Creative nonfiction demands the use of the full range of tools we wield as creative writers: imagery and figurative language, scene, character, sound, voice, and perspective.
— Nancy Pagh (Write Moves 174)
As you read personal essays, it’s important to remember the technical skill that goes into writing them. The nonfiction that you’re mot used to writing, academic essays, require presenting evidence, analysis, and argument. They don’t require that you tell a story. They ask you to convince your reader of your authority, but not to give them an experience. Like fiction, creative nonfiction brings the reader into the world of the writer.
For your journal entry, look back at one of the personal essays we read for today, Sedaris or Harjo. How does the writer use “the full range of tools” of creative writers? Use specific examples from the text. Find the creative.