your Story?

You know have the knowledge and inspiring examples of creative nonfiction you need to write a successful work in this genre. Whether you choose to write a riveting travel book, a tear-jerking memoir, or a biography that makes readers laugh out loud, creative nonfiction will give you the power to convey true events like never before.  

Who knows? Maybe your book will be on the next list of top creative nonfiction examples!

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Nonfiction Essay

Nonfiction essay generator.

While escaping in an imaginary world sounds very tempting, it is also necessary for an individual to discover more about the events in the real world and real-life stories of various people. The articles you read in newspapers and magazines are some examples of nonfiction texts. Learn more about fact-driven information and hone your essay writing skills while composing a nonfiction essay.

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What Is a Nonfiction Essay?

Nonfiction essay refers to compositions based on real-life situations and events. In addition, it also includes essays based on one’s opinion and perception. There are different purposes for writing this type of essay. Various purposes use different approaches and even sometimes follow varying formats. Educational and informative essays are some examples of a nonfiction composition. 

How to Compose a Compelling Nonfiction Essay

When you talk about creative writing, it is not all about creating fictional stories. It also involves providing a thought-provoking narrative and description of a particular subject. The quality of writing always depends on how the writers present their topic. That said, keep your readers engaged by writing an impressive nonfiction paper.

1. Know Your Purpose

Before you start your essay, you should first determine the message you want to deliver to your readers. In addition, you should also consider what emotions you want to bring out from them. List your objectives beforehand. Goal-setting will provide you an idea of the direction you should take, as well as the style you should employ in writing about your topic on your essay paper.

2. Devise an Outline

Now that you have a target to aim for, it is time to decide on the ideas you want to discuss in each paragraph. To do this, you can utilize a blank outline template. Also, prepare an essay plan detailing the structure and the flow of the message of your essay. Ensure to keep your ideas relevant and timely.

3. Generate Your Thesis Statement

One of the most crucial parts of your introduction is your thesis statement . This sentence will give the readers an overview of what to expect from the whole document. Aside from that, this statement will also present the main idea of the essay content. Remember to keep it brief and concise.

4. Use the Appropriate Language

Depending on the results of your assessment in the first step, you should tailor your language accordingly. If you want to describe something, use descriptive language. If you aim to persuade your readers, you should ascertain to use persuasive words. This step is essential to remember for the writers because it has a considerable impact on achieving your goals.

What are the various types of nonfiction articles?

In creatively writing nonfiction essays, you can choose from various types. Depending on your topic, you can write a persuasive essay , narrative essay, biographies, and even memoirs. In addition, you can also find nonfiction essay writing in academic texts, instruction manuals, and even academic reports . Even if most novels are fiction stories, there are also several nonfictions in this genre.

Why is writing nonfiction essays necessary?

Schools and universities use nonfiction essays as an instrument to train and enhance their students’ skills in writing. The reason for this is it will help them learn how to structure paragraphs and also learn various skills. In addition, this academic essay can also be a tool for the teachers to analyze how the minds of their students digest situations.

How can I write about a nonfiction topic?

A helpful tip before crafting a nonfiction essay is to explore several kinds of this type of writing. Choose the approach and the topic where you are knowledgeable. Now that you have your lesson topic, the next step is to perform intensive research. The important part is to choose a style on how to craft your story.

Each of us also has a story to tell. People incorporate nonfiction writing into their everyday lives. Your daily journal or the letters you send your friends all belong under this category of composition. Writing nonfiction essays are a crucial outlet for people to express their emotions and personal beliefs. We all have opinions on different events. Practice writing nonfiction articles and persuade, entertain, and influence other people. 

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• How to write a literary analysis essay | A step-by-step guide

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay | A Step-by-Step Guide

Published on January 30, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 14, 2023.

Literary analysis means closely studying a text, interpreting its meanings, and exploring why the author made certain choices. It can be applied to novels, short stories, plays, poems, or any other form of literary writing.

A literary analysis essay is not a rhetorical analysis , nor is it just a summary of the plot or a book review. Instead, it is a type of argumentative essay where you need to analyze elements such as the language, perspective, and structure of the text, and explain how the author uses literary devices to create effects and convey ideas.

Before beginning a literary analysis essay, it’s essential to carefully read the text and c ome up with a thesis statement to keep your essay focused. As you write, follow the standard structure of an academic essay :

• An introduction that tells the reader what your essay will focus on.
• A main body, divided into paragraphs , that builds an argument using evidence from the text.
• A conclusion that clearly states the main point that you have shown with your analysis.

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Table of contents

Step 1: reading the text and identifying literary devices, step 2: coming up with a thesis, step 3: writing a title and introduction, step 4: writing the body of the essay, step 5: writing a conclusion, other interesting articles.

The first step is to carefully read the text(s) and take initial notes. As you read, pay attention to the things that are most intriguing, surprising, or even confusing in the writing—these are things you can dig into in your analysis.

Your goal in literary analysis is not simply to explain the events described in the text, but to analyze the writing itself and discuss how the text works on a deeper level. Primarily, you’re looking out for literary devices —textual elements that writers use to convey meaning and create effects. If you’re comparing and contrasting multiple texts, you can also look for connections between different texts.

To get started with your analysis, there are several key areas that you can focus on. As you analyze each aspect of the text, try to think about how they all relate to each other. You can use highlights or notes to keep track of important passages and quotes.

Language choices

Consider what style of language the author uses. Are the sentences short and simple or more complex and poetic?

What word choices stand out as interesting or unusual? Are words used figuratively to mean something other than their literal definition? Figurative language includes things like metaphor (e.g. “her eyes were oceans”) and simile (e.g. “her eyes were like oceans”).

Also keep an eye out for imagery in the text—recurring images that create a certain atmosphere or symbolize something important. Remember that language is used in literary texts to say more than it means on the surface.

Narrative voice

Ask yourself:

• Who is telling the story?
• How are they telling it?

Is it a first-person narrator (“I”) who is personally involved in the story, or a third-person narrator who tells us about the characters from a distance?

Consider the narrator’s perspective . Is the narrator omniscient (where they know everything about all the characters and events), or do they only have partial knowledge? Are they an unreliable narrator who we are not supposed to take at face value? Authors often hint that their narrator might be giving us a distorted or dishonest version of events.

The tone of the text is also worth considering. Is the story intended to be comic, tragic, or something else? Are usually serious topics treated as funny, or vice versa ? Is the story realistic or fantastical (or somewhere in between)?

Consider how the text is structured, and how the structure relates to the story being told.

• Novels are often divided into chapters and parts.
• Poems are divided into lines, stanzas, and sometime cantos.
• Plays are divided into scenes and acts.

Think about why the author chose to divide the different parts of the text in the way they did.

There are also less formal structural elements to take into account. Does the story unfold in chronological order, or does it jump back and forth in time? Does it begin in medias res —in the middle of the action? Does the plot advance towards a clearly defined climax?

With poetry, consider how the rhyme and meter shape your understanding of the text and your impression of the tone. Try reading the poem aloud to get a sense of this.

In a play, you might consider how relationships between characters are built up through different scenes, and how the setting relates to the action. Watch out for  dramatic irony , where the audience knows some detail that the characters don’t, creating a double meaning in their words, thoughts, or actions.

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Your thesis in a literary analysis essay is the point you want to make about the text. It’s the core argument that gives your essay direction and prevents it from just being a collection of random observations about a text.

If you’re given a prompt for your essay, your thesis must answer or relate to the prompt. For example:

Essay question example

Is Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” a religious parable?

Your thesis statement should be an answer to this question—not a simple yes or no, but a statement of why this is or isn’t the case:

Thesis statement example

Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” is not a religious parable, but a story about bureaucratic alienation.

Sometimes you’ll be given freedom to choose your own topic; in this case, you’ll have to come up with an original thesis. Consider what stood out to you in the text; ask yourself questions about the elements that interested you, and consider how you might answer them.

Your thesis should be something arguable—that is, something that you think is true about the text, but which is not a simple matter of fact. It must be complex enough to develop through evidence and arguments across the course of your essay.

Say you’re analyzing the novel Frankenstein . You could start by asking yourself:

Your initial answer might be a surface-level description:

The character Frankenstein is portrayed negatively in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

However, this statement is too simple to be an interesting thesis. After reading the text and analyzing its narrative voice and structure, you can develop the answer into a more nuanced and arguable thesis statement:

Mary Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

Remember that you can revise your thesis statement throughout the writing process , so it doesn’t need to be perfectly formulated at this stage. The aim is to keep you focused as you analyze the text.

Finding textual evidence

To support your thesis statement, your essay will build an argument using textual evidence —specific parts of the text that demonstrate your point. This evidence is quoted and analyzed throughout your essay to explain your argument to the reader.

It can be useful to comb through the text in search of relevant quotations before you start writing. You might not end up using everything you find, and you may have to return to the text for more evidence as you write, but collecting textual evidence from the beginning will help you to structure your arguments and assess whether they’re convincing.

To start your literary analysis paper, you’ll need two things: a good title, and an introduction.

Your title should clearly indicate what your analysis will focus on. It usually contains the name of the author and text(s) you’re analyzing. Keep it as concise and engaging as possible.

A common approach to the title is to use a relevant quote from the text, followed by a colon and then the rest of your title.

If you struggle to come up with a good title at first, don’t worry—this will be easier once you’ve begun writing the essay and have a better sense of your arguments.

“Fearful symmetry” : The violence of creation in William Blake’s “The Tyger”

The introduction

The essay introduction provides a quick overview of where your argument is going. It should include your thesis statement and a summary of the essay’s structure.

A typical structure for an introduction is to begin with a general statement about the text and author, using this to lead into your thesis statement. You might refer to a commonly held idea about the text and show how your thesis will contradict it, or zoom in on a particular device you intend to focus on.

Then you can end with a brief indication of what’s coming up in the main body of the essay. This is called signposting. It will be more elaborate in longer essays, but in a short five-paragraph essay structure, it shouldn’t be more than one sentence.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

Some students prefer to write the introduction later in the process, and it’s not a bad idea. After all, you’ll have a clearer idea of the overall shape of your arguments once you’ve begun writing them!

If you do write the introduction first, you should still return to it later to make sure it lines up with what you ended up writing, and edit as necessary.

The body of your essay is everything between the introduction and conclusion. It contains your arguments and the textual evidence that supports them.

Paragraph structure

A typical structure for a high school literary analysis essay consists of five paragraphs : the three paragraphs of the body, plus the introduction and conclusion.

Each paragraph in the main body should focus on one topic. In the five-paragraph model, try to divide your argument into three main areas of analysis, all linked to your thesis. Don’t try to include everything you can think of to say about the text—only analysis that drives your argument.

In longer essays, the same principle applies on a broader scale. For example, you might have two or three sections in your main body, each with multiple paragraphs. Within these sections, you still want to begin new paragraphs at logical moments—a turn in the argument or the introduction of a new idea.

Robert’s first encounter with Gil-Martin suggests something of his sinister power. Robert feels “a sort of invisible power that drew me towards him.” He identifies the moment of their meeting as “the beginning of a series of adventures which has puzzled myself, and will puzzle the world when I am no more in it” (p. 89). Gil-Martin’s “invisible power” seems to be at work even at this distance from the moment described; before continuing the story, Robert feels compelled to anticipate at length what readers will make of his narrative after his approaching death. With this interjection, Hogg emphasizes the fatal influence Gil-Martin exercises from his first appearance.

Topic sentences

To keep your points focused, it’s important to use a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph.

A good topic sentence allows a reader to see at a glance what the paragraph is about. It can introduce a new line of argument and connect or contrast it with the previous paragraph. Transition words like “however” or “moreover” are useful for creating smooth transitions:

… The story’s focus, therefore, is not upon the divine revelation that may be waiting beyond the door, but upon the mundane process of aging undergone by the man as he waits.

Nevertheless, the “radiance” that appears to stream from the door is typically treated as religious symbolism.

This topic sentence signals that the paragraph will address the question of religious symbolism, while the linking word “nevertheless” points out a contrast with the previous paragraph’s conclusion.

Using textual evidence

A key part of literary analysis is backing up your arguments with relevant evidence from the text. This involves introducing quotes from the text and explaining their significance to your point.

It’s important to contextualize quotes and explain why you’re using them; they should be properly introduced and analyzed, not treated as self-explanatory:

It isn’t always necessary to use a quote. Quoting is useful when you’re discussing the author’s language, but sometimes you’ll have to refer to plot points or structural elements that can’t be captured in a short quote.

In these cases, it’s more appropriate to paraphrase or summarize parts of the text—that is, to describe the relevant part in your own words:

The conclusion of your analysis shouldn’t introduce any new quotations or arguments. Instead, it’s about wrapping up the essay. Here, you summarize your key points and try to emphasize their significance to the reader.

A good way to approach this is to briefly summarize your key arguments, and then stress the conclusion they’ve led you to, highlighting the new perspective your thesis provides on the text as a whole:

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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By tracing the depiction of Frankenstein through the novel’s three volumes, I have demonstrated how the narrative structure shifts our perception of the character. While the Frankenstein of the first volume is depicted as having innocent intentions, the second and third volumes—first in the creature’s accusatory voice, and then in his own voice—increasingly undermine him, causing him to appear alternately ridiculous and vindictive. Far from the one-dimensional villain he is often taken to be, the character of Frankenstein is compelling because of the dynamic narrative frame in which he is placed. In this frame, Frankenstein’s narrative self-presentation responds to the images of him we see from others’ perspectives. This conclusion sheds new light on the novel, foregrounding Shelley’s unique layering of narrative perspectives and its importance for the depiction of character.

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English CWNM. Nonfiction Writing for Magazines

Instructor: Maggie Doherty TBD | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students

This course will focus on the genres of nonfiction writing commonly published in magazines: the feature, the profile, the personal essay, and longform arts criticism. We will read and discuss examples of such pieces from magazines large (Harper’s, The New Yorker) and small (n+1, The Drift); our examples will be drawn from the last several years. We will discuss both the process of writing such pieces—research, reporting, drafting, editing—and the techniques required to write informative, engaging, elegant nonfiction. In addition to short writing exercises performed in class and outside of class, each student will write one long piece in the genre of their choosing over the course of the semester, workshopping the piece twice, at different stages of completion. Although some attention will be paid to pitching and placing work in magazines, the focus of the course will be on the writing process itself.

English CNYA. Creative Nonfiction Workshop: Young Adult Writing

Instructor:  Melissa Cundieff Thursday, 3:00-5:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

In this workshop-based class, students will consider themes that intersect with the Young Adult genre: gender and sexuality, romantic and platonic relationships and love/heartbreak, family, divorce and parental relationships, disability, neurodivergence, drug use, the evolution/fracturing of childhood innocence, environmentalism, among others. Students will write true stories about their lived lives with these themes as well as intended audience (ages 12-18) specifically in mind. For visual artists, illustrating one’s work/essays is something that I invite but of course do not require. We will read work by Sarah Prager, Robin Ha, ND Stevenson, Laurie Hals Anderson, Dashka Slater,  and Jason Reynolds. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Sunday, April 7) Supplemental Application Information:  Applications for this class should include a 2-3 page (double-spaced if prose, single-spaced if poetry) creating writing sample of any genre (nonfiction, fiction, poetry), or combination of genres. Additionally, I ask that students submit a 250-word reflection on their particular relationship with creative writing and why this course appeals to them. This class is open to students of all writing levels and experience.

English CMMU. Creative Nonfiction Workshop: Using Music

Instructor: Melissa Cundieff Tuesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

In this workshop-based class, students will think deeply about how music is often at the center of their experiences, may it be as a song, an album, an artist, their own relationship with an instrument, etc. This class will entail writing true stories about one's life in which the personal and music orbit and/or entangle each other. This will include some journalism and criticism, but above all it will ask you to describe how and why music matters to your lived life. We will read work by Hayao Miyazaki, Jia Tolentino, Kaveh Akbar, Oliver Sacks, Susan Sontag, Adrian Matejka, among many others, (as well as invite and talk with guest speaker(s)). This class is open to all levels. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Sunday, April 7) Supplemental Application Information:  Applications for this class should include a 2-3 page (double-spaced if prose, single-spaced if poetry) creating writing sample of any genre (nonfiction, fiction, poetry), or combination of genres. Additionally, I ask that students submit a 250-word reflection on their particular relationship with creative writing and why this course appeals to them. This class is open to students of all writing levels and experience.

English CIHR. Reading and Writing the Personal Essay: Workshop

Instructor:  Michael Pollan Monday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

There are few literary forms quite as flexible as the personal essay. The word comes from the French verb essai, “to attempt,” hinting at the provisional or experimental mood of the genre. The conceit of the personal essay is that it captures the individual’s act of thinking on the fly, typically in response to a prompt or occasion. The form offers the rare freedom to combine any number of narrative tools, including memoir, reportage, history, political argument, anecdote, and reflection. In this writing workshop, we will read essays beginning with Montaigne, who more or less invented the form, and then on to a varied selection of his descendants, including George Orwell, E.B. White, James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, David Foster Wallace and Rebecca Solnit. We will draft and revise essays of our own in a variety of lengths and types including one longer work of ambition. A central aim of the course will be to help you develop a voice on the page and learn how to deploy the first person—not merely for the purpose of self-expression but as a tool for telling a story, conducting an inquiry or pressing an argument.

Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Sunday, April 7)

Supplemental Application Information:  To apply, submit a brief sample of your writing in the first person along with a letter detailing your writing experience and reasons for wanting to take this course.

English CNFJ. Narrative Journalism

Instructor:  Darcy Frey Fall 2024: Thursday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students. Course Site Spring 2025: TBD

In this hands-on writing workshop, we will study the art of narrative journalism in many different forms: Profile writing, investigative reportage, magazine features. How can a work of journalism be fashioned to tell a captivating story? How can the writer of nonfiction narratives employ the scene-by-scene construction usually found in fiction? How can facts become the building blocks of literature? Students will work on several short assignments to practice the nuts-and-bolts of reporting, then write a longer magazine feature to be workshopped in class and revised at the end of the term. We will take instruction and inspiration from the published work of literary journalists such as Joan Didion, John McPhee, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, and John Jeremiah Sullivan. This is a workshop-style class intended for undergraduate and graduate students at all levels of experience. No previous experience in English Department courses is required.

Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Sunday, April 7)

Supplemental Application Information:   Please write a substantive letter of introduction describing who you are as writer at the moment and where you hope to take your writing; what experience you may have had with journalism or narrative nonfiction; what excites you about narrative journalism in particular; and what you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Additionally, please submit 3-5 pages of journalism or narrative nonfiction or, if you have not yet written much nonfiction, an equal number of pages of narrative fiction.

English CMFG. Past Selves and Future Ghosts

Instructor:  Melissa Cundieff Spring 2024: Please login to the course catalog at my.harvard.edu for meetings times & location Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site Spring 2025: TBD As memoirist and author Melissa Febos puts it: “The narrator is never you, and the sooner we can start thinking of ourselves on the page that way, the better for our work. That character on the page is just this shaving off of the person that was within a very particular context, intermingled with bits of perspective from all the time since — it’s a very specific little cocktail of pieces of the self and memory and art … it’s a very weird thing. And then it’s frozen in the pages.” With each essay and work of nonfiction we produce in this workshop-based class, the character we portray, the narrator we locate, is never stagnant, instead we are developing a persona, wrought from the experience of our vast selves and our vast experiences. To that end, in this course, you will use the tools and stylistic elements of creative nonfiction, namely fragmentation, narrative, scene, point of view, speculation, and research to remix and retell all aspects of your experience and selfhood in a multiplicity of ways. I will ask that you focus on a particular time period or connected events, and through the course of the semester, you will reimagine and reify these events using different modes and techniques as modeled in the published and various works we read. We will also read, in their entireties, Melissa Febos's  Body Work: The Radical Work of Personal Narrative,  as well as Hanif Abdurraqib’s  They   Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us , which will aid our discussions and help us to better understand the difference between persona(s) and the many versions of self that inhabit us. Supplemental Application Information:  Applications for this class should include a 2-3 page (double-spaced if prose, single-spaced if poetry) creating writing sample of any genre (nonfiction, fiction, poetry), or combination of genres. Additionally, I ask that students submit a 250-word reflection on their particular relationship with creative writing and why this course appeals to them. This class is open to students of all writing levels and experience.

English CMDR. Creative Nonfiction: Departure and Return: "Home" as Doorway to Difference and Identity

Instructor: Melissa Cundieff Please login to the course catalog at my.harvard.edu for meetings times & location Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

In this workshop-based class, students will be asked to investigate something that directly or indirectly connects everyone: what it means to leave a place, or one's home, or one's land, and to return to it, willingly or unwillingly. This idea is inherently open-ended because physical spaces are, of course, not our only means of departure and/or return-- but also our politics, our genders, our relationships with power, and our very bodies. Revolution, too, surrounds us, on both larger and private scales, as does looking back on what once was, what caused that initial departure. Students will approach "home" as both a literal place and a figurative mindscape. We will read essays by Barbara Ehrenreich, Ocean Vuong, Natasha Sajé, Elena Passarello, Hanif Abdurraqib, Alice Wong, and Eric L. Muller, among others. Supplemental Application Information:  Applications for this class should include a 2-3 page (double-spaced if prose, single-spaced if poetry) creating writing sample of any genre (nonfiction, fiction, poetry), or combination of genres. Additionally, I ask that students submit a 250-word reflection on their particular relationship with creative writing and why this course appeals to them. This class is open to students of all writing levels and experience. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Saturday, November 4)

English CGOT. The Other

Instructor:  Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah Thursday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

In this class, we will consider how literary non-fiction articulates or imagines difference, disdain, conflict, and dislike. We will also discuss the more technical and stylistic elements present in strong non-fiction, like reflection, observation, retrospection, scene-setting, description, complexity, and strong characterization. As we read and write, we will put these theoretical concerns into practice and play by writing two or three profiles about people you do not like, a place you don’t care for, an idea you oppose, or an object whose value eludes you. Your writing might be about someone who haunts you without your permission or whatever else gets under your skin, but ideally, your subject makes you uncomfortable, troubles you, and confounds you. We will interrogate how writers earn their opinion. And while it might be strange to think of literature as often having political aims, it would be ignorant to imagine that it does not. Non-fiction forces us to extend our understanding of point of view not just to be how the story unfolds itself technically–immersive reporting, transparent eyeball, third person limited, or third person omniscient--but also to identify who is telling this story and why. Some examples of the writing that we will read are Guy Debord,  Lucille Clifton, C.L.R. James, Pascale Casanova, W.G. Sebald, Jayne Cortez, AbouMaliq Simone, Greg Tate, Annie Ernaux, Edward Said, Mark Twain, Jacqueline Rose, Toni Morrison, Julia Kristeva, and Ryszard Kapuscinski. Supplemental Application Information:   Please submit a brief letter explaining why you're interested to take this class. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Saturday, November 4)

English CMCC. Covid, Grief, and Afterimage

Instructor: Melissa Cundieff Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: Barker 269 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site In this workshop-based course we will write about our personal lived experiences with loss and grief born from the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as how grief and grieving became a collective experience that is ongoing and persistent, like an afterimage or haunting. As part of our examination, we will consider intersections with other global, historical experiences and depictions of loss, including the murder of George Floyd and the AIDS epidemic. Readings will include essays by Leslie Jamison, Arundhati Roy, Susan Sontag, Eve Tuck and C. Ree, Matt Levin, and Alice Wong, among others. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26) Supplemental Application Information:  Applications for this class should include a 3-5 page (double-spaced if prose, single-spaced if poetry) creating writing sample of any genre (nonfiction, fiction, poetry), or combination of genres. Additionally, I ask that students submit a 250 word reflection on their particular relationship with creative writing and why this course appeals to them. This class is open to students of all writing levels and experience.

Instructor: Melissa Cundieff Wednesday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: Barker 316 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site As memoirist and author Melissa Febos puts it: “The narrator is never you, and the sooner we can start thinking of ourselves on the page that way, the better for our work. That character on the page is just this shaving off of the person that was within a very particular context, intermingled with bits of perspective from all the time since — it’s a very specific little cocktail of pieces of the self and memory and art … it’s a very weird thing. And then it’s frozen in the pages.” With each essay and work of nonfiction we produce in this workshop-based class, the character we portray, the narrator we locate, is never stagnant, instead we are developing a persona, wrought from the experience of our vast selves and our vast experiences. To that end, in this course, you will use the tools and stylistic elements of creative nonfiction, namely fragmentation, narrative, scene, point of view, speculation, and research to remix and retell all aspects of your experience and selfhood in a multiplicity of ways. I will ask that you focus on a particular time period or connected events, and through the course of the semester, you will reimagine and reify these events using different modes and techniques as modeled in the published and various works we read. We will also read, in their entireties, Melissa Febos's  Body Work: The Radical Work of Personal Narrative,  as well as Hanif Abdurraqib’s  They   Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us , which will aid our discussions and help us to better understand the difference between persona(s) and the many versions of self that inhabit us. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26) Supplemental Application Information:  Applications for this class should include a 3-5 page (double-spaced if prose, single-spaced if poetry) creating writing sample of any genre (nonfiction, fiction, poetry), or combination of genres. Additionally, I ask that students submit a 250 word reflection on their particular relationship with creative writing and why this course appeals to them. This class is open to students of all writing levels and experience.

English CRGS. The Surrounds: Writing Interiority and Outsiderness

Instructor:  Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah Thursday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: Lamont 401 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

The essayist, the writer of non-fiction, has historically been an oracle of opinions that most often go unsaid. They do not traditionally reinforce a sense of insular collectivity, instead they often steer us towards a radical understanding of the moment that they write from. The best essayists unearth and organize messages from those most at the margins: the ignored, the exiled, the criminal, and the destitute. So, by writing about these people, the essayist is fated, most nobly or just as ignobly, to write about the ills and aftermaths of their nation’s worse actions. It is an obligation and also a very heavy burden.

In this class we will examine how the essay and many essayists have functioned as geographers of spaces that have long been forgotten. And we read a series of non-fiction pieces that trouble the question of interiority, belonging, the other, and outsiderness. And we will attempt to do a brief but comprehensive review of the essay as it functions as a barometer of the author’s times. This will be accomplished by reading the work of such writers as: Herodotus, William Hazlitt, Doris Lessing, Audre Lorde, Gay Talese, Binyavanga Wainaina, Jennifer Clement, V.S. Naipaul, Sei Shonagon, George Orwell, Ha Jin, Margo Jefferson, Simone White, and Joan Didion. This reading and discussion will inform our own writing practice as we write essays.

Everyone who is interested in this class should feel free to apply.

Supplemental Application Information:   Please submit a brief letter explaining why you're interested to take this class. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26)

English CNFD. Creative Nonfiction

Instructor: Maggie Doherty Tuesday, 12:00-2:45 pm | Location: Sever 205 Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site This course is an overview of the creative nonfiction genre and the many different types of writing that are included within it: memoir, criticism, nature writing, travel writing, and more. Our readings will be both historical and contemporary: writers will include Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Joan Didion, Audre Lorde, Hilton Als, and Carmen Maria Machado. During the first half of the semester, we will read two pieces closely; we will use our class discussions to analyze how these writers use pacing, character, voice, tone, and structure to tell their stories. Students will complete short, informal writing assignments during this part of the semester, based on the genre of work we’re discussing that week. During the second half of the semester, each student will draft and workshop a longer piece of creative nonfiction in the genre(s) of their choosing, which they will revise by the end of the semester. Students will be expected to provide detailed feedback on the work of their peers. This course is open to writers at all levels; no previous experience in creative writing is required. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, August 26) Supplemental Application Information:  Please write a letter of introduction (1-2 pages) giving a sense of who you are, your writing experience, and your current goals for your writing. You may also include writers or nonfiction works that you admire, as well as any themes or genres you'd like to experiment with in the course. Please also include a 3-5-page writing sample, ideally of some kind of creative writing (nonfiction is preferred, but fiction would also be acceptable). If you don't have a creative sample, you may submit a sample of your academic writing.

English CACD. The Art of Criticism

Instructor: Maggie Doherty Wednesday, 12:00-2:45pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site

This course will consider critical writing about art–literary, visual, cinematic, musical, etc.—as an art in its own right. We will read and discuss criticism from a wide variety of publications, paying attention to the ways outlets and audience shape critical work. The majority of our readings will be from the last few years and will include pieces by Joan Acocella, Andrea Long Chu, Jason Farago, and Carina del Valle Schorske. Students will write several short writing assignments (500-1000 words), including a straight review, during the first half of the semester and share them with peers. During the second half of the semester, each student will write and workshop a longer piece of criticism about a work of art or an artist of their choosing. Students will be expected to read and provide detailed feedback on the work of their peers. Students will revise their longer pieces based on workshop feedback and submit them for the final assignment of the class. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm EDT on Sunday, April 7) Supplemental Application Information:  Please write a letter of introduction (1-2 pages) giving a sense of who you are, your writing experience, and your current goals for your writing. Please also describe your relationship to the art forms and/or genres you're interested in engaging in the course. You may also list any writers or publications whose criticism you enjoy reading. Please also include a 3-5-page writing sample of any kind of prose writing. This could be an academic paper or it could be creative fiction or nonfiction.

English CNFR. Creative Nonfiction: Workshop

Instructor: Darcy Frey Fall 2024: Wednesday, 3:00-5:45 pm | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students. Course Site Spring 2025: TBD

Whether it takes the form of literary journalism, essay, memoir, or environmental writing, creative nonfiction is a powerful genre that allows writers to break free from the constraints commonly associated with nonfiction prose and reach for the breadth of thought and feeling usually accomplished only in fiction: the narration of a vivid story, the probing of a complex character, the argument of an idea, or the evocation of a place. Students will work on several short assignments to hone their mastery of the craft, then write a longer piece that will be workshopped in class and revised at the end of the term. We will take instruction and inspiration from published authors such as Joan Didion, James Baldwin, Ariel Levy, Alexander Chee, and Virginia Woolf. This is a workshop-style class intended for undergraduate and graduate students at all levels of experience. No previous experience in English Department courses is required. Apply via Submittable  (deadline: 11:59pm ET on Sunday, April 7)

Supplemental Application Information:   Please write a substantive letter of introduction describing who you are as writer at the moment and where you hope to take your writing; what experience you may have had with creative/literary nonfiction; what excites you about nonfiction in particular; and what you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Additionally, please submit 3-5 pages of creative/literary nonfiction (essay, memoir, narrative journalism, etc, but NOT academic writing) or, if you have not yet written much nonfiction, an equal number of pages of narrative fiction.

English CLPG. Art of Sportswriting

Instructor: Louisa Thomas Spring 2024: Tuesday, 9:00-11:45am | Location: TBD Enrollment: Limited to 12 students Course Site Spring 2025: TBD

In newsrooms, the sports section is sometimes referred to as the “toy department” -- frivolous and unserious, unlike the stuff of politics, business, and war. In this course, we will take the toys seriously. After all, for millions of people, sports and other so-called trivial pursuits (video games, chess, children’s games, and so on) are a source of endless fascination. For us, they will be a source of stories about human achievements and frustrations. These stories can involve economic, social, and political issues. They can draw upon history, statistics, psychology, and philosophy. They can be reported or ruminative, formally experimental or straightforward, richly descriptive or tense and spare. They can be fun. Over the course of the semester, students will read and discuss exemplary profiles, essays, articles, and blog posts, while also writing and discussing their own. While much (but not all) of the reading will come from the world of sports, no interest in or knowledge about sports is required; our focus will be on writing for a broad audience.  Supplemental Application Information:  To apply, please write a letter describing why you want to take the course and what you hope to get out of it. Include a few examples of websites or magazines you like to read, and tell me briefly about one pursuit -- football, chess, basketball, ballet, Othello, crosswords, soccer, whatever -- that interests you and why.

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Blog • Understanding Publishing

Posted on Jun 02, 2020

Writing a Non-Fiction Query Letter (+ Sample Query Letter)

Writing a non-fiction query letter is like writing your own ticket to the big time. If you want to convince an agent or publisher that your idea has ‘bestseller’ written all over it so that they get it published , the few hundred words that make up your query must be irresistibly compelling.

Elsewhere on this site, we go into detail on how to write a query letter for a novel . You can head there now and download a checklist for fiction queries which, truth be told, are about 90% the same as non-fiction ones. But with the help of current and former agents on the Reedsy marketplace, this guide will help you understand the other 10% that will push your non-fiction query over the top.

Note: This following process is not intended to be linear, starting with “Dear Ms. Agent” and ending in “Yours sincerely.” Instead, it’s a thorough guide that will prepare you for the querying process.

Create an airtight book proposal

What’s the biggest difference between a fiction and non-fiction query? In non-fiction, the author is not expected to provide a completed manuscript the way a novelist would. Instead, they present a book proposal, a 15-50 page pitching document with various details and sample chapters from your book.

Reedsy has created a dedicated guide to writing book proposals that will show you how to prepare this document. But here’s the gist: a proposal should aim to answer the questions every agent will want to ask about you and your book. The document can be broken down into the following sections:

• An overview — what is the book about?
• Target audience  — who is it written for?
• About the author — why are you the one who should write it?
• Marketing plan — how are you going to help sell it?
• Competitive titles — what are similar titles on the market?
• Chapter outline — how are you going to structure your book?
• Sample chapters — can you actually write?

Don’t start querying until you have solid content for each of these sections. According to Jon Darga , former non-fiction editor at Penguin Random House and current agent at Aevitas Creative Management, agents and acquiring editors will notice if you leave anything out.

“I've seen a lot of proposals that think they can get away with just the pitch and an annotated table of contents. But we need to be able to make sure you can write, too! Overall, though, a non-fiction proposal should be faster and easier to put together than the full manuscript that you'd read with a novel. Much less writing!”

FREE RESOURCE

Book Proposal Template

Craft a professional pitch for your nonfiction book with our handy template.

Personalize your letter for each agent or editor

Agents and editors get flooded with queries and submissions every week. They call it slush , which shows how optimistic they are about pulling gold nuggets from their query piles. With this in mind, editor Rachel Stout (formerly an agent with Dystel & Goderich) reminds authors that they need more than a well-written pitch to get an agent’s attention.

“You need to show this agent that you are being intentional in your querying, and that you're reaching out to this agent for this book, for this specific reason. You're letting that agent know you're particular about who you query.”

This is where personalization comes in: the process of researching individual agents and publishers in order to:

• Ensure that you only query those who want what you have to sell; and
• Show the recipient of the letter that you are interested in them , specifically.

The second point is crucial. You need to demonstrate that you’ve done your research and you’re not just firing off boilerplate emails and BCC’ing the rest of the publishing world. It can be as simple as getting their name right (more of an issue than you’d imagine) and mentioning a book they’ve worked on — bonus points if it’s similar to yours!

Rachel goes into detail and reveals her top tips in a recent webinar on personalizing queries . Watch the replay and check out the transcript for invaluable advice on personalizing your non-fiction query letter.

Resources for researching agents

Ready to research some literary agents? Hit the ground running with our extensive directory of non-fiction literary agents! We have 500+ agents listed right there, all of whom have already been researched and vetted by our team, allowing you to pick from the best of the best.

Additional resources for researching agents include:

• Agent databases such as Agent Query , Query Tracker , or Publishers Marketplace (see the profiles listed for each agent in our directory ).
• Acknowledgments pages of similar books (which you can comb through for more of an old-school approach).
• Publishing conferences where agents and editors will happily speak with authors.

You'll find more assistance and resources in our post on how to find a literary agent . But in short, you need to find agents who are both open to submissions and seeking your type of book, then make notes of details about them that you can use to personalize your query letter.

Show that you’re the right person for the job

What makes a non-fiction query stand out from the crowd? For Jon Darga, it’s about author platform more than anything else:

“Not necessarily how many Twitter followers you have, but positioning yourself as the one best person to write that book. It would be really difficult to write, say, [cancer physician] Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of All Maladies if you weren't involved in the medical sciences in some way.”

Your platform doesn’t depend on advanced degrees, either — it’s about how your experience makes you uniquely qualified to write this book. In this next section, we’ll look at the short bios of first-time authors to see how, as Jon says, they position themselves as the best person to write each of their books.

Example 1. Memoir

This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay.

The UK’s biggest non-fiction hit over the past few years, this memoir offers readers a humorous look at the doctors, nurses, and wards of Britain’s national healthcare system.

About the author (from the book): “Adam Kay is an award-winning comedian and writer for TV and film. He previously worked for many years as a junior doctor.”

Analysis: Boom — there it is. Who better to write a funny book about being a doctor than an acclaimed comedian who used to be a doctor? Before this book was published, Kay’s modest profile as a comic may not have been enough to pass as a “platform” — but his expertise on the subject has more than made up for it.

Example 2. Business

ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. 

This 2010 book showed its readers a new approach to entrepreneurship that leverages inexpensive apps and tools to simplify and streamline businesses.

About the author (from the book): “Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson are the president and co-founder/president of Basecamp (formerly 37signals), a privately-held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary.”

Analysis: Fried and Hansson co-authored a book that’s intrinsically tied to both their story and their product; they built a company that created the very solution that allowed them to grow. Very meta.

Example 3. Health and Addiction

We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life by Laura McKowen

In this inspirational book , the author addresses the big issues faced by alcoholics in a charming and heartwarming way.

About the author (from the book): “Laura McKowen had a successful career in public relations and the Mad Men -esque drinking culture of advertising. After getting sober, she became recognized as a fresh voice in recovery, beloved for her soulful and irreverent writing. She now leads sold-out retreats on sobriety and is a celebrated yoga instructor.”

Analysis: McKowen’s bio is a quick and highly effective sell of her book. We see that the author has been through the wringer and can offer a first-hand account of alcoholism. Her mention of running “sold-out retreats” validates her claim of being an expert in helping others cope with their recovery. It also implies she has an existing audience of potential buyers

Sometimes, you just need something that no one else has

Let’s say that you don’t have a sexy CV, IMDb credits, a successful company, or even a personal story that ties into the subject of your book. In Jon Darga’s experience, that’s not necessarily a dead end: “I have published books without an obvious platform by writers who convinced me they'd found information and connections that nobody else had!”

A unique angle can take many forms. For example, you might take the wisdom found in ancient texts and spin it in a novel way (like Becky Sheetz Runkle did with Sun Tzu in her book, The Art of War for Small Business ). Or perhaps you’ve uncovered primary sources that other historians may have missed, as David Blight did in his 2018 biography of Frederick Douglass ). So long as you’re able to demonstrate why a more experienced writer couldn’t do a better job than you on this particular book, there’s still hope.

Query Letter Template

Learn how to grab a literary agent’s attention with our free template + checklist.

Start the letter with your strongest selling point

When you’re pitching a novel, you’re always told to “start with the hook,” which refers to a killer plot detail that makes anyone listening want to learn more. In a non-fiction query, the goal is still the same — to hook the reader — but the bait can take many forms. And guess what? You already know what most of these hooks are.

Hook 1: The Story

Dear Ms Buchanan,

I’m seeking representation for my debut non-fiction book, APOCALYPSE COW, which uncovers the darkest chapter in the USDA’s history: a failed 1980 paramilitary operation to neuter millions of cattle in South America.

Hook 2: Your platform

Dear Mr Caulfield,

You've definitely heard of my clients, but if I've done my job right, you've never heard of me. Meryl Streep's nose? Julia Roberts' forehead? Madonna's... everything? All my handiwork. I'm Beverly Hills' most prolific cosmetic surgeon and author of INNER BEAUTY OUTSIDE.

Hook 3: Personalization

Dear Ms Wormwood,

I recently read your post in the Publishers Weekly blog on the dearth of younger voices in historical non-fiction. You mentioned an interest in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and I would love for you to consider representing my non-fiction book, ROSSETTI VS. THE ART BROS.

Hook 4: An untapped section of the market

Dear Mr Chinaski,

I am writing to seek representation for my book, WFH: WORK, FAMILY, HAPPINESS — an irreverent parenting guide for the 5 million digital nomads scattered across North America — a third of whom are on the cusp of starting families.

Once you have the agent or editor sitting up and paying attention, it’s time to reel them in with the rest of your query letter...

Follow instructions and don’t reinvent the wheel

If you have wacky ideas for attention-grabbing ways to write your query letter (Pretend to be their high school buddy! Jokingly threaten to harm their pets!) then take a breath and start again.

In almost all cases, the best approach is a straightforward one: follow a fairly standard format and clearly communicate why they should be interested in your book.

With online submissions now being the norm, you often won't have to worry about structuring your query letter. You just have to fill in a form. But here’s a piece of advice that could make or break your query:

Follow the submissions guidelines.

This tip sounds so obvious that it verges on insulting. However, as we mentioned at the start of this guide, agents and editors are often swamped. A query that fails to follow the submission guidelines will be viewed poorly at best, and at worst, be rejected sight unseen.

In cases where submissions guidelines are loose, your query should contain:

• An irresistible hook
• Some aspect of personalization
• Estimated word count
• Intended readership
• Comparative titles
• A brief, relevant bio
• Your book proposal with sample chapters

To see what a standard non-fiction query might look like, here’s an actual example of a letter that worked.

Sample Non-fiction Query Letter

One of Jon Darga’s clients kindly permitted us to reprint their query letter. The title and author name have been redacted — and some of the formatting and wording has been altered from the original.

Dear Mr. Darga,

Here’s some free doctor’s advice: never get sick in July. At best, you’ll meet a doctor at the hospital on her very first day, and she won’t know the difference between a sleeping patient and a patient in a coma. Worst case scenario, you’ll meet a more seasoned physician who was high on drugs the night before, still a little drunk that morning, and has contemplated suicide twice since you arrived in the ER. How do I know this?

I am many things: a dreamer, a high achiever, an Ivy-Leaguer; I’m not White, mostly Black, and questionably Asian; I’m a saboteur, a heavy drinker, a trust abuser; I am someone’s lost son; I’m not sure if I like myself. I am fragile. I am haunted. I’m the last person you want to trust your life to. And I’m your doctor.

[TITLE] is an unflinching, uncensored examination of the often harrowing, sometimes shocking, and progressively dehumanizing twists and turns of medical residency training, and how it provided the perfect context for the culmination of, and ultimate triumph over this young doctor’s struggles with his vices, mental illness, and complex relationship with his father.

A memoir written in the irreverent spirit of the Samuel Shem’s medical classic House of God , while embracing the vulnerability of Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air , my work provides a candid account of the ways in which residency training shattered the mind of an empathetic and well-intentioned doctor, and the arduous task of piecing it back together again through painful and overdue self-discovery.

I am a certified Otolaryngologist (Ear, Nose, and Throat surgeon) with degrees from Harvard and Emory University School of Medicine but I also appear frequently at The Moth competitions, where I’ve won their Storyslam and came runner-up in the Detroit Grandslam. I’m also a writing consultant for [POPULAR TV DRAMA], distilling complex medical and social issues into palatable and understandable mainstream storylines.

[TITLE] offers a modern and fearless appraisal of what it means to be unsure of yourself every day, even as you hold another person's life in your hands. It's hope and love and a cry to keep moving forward, to live each day the very best that we can. I hope you enjoy the read.

This letter comes in at under 380 words, but checks all the boxes and demonstrates that the author can write well, which every query should aim to do. After all, if the agent or editor doesn’t think you can write a compelling letter, why would they think that your book's any better?

To learn more, enroll in Reedsy’s free courses on Writing a Query Letter and Submitting Non-Fiction to Agents and Editors .

FREE COURSE

How to Write a Query Letter

Learn to grab agents’ attention with 10 five-minute lessons.

Submit to your shortlist and always follow up

Now that you have compiled all the elements of your query letter, it’s time to get it out into the world. But where should you start? Here are a few pointers to help you with the actual communication side of querying.

Decide whether you want to query agents or publishers (or both)

When it comes to agents, the conventional wisdom is that you’ll need one if you want to publish fiction traditionally; for non-fiction, however, authors can often submit directly to publishers.

When asked to clarify which precise types of books would require an agent to publish, Jon Darga pushed back at the premise.

“The question, for me, should be less what types of non-fiction book and more what are the author's goals ?

“If the author is an academic who's happy doing a deal directly with a university press , or someone who just wants to see their memoir published by an indie press , then you probably don't need an agent. But if your goal is to be published traditionally and commercially by one of the Big Five , you'll need an agent to make those inroads.”

Don’t be afraid to query more than one agent or publisher

Some agencies will only let you query one of their agents at any given time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t put your feelers out to a few of their rivals.

Rachel Stout suggests querying anything from five-to-ten places at a time. “You can go to fewer, you can go to more, but remember it will be up to you to keep track of where your query is and who has had it for how long.”

Indeed, you will want to keep track of those queries so you can chase them up in good time — which leads to our next point.

Follow up at precisely the right time

It’s not unusual for your query to get buried under a mountain of slush, so you should always follow up. Again, read the submission guidelines — they will often tell you how long you should expect to wait for a reply (six weeks is not uncommon!). If you haven’t heard back by then, reply-all to your original query and just say that you’re following up and you’re looking forward to hearing from them.

Bonus tip: if you hear back from any of the agents you’ve queried, you should mention this in your follow-up to the ones who have yet to reply. Just frame it as a polite reminder to check out your submission and not to miss out on something valuable (your book!).

Don’t lose heart

Most published authors have had to deal with rejections at various points in their careers. If an agent rejects your query, it could just mean that the book is not right for them — but it might be perfect for another agent or editor. So keep at it.

As long as your non-fiction book is well-written and has a viable market, you can find a way to get it into the hands of readers. If it’s not with a Big 5 publisher, you might consider looking into a boutique press. And if not them, then perhaps it’s time to dive into the exciting world of self-publishing . Whichever route you take, good luck!

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An Essayist Who Revels in Glorious Chaos

In her third essay collection, the poet and critic Elisa Gabbert celebrates literature and life through a voracious engagement with the world.

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By Lily Meyer

Lily Meyer is a writer, critic and translator. Her debut novel, “Short War,” came out in April.

ANY PERSON IS THE ONLY SELF: Essays , by Elisa Gabbert

“Any Person Is the Only Self,” the poet and critic Elisa Gabbert’s third collection of nonfiction, opens with an essay that should be, but isn’t quite, a mission statement. She starts by describing the Denver Public Library’s shelf for recent returns, a miscellaneous display of disconnected works she habitually browsed in the years she lived in Colorado. In part, Gabbert (who is also the Book Review’s poetry columnist) was drawn to the shelf for its “negative hype,” its opposition to the churn of literary publicity. But mainly, she enjoyed playing the odds. “Randomness is interesting,” she writes; “randomness looks beautiful to me.” At the essay’s end, she declares, “I need randomness to be happy.”

So does her prose. When “Any Person Is the Only Self” embraces the random, it’s terrific. When Gabbert neatens or narrows her essays, though, they can feel more dutiful.

“Any Person Is the Only Self” — a seemingly random title, and one to ignore; it’s fussier and vaguer than any of Gabbert’s actual prose — is primarily a collection about reading, akin to Anne Fadiman’s “Ex Libris” or Alejandro Zambra’s “Not to Read.” But it is also a loose meditation on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on Gabbert’s life. During lockdown, she found herself yearning for the “subconscious energy” she gets “from strangers and from crowds, a complicating energy that produces ideas,” and relying on literature as a replacement. She developed a habit of listening to many hours of author interviews, seeking the social life she couldn’t have in person.

Unsurprisingly, this led to some soul-searching on the subject of writing, which appears in the gloriously scattershot “Somethingness (or, Why Write?).” In this essay, Gabbert is at her best. She strings together more than 30 writers’ reasons for writing, variously testing, mocking, admiring and relating to them. In doing this, she gives readers a kaleidoscopic view of ambition and inspiration, always looking toward the random or inexplicable elements of both. In her own case, she adds, she’s become obsessed with leaving behind a body of work, which, she’s decided, is “seven books, even short, minor books. … When I finish, if I finish, seven books I can retire from writing, or die.”

“Any Person Is the Only Self” is Gabbert’s seventh book, and although nothing about it is morbid, death shadows the text throughout. Of course, reflecting on Covid invites thoughts of mortality, but she also writes about her father-in-law’s passing, Sylvia Plath’s suicide and the recent trend of denouncing books by dead writers, as if it were “poor form to die.” (Gabbert, rightly, judges this both tacky and strange.)

But in literature, Gabbert finds not only life after death — she talks about the “metalife” of writing — but also a reason to live and engage with the world. “Any Person Is the Only Self” seems decidedly unlike the work of somebody who plans to retire from writing. Rather, it feels like an expression of gratitude for both the act of reading in itself and for reading as a route to conversation, a means of socializing, a way to connect.

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