The fiction creative writing domain compared with The nonfiction creative writing domain

From this traditional perspective, fictional writing and nonfictional writing together comprise virtually everything that can or ever will be written. In this sense, a literary work consists of any kind of printed or handwritten materials, including poetry, drama, epics, notices, bulletins, use and care manuals, advertisements, etc. For all practical purposes, kinds of writing other than fiction and nonfiction do not exist.

If fiction and nonfiction are really opposed to one another, any given written work must either be entirely fictional or entirely nonfictional; or if not, then a given work must contain passages that are entirely fictional and other passages that are entirely nonfictional, in and of themselves, and nothing else. In this latter case, each of the specific written passages that are contained in a work are either entirely fictional or entirely nonfictional, one or the other.

One of the biggest misconceptions about creative writing is that it must be fictional to be creative...and that by its very nature, nonfictional writing cannot be creative. Writing must be fictional to be creative because its creativity resides solely in the fictional inventions of its author. Nonfictional writing cannot be creative because it offers information, opinions, or conjectures upon facts and reality, which are directly opposed to fictional writing, which offers information, opinions, or facts which come straight from an author's imagination.

According to tradition, since reality is not imaginary, there's no room for an author of nonfiction to create anything new. Since he can only write about things that already exist and not about things he creates himself, what he writes cannot be creative...at least that's the traditional conclusion. But nothing could be farther from the truth. For example, a given sentence in a fictional work can include factual statements about an actual historic event. Does that make it nonfictional?

Here The Muse Of Language Arts explores reasons why nonfiction writing can be creative and reasons why fiction writing can be uncreative.

Is fictional writing inherently Creative? Is nonfictional writing inherently uncreative?

A domain is a field of action, thought, or influence; a realm or range. In literature, one of the most significant domains is the world of fiction; another is its counterpart, the world of nonfiction.

One of the biggest misconceptions about creative writing is that writing must be fictional if it is to be creative...that non-fiction writing isn't creative. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

Many people take it for granted that fictional works are creative ipso facto and that nonfictional works are uncreative. Is this true? Or are fictional writing and nonfictional writing both creative? Or is neither kind of writing creative?

The answers to these questions partly depend on what people mean when they use the terms fiction, nonfiction, and creative; they depend on where, when, and how people put these concepts to use.

The terms fictional writing and nonfictional writing mean very different things to different people in different situations and contexts. Literary circles, libraries, bookstores, publishers and the public use alternate definitions for these terms and find them all acceptable, even when they don't mean the same thing by them.

Where writing is concerned, the meaning of the term creative has been defined above. But because of the many widespread, recurrent, and perennial inconsistencies in the way the terms fictional writing and nonfictional writing are used, it's necessary to clarify them first, before trying to assess whether they are creative. Here are some different definitions for these terms as they are applied by different groups:

scholars, booksellers, publishers, and libraries

Generically, fictional writing (or fiction) can denote almost any kind of writing that's feigned, invented, or imagined, such as a made-up event or story. Fiction can be an imaginary or false supposition, character, narrative, setting or almost any other aspect of writing that a writer postulates for the purposes of presenting a story, argument, or explanation. Nonfictional writing (or nonfiction) denotes the opposite—anything that a writer doesn't feign, invent, or imagine.

More formally, in connection with literature, fiction and nonfiction usually refer to different kinds of writing that are technically different from each other. Even in this connection, however, the terms fiction and nonfiction are applied differently by different people or agencies and in different contexts:

• Fiction

Fiction is defined by literary scholars as the branch of literature comprising works of imaginative narration, especially works written in prose form. Works of this class include the kinds of novels or short stories one encounters when reading detective fiction.

Especially when books are cataloged in libraries or bookstores, nonfiction consists of all literary forms and genres of writing that tell stories that are imaginary—that are known or intended by their authors to be based on false premises.

Among these kinds of works are novels, detective stories, and other fictional books and fictional short stories, as well as poems and dramas that include nonfictive narrative prose. For example, books written in the roman à clef style are normally classified and stored in the nonfiction section because they are novels that represent historical events and characters under the guise of fiction.

• Nonfiction

Nonfiction is defined by literary scholars as the branch of literature comprising works of narrative prose dealing with or offering opinions or conjectures upon facts and reality. Works of this class include biography, autobiography, history, the essay, and reference works. Scholars distinguish nonfiction writing from fiction writing, poetry, and drama.

Especially when books are cataloged in libraries or bookstores, nonfiction consists of all nonfictive writing, including nonfictional books, poetry, and drama, and including reference works. The nonfiction section of a library or bookstore is often the broadest subject category of its works; it usually contains the largest number of works on the shelves.

the public

In the minds of many readers, creative writing is usually associated with fictional writing and not with nonfictional writing, but this linkage is far from appropriate. Their immediate first impulse is to define and reserve the expression creative writing to describe creatively written fictional narrative prose works such as novels, short stories, and detective stories.

By the same token, many of these people hesitate to apply the expression creative writing to nonfictional prose works of any kind. They toss dictionaries, encyclopedias, histories, biographies and autobiographies, essays, brochures, newspapers, scientific journals, and other works like these onto the nonfiction slag heap; they classify them all as uncreative just because they're not fictional. Some even go so far as to deny that nonfictional reflective poems are creative, or that plays in unrhymed verse are creative.

A little thought usually convinces most readers that both fiction and nonfiction can be creative and imaginative endeavors or dull and uncreative ones, depending on a work's style and on how well a piece is written:

The term creative is most closely associated with fiction by the public because fiction authors weave nonliteral "truth" out of actual or imagined events, people, and objects; they invent works by dint of their personal thought. Here's what they do:

• In some cases, fictional works emulate or imitate real people, events, objects, conversations, or other aspects of reality, but not in ways that copy, transcribe, or reproduce them verbatim.
• In other cases, fictional works are complete fabrications: they don't imitate or emulate actual people or events; instead, they recreate prevailing or past customs, ways of living or behaving, or modes of action or occurrence. Their writing mimics the manner in which some people carry on conversations and the manner in which certain kinds of events happen, not specific real people, actual conversations, or events.
• Or fictional works combine these two approaches.

The public sees fictional writing as creative because it reconstructs or recombines real-world people, objects, behaviors, motivations, issues, ideas, events—all sorts of things that readers recognize from their own real-life experiences—into other things that resemble them, but that are fresh and new. Whichever creative approach they use, fiction writers cause something to come into being that would not naturally evolve or that would not be brought into existence by ordinary, real-world processes.

By way of contrast, the term uncreative is often associated with nonfiction writing because nonfiction is aimed at the transmission of information about things that actually exist in the real world, not in a writer's imagination.

Indeed, fiction is a creative enterprise; the public is correct on that point. But to believe that nonfiction writing is inherently uncreative would be a serious mistake. There's room for creativity in any kind of writing, even in reference works.

Are fictional works inherently creative? Are nonfictional works inherently uncreative? The answer to both questions is No. Some fictional works are creative, some are not; some nonfictional works are creative, some are not.

The root cause of the public's mistaken views about creative and uncreative writing is its misconception of the true nature of artistic creativity. Creative writing is not a matter of literary form, style, fiction, nonfiction, reality, accuracy, truthfulness, or even imagination. Assessing the creativity of a written work by factors like these inevitably leads one astray. A mundane novel, for example, may not be creative; and an essay, which by definition is a nonfictional exposition, may be highly creative.

What does it actually take for writing to be creative? The true nature of creativity and creative writing is explained above on this page:

Creative writing is any kind of writing that transcends traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and expresses meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, conceptual models, mental constructs, objects of thought, or solutions to problems. It's writing that evolves from an author's thought or imagination original ideas or insights, subjects, modes of expression, points of view, as well as new and different literary concepts, features, or techniques.

Many nonfiction works are creative in the sense just enumerated. Even new types of nonfiction works are creative, if only by virtue of the fact that they're new. Think of all the new and different types of ads you've seen on TV! Think of all the new Internet page designs!

a modest proposal

To help alleviate the notion that nonfictional works are inherently uncreative, here are some examples of creative nonfictional works for your further consideration:

A Modest Proposal, a satirical essay by Jonathon Swift, is but one example. And further, many nonfictional works of poetry are creative, as well. Tennyson's In Memoriam is a nonfictional poem about the death of the poet's English friend Arthur Henry Hallam; it's a rhyming poem about a real occurrence that's described truthfully.

By the same token, many non-rhyming fictional dramatic works are creative. Sunrise at CampoBello is a play about the American president Franklin Roosevelt's struggle with polio; it's about a real episode in Roosevelt's life, a true story told with historic accuracy that's played with conversational prose dialog.

In fact, many poems are neither fictional nor factual. For instance, Bobby Burns' To a Mouse is a highly creative poem about mice, creatures who are real; but it's not about any particular mouse, real or imagined, and it tells no real or imaginary story. If a creative poem like this one is neither fictional nor factional, how can its creativity said to be linked either to its factual or its fictional character?

Clearly, virtually any kind of written work can be creative or uncreative regardless of its literary characteristics. Rather, a composition's literary characteristics have an apples-and-oranges relationship with its creativity. Whether a composition is a novel, short story, poem, stage play, screenplay, teleplay, epic, contract, book report, monograph, encyclopedia—you name it—a composition is creative or not regardless of its literary characteristics.

Should people stop equating terms like fiction, novel, and creative writing? Should people stop equating terms like nonfiction, biography, and uncreative writing?

Yes.

The Muse asks you to do your best to clear up this issue for others.

something else to think about

In the section titled Fiction Versus Nonfiction, above on this page, The Muse cites a traditional precept about the canon of all the written materials that can or ever will be written:

Together, fictional writing and nonfictional writing comprise virtually everything that can or ever will be written. In this sense, a literary work consists of any kind of printed or handwritten materials, including poetry, drama, epics, notices, bulletins, use and care manuals, advertisements, etc. For all practical purposes, kinds of writing other than fiction and nonfiction do not exist.

But recall that in the preceding section titled A Modest Proposal. There The Muse points out:

In fact, many poems are neither fictional nor factual. For instance, Bobby Burns' To a Mouse is a highly creative poem about mice, creatures who are real; but it's not about any particular mouse, real or imagined, and it tells no real or imaginary story. If a creative poem like this one is neither fictional nor factional, how can its creativity said to be linked either to its factual or its fictional character?

Well, which is it:

• Are fiction and nonfiction together all that can or ever will be written (i.e., the traditional precept), or is poetry like Bobby Burns' To a Mouse something else again?
• Is the traditional precept valid? If so, is Bobby's poem fiction or nonfiction?
• Is the traditional precept short of the mark? Do epic poetry, drama, and similar literary forms fall somewhere in between fiction and nonfiction? Or are they something else again?

Talk among yourselves!