A LITERARY NONFICTION PRIMER | essays to myself

A dear young man recently posted his review of The Rat Book, and did more than an admirable job, I might add.? Yet it left me with the realization that (with no negative reflection on him at all, as you?ll see if you read on):

1)? few people have probably heard of the category ?literary nonfiction? or ?creative nonfiction.?? A recent trip to Barnes and Noble confirmed my suspicions. When I asked for directions to the Creative Nonfiction or Literary Nonfiction aisle (I even referred to it as Narrative Nonfiction after the clerk eyed me with that quizzical ?what the heck are you talking about? look), she said, ?No, we don?t have one of those; give me the name of the author or the book title.?? The book(s) I sought were instead put in the very small Essays section. I rest my case.

2) Christians, who can often be substantially less well-read than the masses due to their narrow reading tastes, may have very little to no clue whatsoever about the strange little beast to which I refer, especially after noting the reaction I heard from that very well-read clerk.? I doubly rest my case.

But that?s all okay.? We can?t read it all and do it all, can we?? May I step in and give you a very brief primer on the Literary Nonfiction genre?? And please, don?t let the name fool you; it can be a lot of fun to read, not to mention very good for a growing writer?s base of knowledge, a base which must continue to grow if the writer is to continue to grow.

Let me mention that my interest isn?t only self-serving, especially considering the soon release of my book, but it extends to future books we plan to publish through PYP.? Will you take a gander with me into the world of creative nonfiction, please?? I think you?ll ultimately like the view.

Instead of a lot of fact-speak, let me post what I recently commented on said reviewer?s review on Facebook (which I subsequently put up on the FB PYP page here).

1st I mentioned this:

(edited) ? the nature of the lyric essay is simply to take an initial thought and bring it out *until* you feel it?s been done justice, then move on quickly to something else related, but possibly only loosely-so. it?s ?stream of consciousness? in its most beautiful and freeing form. but again, to know those facts one would have to be quite familiar with literary or creative nonfiction?

And then,

(edited) here?s a rather quick and possibly flimsy illustration of what i see to be the potentially problematic area for book reviewers at times. maybe it will serve its purpose; i can but hope. i am neither adept at understanding nor in love with books classified as HORROR. in fact, i avoid them like the plague. if i finally deigned to read and <gasp!>? review one someday, i might address topics such as writing style, plot, characters, flow. then i would probably add that i didn?t like the fact that ?it scared me; i had to pass by a number of pages because it simply got too intense for me.? okay, i?ve just demonstrated that i have very little love of the ?horrible? in ?horror.? the same with ?creative? or ?literary? nonfiction. you have two very distinct writing considerations when reading and reviewing a book of literary/creative nonfiction. 1) the language and / or style and / or punctuation and / or contents will be either / or (and sometimes both) ?literary? and ?creative.? again, that can encompass many things. but the second consideration is that it?s nonfiction, a decidedly different genre than anything else out there ? one which can include everything from memoir to textbook to random facts and more. admittedly, literary/creative nonfiction is a very unique beast, and therefore not necessarily easy to review.

And by ?literary? and ?creative,? we can likewise mean many many things.? ?Literary? simply refers to the definitive word choices, syllable-watching, flow-intensity of every line and paragraph and chapter.? There is no room for ?commercial? in ?literary.?? (A disclaimer:? there are many strictly commercial books that I thoroughly enjoy; this isn?t a rant against commercial writing, at all.)

?Creative? envelopes the collective facets of experimental writing I love so well.? The way something is said, the punctuation used (or not used), new word development or very unique structure in forming sentences, the possible absence of all external structure (leaving only an internal ?beat?), and more, can illustrate the many ways ?creative nonfiction? might present itself.

If you?ve not read an incredible book of creative nonfiction or experimental fiction, you?re missing out. Truly, you are. I want nothing more than to see other readers and writers fall head over heels in love with the fascinating world of literary and creative nonfiction.? And I hope this post brings at least a bit of clarity to this admittedly unique genre.

Yours,

~chila

p.s. if the genre is of the least bit interesting to you, please leave a comment.? i?d be glad to offer a list of suggested readings.

Source: http://chilawoychik.com/2011/07/22/a-literary-nonfiction-primer/

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