Creative Nonfiction

For many years I thought that 'creative' and 'nonfiction' were two separate things, that the job of the nonfiction writer was to inform their readers, to teach them, and the creative writer's job was to entertain readers. Not so. Research into how we learn has shown that we learn best when we are entertained as we learn new things. The strongest memories we have come from emotion and if we can arouse emotion in our readers, then our words, what we are aiming to 'teach', will be embedded in their memory.

Keep this in mind as you compose your nonfiction pieces. Make sure you include all the facts, but put some humour in there, if it's warranted, or some nonfactual asides. Be creative in the way you present the facts and write so as to engage your reader. Put something of yourself in there too. Don't keep repeating facts you've already given; credit your reader with the intelligence to understand what you are saying without your having to beat them about the head with the same facts clothed in a different light.