Creative Non-Fiction: What is it?Creative Non-Fiction: What is it?

Now, we’ve come to Part Six of the Creative Writing 101 series. So far, we have learned:

1. An Introduction to Creative Writing
2. How to Get Started in Creative Writing in Just Three Steps
3. Creative Writing vs. Technical Writing
4. Fiction Writing 101: The Elements of Stories
5. Poetry Writing: Forms and Terms Galore

Hence we advance to creative nonfiction. What is it? It’s just writing which is true, but which also contains some creativity. Creative nonfiction differs from other nonfiction because a certain amount of creativity is needed to write in it, as for example a biography. It uses literary styles and techniques to create factually correct narratives, says Wikipedia.

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Poetry Writing: Forms and Terms GalorePoetry Writing: Forms and Terms Galore

In school, we were taught to read poetry. To recite poetry. To understand poetry. But many people do not like poetry from their young years. Maybe it is because the choice of poems in the educational system is unsuitable, or maybe it is because some people hate learning anything. Who knows?

For my part, I wrote a lot of prose-poetry a year or two ago, but it wasn’t poetry at all. Great poets are something different. Great poets always have something to write about. Great poets do not waste time hunting for rhymes and such stuff. Great poets use pictures in their poems. Great poets convey the theme of their poems aptly and beautifully. There is something special about them.

But what makes them so special?

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Fiction Writing 101: The Elements of StoriesFiction Writing 101: The Elements of Stories

Which is one of the most popular forms of creative writing?

You guessed it: fiction writing. Novels are written every month and every year. The vast majority don’t see the light of day (a fancy expression meaning getting published). Some do. Some become bestsellers. Some don’t even sell a few copies.

Why?

What makes the difference between writing a really good story that people read with pleasure and a boring one that makes readers throw it across the room?
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Creative Writing vs. Technical WritingCreative Writing vs. Technical Writing

What is the difference between creative writing and technical writing?

Today, after learning what creative writing is and how to get started in it, we’re going to compare the two of them.

There are writers all over the world in the two categories – and it boggles the mind to hear that millions have been made from both creative writing and technical writing. Some have made fortunes. While some have not made anything.

Enjoyment can be gained from both types, but it’s fair to say that they both serve different purposes. They both have their own do’s and don’ts and they both have their own rules. Both are governed by grammar and style. Both appear everywhere. So what’s the difference?
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How to Get Started in Creative Writing in Just Three StepsHow to Get Started in Creative Writing in Just Three Steps

You’ve gone to the next step: you now know what creative writing is. You’d like to get started in it. The inevitable question is… how?

For reference, look at Daily Writing Tips’ awesome article Creative Writing 101. There are quite a few steps given there. I will be adding my own touches to them.

So, without any further ado, here are the three steps for you to climb and emerge as victor (sorry, couldn’t resist it).
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An Introduction to Creative WritingAn Introduction to Creative Writing

What is creative writing? Is there a correct definition anywhere? That is what I hoped to find when I Googled the term “creative writing” a while back. But the answers were disappointing for me as a pure beginner, and puzzling. Here’s what is written as a definition for creative writing in Wikipedia:

“Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems. Writing for the screen and stage, screenwriting and playwriting respectively, typically have their own programs of study, but fit under the creative writing category as well.

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