1. Class Notes: Week One Summary
Preface
* As writers of creative nonfiction, we have four challenges: observe lives lived, take
those observations and put them into words, stay true to the facts of what happened. And
at the same time be creative in how we use words.
* As Connie Griffin, author of To Tell the Truth, says, we are trying to transform lived
experience into art.
* We tell stories to figure out what is happening around us. We make up stories when we
don’t know what happened or why it happened. We tell true stories when we do know
what happened and we are attempting to explain why it happened.
* The one big plot: anticipation stage, dream stage, frustration stage, nightmare stage,
resolution stage.
* The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker (2004), a Jungianinfluenced literary critic (i.e., archetypes)
* The Seven Basic Plots: Rags to Riches, Tragedy, Comedy, Rebirth, Voyage and Return,
Overcoming the Monster, The Quest
* Also: Man vs God, Man vs Man, Man vs Nature, Man vs Society, Man vs Woman,
Man in the Middle, Man vs Himself
* Being a craft means that it is part of the world of technique. There are specific “hard”
elements in writing, just as there are stones we turn into jewelry and wood we turn into
carvings. For writers, those hard elements are letters, which we turn into words, which we
turn into sentences, which we turn into paragraphs, which we turn into pages, and so on.
* We also have the technical elements of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Similarly,
your readers want to be sure that you are in command of your technical skills as a writer.
* Good writers command confidence. As a reader, you trust the writer. And you allow
yourself to relax and enjoy the reading experience – because you know the writer knows
what she is doing.
* A few more points here from Connie Griffin’s Preface. She talks about product and
process. She means “product” in terms of the finished piece of writing, although most
writers will tell you they are never finished with their work. Alice Munro said when she
won the Nobel Prize recently for literature that she would be hesitant to re-read her
earlier material – because she would probably want to re-write it.

2. * Griffin does not shy away from controversy. She talks about fact and fiction, memory
and imagination, and the importance of your credibility. Our discussion about fact and
fiction will be both short and long: fiction you make up, fact you report based on research
and or experience. Memory is flawed, but it can be verified. Imagination is not meant to
be verified at all. And credibility is everything for a nonfiction writer. If you lie, you get
shamed, failed, fired, or sued. Do not make stuff up. That’s fiction.
Chapter One: An Introduction to Storytelling
Griffin talks about the creative process and unlocking our abilities. She debunks the myth
of the creative muse, which might be okay for fiction but not for CNF. The latter is more
about perspiration than inspiration.
She says it will be helpful if we look at the three stages of writing: prewriting, writing,
and rewriting. Don’t try to do all three at once.
Most of the writers in your text, says Griffin, do not approach their work with the idea
that they know something. They approach a subject as a journalist who does not know
something – but clearly needs to know.
Writing is a question, not a statement of an answer. It is an exploration, not a Google
map.
This exploring of questions is done within the boundaries of our genre: CNF. Just as
poets know the difference between a sonnet and a haiku, you as CNF writers have to
know the genre of CNF and its rules and conventions.
One of the challenges for writers is that we use the same medium for the art as we use in
daily life: words. We don’t use music notes on a daily basis. We use paint to spruce up a
room, but otherwise not often. But just because we use words to communicate every day
does not mean that we are writers. Or good writers. Or writers of CNF.
We have to look at the tools of the craft: scenes, setting, dialogue, details, plot, pacing,
narrative arc, drama and resolution. And devices such as word choice and sentence
construction. And we need point of view: who is speaking and from what position?
Ultimately, writing is about trust. You need to be confident in your art and craft. You
need to respect the subject of your writing, the tools of your writing, and the process of
your writing work. Then, and only then, will the reader trust what you write.
Class Notes: Week Two Summary
Why we read and why we write.
We read (broadly) for entertainment and for information.

3. We write (broadly) in order to:
Express ourselves creatively
Explain and make sense of the world (Griffin says “evoke” for CNF as opposed to
“explain” for “basic” nonfiction)
Communicate to others
Review “The Five R’s of Creative Nonfiction” by Lee Gutkind
Real: As in real-life experience and immersion in your subject.
Researched: Full of substantive detail and facts, i.e., truth.
Recreated: This is the writing part – where you use creativity to bring stories to life with
drama. Gutkind “cheats” and calls this ‘riting.
Reflected: A writer’s personal views are welcomed, and even encouraged. The writer is
part of the process in CNF.
Reading-based: Based on a deep knowledge of the genre.
Three genres within CNF
Narrative nonfiction (also literary journalism): the “story” of something
Memoir: the “story” of somebody
Essay: the “story” of some idea, issue, problem, etc.
Building Blocks of CNF
Showing and not telling. Let the story convey the important elements of the narrative.
This is a process that leads to the production of a creative work.
Characters: prominence, qualities, development
Scene & Setting: the specific and the general
Dialogue: content, manner of speaking, revelations

4. Intimate Details: choice, insertion, surprise, depth
Point-of-View: who is speaking, position, purpose
Plot & Pacing: crisis, resolution, speed, intensity
Creative Devices: diction, syntax, turn of phrase
Themes: issues, lesson or moral, takeaway
In the end, it all comes down to this: CNF is a true story well told.