PRINCIPLE,. ELEMENTS OF CNF

PRINCIPLES ,ELEMENTS OF CNF

1. Flexibity of Form . Creative nonfiction can follow any form -essay ,short story ,even poetry .
           2.Literary Approach to nonfiction .Use of Literary devices like tone, POV,  dialoque,                                  description,flashback ,and forward
   
           3.Self-recovery /Exploration .Creative nonfiction is all about exploring an idea or issue ; self                      discovery and exploration is a result .
 
          4.Personal presence .The writer's voice create an identify -usually themselves (1st person).

          5. Veracity .Conveying the truth ;documentable subjects; in other wordsincluding facts and                       critical analysis.

Elements of Creative Nonfiction

The creative nonfiction writer often incorporates several elements of nonfiction when writing a memoir, personal essay, travel writing, and so on. The following is a brief explanation of the most common elements of nonfiction:

• Fact. The writing must be based on fact, rather than fiction. It cannot be made up.
• Extensive research. The piece of writing is based on primary research, such as an interview or personal experience, and often secondary research, such as gathering information from books, magazines, and newspapers.
• Reportage/reporting. The writer must be able to document events or  personal experiences.
• Personal experience and personal opinion. Often, the writer includes personal experience, feelings, thoughts, and opinions. For instance, when writing a personal essay or memoir.
• Explanation/Exposition. The writer is required to explain the personal experience or topic to the reader.
• Essay format. Creative nonfiction is often written in essay format. Example: Personal Essay, Literary Journalistic essay, brief essay.

 Principles, elements, techniques, and devices

1. 1. Principles, Elements, Techniques, and Devices of Creative Nonfiction Prepared by: Marrianne S. Ledesma, LPT
2. 2. Plot or Plot Structure How to Begin:  Catchy and clever titles have an advantage. Examples: “The Wild Man of Green Swamp” by Maxine Hong Kingston “ The Courage of Turtles” by Edward Hoagland  Titles should give the reader a quick idea of what to expect, without giving away the whole story (Hidalgo, 56-57)
3. 3. The First Paragraph Ways of Writing your First Paragraph for CNF  Passage of Vivid Description  Quotation  List  Dialogue  Little Scene  Anecdote  Question  Striking Statement  Reference to a current event which serves as the context of the action
4. 4. How to End? It is expected that the ending of a creative nonfiction piece is the logical conclusion of the flow of your narrative or the development of your ideas. You must constantly bear in mind that the reader should be left with a sense of completion. However, satisfying the ending does not mean that you need to answer or resolve the issues that you raised in the essay you may even wish to end by suggesting new problems or asking other questions. ( Hidalgo, 109)
5. 5. Character or Characterization Ways Of Revealing Your Characters In A Creative Nonfiction Piece  Direct Description  Action and Reaction  Other Character’s Opinion  Dialogue  Monologue  Focusing on a Character’s Distinct or Idiosyncratic Behavior
6. 6. Point of View “ a good piece of creative nonfiction has a personal voice, a clearly defined point of view, which will reveal itself in the tone, and be presented through scene, summary and description, as it is in fiction. All its strategies are designed to reach out to the readers and draw them in –again, as in fiction- without losing tract of the facts. ( Hidalgo 6) What does it suppose to mean?
7. 7. Approach/Angle First Person Second Person Third Person Point of View OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVE The writer’s attitude towards the subject. Tone and Voice
8. 8. Point of View in CNF  First Person Point of View • This is used when you are relating an event that you experienced first hand.  Second Person Point of View • This is used when you decide to write a piece and you want to sound as if you are actually talking or addressing another person, yourself where “you” actually the writer, or something abstract like love, peace or justice or a place or location like the city , the nation, etc.  Third Person Point of View • This is used when you quote what a real person has said which results to “he said/she said” type of narrative or when you are describing someone in your creative nonfiction piece.
9. 9. Let’s Read a CNF Example! The Death of the Moth Virginia Woolf (Aguila et. Al 48-50)
10. 10. Setting and Atmosphere Setting refers to the place, time, where and when an event happens Atmosphere or mood in creative nonfiction refers to the elements that evokes certain feelings or emotions. It is conveyed by the words used to describe the setting or reflected by the way the subject feels or the way he or she acts.
11. 11. According to Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo: “The most successful pieces of creative nonfiction are rich in details. Bare facts are never enough. They need to be fleshed out; they need to be humanized. But besides giving information, details serve other purposes. Details should be accurate and informative first. And then must be suggestive or evocative. The right details arouse emotions, evoke memories, help to produce the right response in your reader. Details are extremely important in evoking a sense of time and place. It must evoke a period as well as location. Descriptive details are of particular importance for travel writing , the point of which , to begin with , to literally transport the reader to the place to which the traveler has been”
12. 12. Let’s Read a CNF Example! Baguio (from Sojourns) Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo (Aguila, Ph.D 55-57)
13. 13. Literary Concerns: Structure, Symbols or Symbolisms, Irony, Figures of Speech