Definition – Examples – How to Write
Click this link to hear this blog post as a podcast with your favorite podcasting app!
Hello Lovelies, and welcome back to the blog. Today we’re talking about the fourth Pillar of Genre. We’re talking today about the Nonfiction genre, and specifically, about the Narrative Nonfiction genre.
Narrative Nonfiction Definition
Also called creative nonfiction, narrative non-fiction is just like the name suggests. It is nonfiction that is written in a narrative style that mirrors fiction writing. The writing is still factually correct, however, the style is told in story form.
Examples
Examples of Narrative Nonfiction include:
- Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly—African American female mathematicians and the race to space.
- The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport—A look at the fall of the Romanov family, focusing specifically on the lives of Nicholas and Alexandra’s four daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia.
- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote—The original true crime nonfiction novel.
- Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer—The story of a harrowing, deadly climb on Mount Everest.
How to Write in the Narrative Nonfiction Genre
So how do we approach writing Narrative Nonfiction as a literary genre?
- Know what you need to do more research on and get the preliminary research out of the way early.
- Find as many of the small details as possible from original sources.
- Figure out the main points that are going to be made in the piece and start to build a structure around them.
- Do further research, including interviews and more source material work, surrounding the main points of your work than any other part.
- Pull all of your research together into telling one cohesive story.
Next Week
Next week, we are going to continue our journey into nonfiction by taking a closer look into Expository Nonfiction, revisiting its definition, looking further into examples, and talking about how you might write your own Expository Nonfictions. The weeks following, we’ll also dive into the other Nonfiction subgenres, so you can look forward to those very soon!
Discussion Questions
- What is your favorite nonfiction book?
- Do you have a favorite type of nonfiction subgenre?
- What genre is your favorite to read in, and do you write in the same genre or a different one?
- What is the most important reason writers should be aware of genre and its conventions?
- What questions would you like to see me answer in a blog post or podcast episode?
Leave your answers in the comments section for this post!
Click this link to hear this blog post as a podcast with your favorite podcasting app!
