Project: Educate's Lit Edition

There've been a few complaints that, perhaps, these guides are too simplistic. As far as I'm concerned, they can't be basic enough. Our lives are already so complicated that having a quick, easy reference to run back to during those moments when you just can't remember everything you know can't possibly be a bad thing. Education starts with a strong foundation, and that's what we aim to provide here.

All that said, today's Project: Educate feature is going to focus on Nonfiction. Now, there may be some of you out there who think Nonfiction is pretty self-explanatory, but one quick browse through Biographies or Journalism will reveal all sorts of wonderful gems like original character profiles, poems, futuristic stories, and any number of other miss-categorized deviations. Indeed, just last week, the first 100 Journalism submissions in the "recently submitted" category were miss-cats. That, ladies and gentleman, presents a problem!

To help solve that problem, I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Bill. Dr. Bill is here to help you with all your Nonfiction needs.


Dear Dr. Bill,

What is Nonfiction?

For those of you who missed the previous article, Nonfiction deals with real people and real events in the real world. There are many different types and approaches to Nonfiction, from the very academic and formal to the very creative and experimental, but all of these methods are held together by a common thread: they are based on and built around accuracy and facts.

Now, facts are a tricky subject. As ~EveningDownpour mentioned in her Nonfiction Poetry workshop:

Ten people can watch the same fight, but each person will have their own unique interpretation of the event. Were you to ask what happened, it's likely you'll get ten different stories. Did each of those people lie to you? No, absolutely not. They told you the facts as they perceived them...In nonfiction writing, the writer usually believes that the facts presented are accurate and truthful. There is rarely a conscious intention to "make something up."

Unlike in fiction when people deliberately manipulate facts--even real and true facts--to help create a new story, in Nonfiction the facts are the story. The telling may be different, and some facts may feel a bit convoluted at times, but the author always approaches the subject with the intent of telling the truth about a person or event (though perhaps not the whole truth) as s/he perceive it. In nonfiction, nothing should be made up.


Dear Dr. Bill,

Where does Nonfiction fit on dA?

Nonfiction is a sub-division of the "Prose" category on dA. That means, if you are looking to submit a nonfiction text, you should click Literature---> Prose---> Nonfiction to find the right category for you.


Dear Dr. Bill,

I went to Nonfiction, but there are all these other categories! What do I do now?

I thought you'd never ask. deviantART can't possibly accommodate every category, but it does try to hit some of the more popular or demanding subcategories of Nonfiction. Currently there are categories for Essays, Journalism articles, Editorials, Biographies, Historical texts, Philosophical explorations, and General Nonfiction. However, Project: Streamline, coming in the very near future, may see some much-needed changes to these categories. In the meantime, I'd like to introduce a few of the sub-categories that tend to cause the most confusion.


Biography (& Memoir)

While dA does not yet make the distinction between biography and memoir, it has long been assumed that memoir-writing belongs in the "Biography" category. We are working to make the categorization clearer, but please bear with us while we hammer out the details. In the meantime, allow me to introduce the concept of a biography:
A biography is a real story about a real person. This person exists in the real world, not as a character or concept, but as a living, breathing human being. The stories told in a "Biography" should be true events that actually happened to this real person.

Note: A story is not a meme, list of characteristics, personal survey, or related text.

A memoir is a story about a true event that happened in your life, involving real people and the real world. It is closely related to autobiography in that it is you, a real person, writing about actual events in your life, but whereas autobiography deals with the entire span of your life, memoir writing is usually more focused and concerns small periods of time. That said, autobiographical story-telling belongs in this category.

Note: Realistic stories about fictional characters do not belong in Nonfiction Biographies.


Editorial

An editorial is a commentary, grounded in facts and experience, on a current event or social issue. These are not "rants", but well-structured articles meant to persuade someone to see your point of view. Editorials are often found in magazines and newspapers and should be written to that standard.


(Academic) Essays

An (academic) essay is a highly-organized piece of writing that revolves around one topic or point of view. It should have an argument, answer a question, or attempt to prove something. Evidence and examples related to the topic are also necessary.

Submissions in this category should be similar to essays you write for school or coursework, but the subject matter is entirely up to you.


Journalism

This category might be better-served being named "Articles & Interviews," truth-told. However, the heart of journalism and journalistic writing does not change regardless of how it's labeled. Journalistic articles are designed to inform your reader about a subject or person. These articles should be concerned with Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How and should aim to be as accurate as possible.

In Most Cases: If you are trying to prove a point or answer a question, you are writing an essay. If you are trying to give your opinion on a topic, you are writing an editorial. If you are simply trying to tell someone about something that is going on, complete with sources, then you're into journalism.

Please note that interviews also fall under this category.


Reviews

A review is an evaluation of a product or publication based on personal experience and knowledge. It aims to be critical, not insulting, and is designed to help someone form an opinion of the product in question. Rants about products or companies do not belong here.


Philosophical

Rational, organized writing (read: not "rants") about the "big" questions, like how one should live or what existence really is, are generally considered philosophical. Digging deeper and trying to get to the heart of things are the usual fodder of philosophy. Philosophical texts should be centered around a single idea and the lesser ideas that stem from it.


General Nonfiction

This should be the LAST Nonfiction category you consider.

No, really. General, in this circumstance, is synonymous with "miscellaneous". It's the catch-all category for those other areas of Nonfiction that dA can't yet accommodate. However, if you are writing a biography, review, editorial, etc.--you should definitely strive to place those texts in the appropriate category. It'll make browsing easier and help your reader have a clearer expectation of your text and its intent.

General Nonfiction is meant for all writing that attempts to represent a subject as fact but does not fall under one of the other gallery options. Nonfiction pieces should be truthful and grounded in real-life experiences or documented evidence and facts. If you are making it up, it can't go here.


Dear Dr. Bill,

What's this I hear about "Creative Nonfiction"?

With all this talk of perception and intent, it's important to consider a form of nonfiction that really presses these boundaries and tries to recount facts in such a way that it sounds as if a person is writing a fictional story. Indeed, much of the complaint about nonfiction writing is that it's "boring," but those folks who've lived through interesting events or lead interesting lives can tell you that those lives and events were anything but. For a while there seemed to be a disconnect between compelling storytelling and the true story. That's where creative nonfiction comes in.

Creative nonfiction aims to recount facts and events accurately, but it does so in such a way as to accomplish excellent storytelling. The use of common literary elements such as foreshadowing, irony, a special attention to characterization, figurative language and other devices is emphasized in creative nonfiction whereas journalistic nonfiction is often concerned with a factual and brief retelling bereft of a strong personal style. It's the difference between your history teacher lecturing you on a battle of World War I and the veteran around the corner sitting on his steps and telling you his first-hand account of the same battle. Both are concerned with facts and retelling an actual event, but the manner of the telling differs based on intent (purely to instruct vs. to instruct and to entertain).

Creative nonfiction can occur in all types of nonfiction, but the more popular genres include memoir writing, travel writing, and other aspects of the real world that lend themselves easily to beautiful storytelling. Regardless of how creative one can be, however, it is imperative that the writer strives to be factual and accurate in the retelling. Creative nonfiction is not a made-up story under any circumstances. If you are taking too much "creative license" and adding or changing important details to a story that are directly inspired by your imagination, then you've wandered into the realm of fiction and should categorize your work accordingly.


Dear Dr. Bill,

Lighten up. Who cares about the categories anyway?

I can appreciate that point of view--I really can--but I think any writer who spends the time writing something they're proud of should be willing to spend the extra minute to figure out where it'll get the best and most accepting audience. (And if you're not proud of the writing, you probably shouldn't be posting it outside of Scraps.) As you grow as a writer and begin looking for publications to send your writing to, you will find that you must carefully choose the magazines and publishers that receive your work. Many times, the choice is directly related not only to how you are writing, but what you are writing about. It's time, not only to have some pride in your work, but to take ownership for it as well. The best way to start, especially on dA, is to place your texts in the right category. If you take yourself seriously as a writer, others will start to take you seriously, too.


Dear Dr. Bill,

Get a life.

Perhaps I will, someday. Until then, if you have any questions related to prose--especially in regards to Nonfiction--please do not hesitate to contact me. If nothing else, I'm here to help--and I take that part of my GD role very seriously.

Thanks for reading!