On Writing Creative Nonfiction

When I first declared that I would be a famous writer one day, I said that I’d write the next great young-adult novel. I had it all planned out: it’d be a psychological drama-romance blend that focused more on the characters’ personalities and ticks rather than the story itself, and it’d be far better written than anything Stephenie Meyer has ever produced. Surely I could manage that. I’d started other projects and gotten pretty far, but nothing ever became a full, finished draft. But that one felt different.

Then I took a fiction writing class in undergrad, and my mind changed quickly. I realized I didn't have the patience for fiction, and there was much more involved than I imagined. I shifted my focus shortly thereafter.

Writing creative nonfiction is more comfortable for me. I’m better at telling my own stories in fresh ways than fabricating some adventure or situation and making it sound realistic. It’s easier, somehow. I know, I’m weird.

Talking about nonfiction with other people—writers or not—always garners some peculiar and sometimes even mind-boggling responses.

“So you write…biographies? And historical stuff?” Well, I could if I wanted to.

“You’re telling me you take other people’s stories and call them your own?” Only with their permission and review. And they’re not “my” stories. I’m just telling other stories for the people who can’t.

“Doesn’t writing about yourself get old after a while?” Seriously? It’s just like talking about yourself. Who doesn’t like that?

What appeals to me most about creative nonfiction is its creative freedom, especially in form. Who knew I could write an essay as a glossary, with each "term" being its own story? Or write an essay like an epitaph, or a how-to about falling in love with someone? Memoirs were my go-to style, but now I know there are so many more options and possibilities out there, and so many I have yet to explore. And with a thousand and one things I want to write about, I know I'll have no trouble finding the right way to tell each one. 

Above all, writing is cathartic. Writing heals. A bit cliche, sure, but it's true. Every writer can speak to this to some degree. While a blank page--physical or electronic--can be intimidating at first, it eventually becomes a comfort, because it presents a space on which we can spill our thoughts, fears, dreams and emotions. If there's nothing there to begin with, then there's nothing we can't put there ourselves. 

And that's why I write creative nonfiction. I hope that my stories and experiences, dreams and fears can serve as some comfort or inspiration to someone else as much as they do for me. If they do, then I've done my job as a writer. 

Why do you write?

"The desire to write grows with writing." 

Erasmus