The Case of Creative Nonfiction in Literature: Yay and Nay
- Chona
- Jul 1
- 3 min read
Creative nonfiction had been an outcast and rather controversial in the past. The genre took quite a while to take up space in the literary department. Because though it was there, it wasn’t really there.
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While other forms of writing already had their names etched and accepted by scholars and society at large, creative nonfiction was more like an orphan finding its identity, establishing its rhythm in the dance of literary history. It was first a wandering spirit searching for the willing vessels to be impassioned by its force—rallying the world that this kind of craft also exists—and that it should thrive. If not for the souls who were taken captive by its muse, it could have remained in the invisible realm, still waiting for its existence on Earth. And so the willing penned warriors began to obey its nudges. Gradually. Precisely. Courageously.
Without the official literary name, there were those who just followed the whispers, more like revelatory instructions to challenge the rules and rigid structures of writing, specifically in journalism. It was first a movement before it was a genre. And for the lack of a better word, “New Journalism” was coined as its placeholder or, let’s say, a mere descriptive identifier.
A few of those were then called “New Journalists”: Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Joan Didion, Gail Sheehy, Jane Kramer, Jimmy Breslin, and Barbara Goldsmith, among others. For the most part, they opened a new wave of intellectual revival—both in the writers and their audience. For writers, at least, they could be free from the strict inverted pyramid model and let their writing take up a notch, albeit still resisted by some journalistic purest. For readers, they could have another way to look forward to reading more exciting contents.
Other labels were drawn, until Lee Gutkind coined the term “creative nonfiction” as we know today.
But even then, the orphan spirit of this literary outcast still persisted. In his “The New Outliers: How Creative Nonfiction Became a Legitimate, Serious Genre,” he wrote, “But in a lot of important ways, creative nonfiction is still very new, at least as a form of literature with its own identity. Unfortunately, it took a long time—longer than it should have, if you ask me—for the genre to be acknowledged in that ecosystem. And, of course, you’ll still encounter people who are unfamiliar with the term or want to make that dumb joke, ‘Creative nonfiction: isn’t that an oxymoron?’”
The use of the word “creative” as a description to nonfiction has been criticized. Some say that nonfiction cannot be “creative” because “creative” writing, for them, means that facts are invented and embellished with made-up details. In their defense, creative nonfiction writers believe that creativity can be achieved even with an honest delivery of facts. They say that being “creative” does not mean making stuff up and writing about things that do not exist.
Lucas Mann of The Washington Post, heartfully reviewed Gutkind’s “The Fine Art of Literary Fist-Fighting,” and he penned, “In trying to name, categorize, legitimize creative nonfiction, it’s hard not to feel that you’re being defined by what you are failing to do—it’s not creative in the eyes of fiction writers, or rigorously factual in the eyes of journalists, or properly literary in the eyes of academics. Here, Gutkind attempts to narrate the history of the genre, and that story is inevitably one of contestation and conflict—about what ‘creative nonfiction’ even is, above all else, and just how ‘creative’ writers can be before they’re no longer writing nonfiction. Those are familiar debates for some of us, and they haven’t stopped.”
Creative nonfiction is in constant surveillance of “literary police.” In his “The Creative Nonfiction Police?” Gutkind offers this godfatherly wisdom, “Wherever you draw the line between fiction and nonfiction, remember the basic rules of good citizenship: Do not recreate incidents and characters who never existed; do not write to do harm to innocent victims; do not forget your own story, but while considering your struggle and the heights of your achievements, think repeatedly about how your story will affect and relate to your reader.”
Despite its interesting case, creative nonfiction is taking its rightful place, with many writers delving into it as a tool of telling their truth and their story. As Annie Dillard, one of the most popular creative nonfiction writers, says her venture into the genre felt like she “had switched from a single reed instrument to a full orchestra."
Creative nonfiction may still be a nay to some, but it continues to be a yay to a lot more.
TME professional editors are ready and waiting for your contributions to this misunderstood genre. Send your manuscript to themanuscripteditor.com for a complimentary 800-word sample. Let us help you bring your book to life!
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