We all love a good story. Stories reach us on levels where mere facts can’t penetrate. Creative nonfiction leverages the intrinsic emotional power of storytelling to pull readers into a deep, memorable encounter with truth.
The four storytelling tools in this article (story structure, cinematic thinking, narrative voice, and literary techniques) will amplify the impact of any kind of nonfiction narrative.
To begin, let’s clear up two common questions.
Will creative nonfiction writing require twisting the truth to make the story “better”? Absolutely not. Creative nonfiction presents real facts artistically, using language that brings real places, people, and events back to life. It presses your reader’s ear to the heartbeat of your story, the why: Why this story matters to the main character. What’s at stake. How they change.
Must the “main character” be an individual? No. The star of your creative nonfiction can just as easily be you, sharing your memoir, as a group on expedition or a business entity in a corporate history. These techniques work for all kinds of creative nonfiction.
Let’s explore each storytelling approach and get you on your way to writing truth with impact.
Build Structure into Your Story
Good storytelling involves more than reporting “this happened, then that happened.” More than meandering through disconnected memories. A story goes somewhere.
Something important changes over the course of time: a human life, the trajectory of a company, the future of a community. Identifying that change hands you your story’s structure. Everything must be about why change was needed and how it came about.
That process of change moves through four phases:
- Normal World
- Core Challenge
- Big Change
- New Life
Normal World. This is the setting—time, place, and society—where you begin your story. Your character begins with an identity defined by this world. Establish what “normal” looks like, then get ready to disrupt it.
Core Challenge. Bring on the moment that rocked your character’s world. The moment they realized they couldn’t stay in normal mode. Perhaps a sudden crisis changed everything, or some trigger made the status quo unacceptable. I call this the “core” challenge for two reasons: (1) it stands as the one significant problem your character needs to solve, and (2) it rocks them to their core. Their identity is at stake.
Big Change. Through a series of steps forward and quite a few backward, your main character achieves transformation. They overcome obstacles. They face setbacks. They join forces with a helpful guide or mentor. They almost give up. They gain courage and press on. Ultimately, they arrive; the desired change happens. This important story movement may fill more pages than any of the others.
New Life. Now transformed, the main character’s actions show readers that this change will last. This, like the first Normal World movement, can be somewhat brief. Show just enough to deliver the kind of satisfying ending you’ve led readers to expect.
Writing a memoir? Go deeper into using this powerful, four-movement structure through my entry-level online course, Write Your Own Story. Take this six-module course alongside a live cohort over six weeks, or as a self-paced course that fits into your own schedule.
Learn more and register here: https://kareningle.com/learn-to-write-your-own-story/
Structure builds good bones for your story. The next storytelling tip will teach you how to arrange attractive flesh on those bones: scenes that keep readers engaged.
Think Cinematically
Movies spool out in scenes. Written narratives should, too.
Unfurl your story in a connected series of meaningful scenes, each containing these elements:
- A Situation: Where and when the scene is happening. Use just enough descriptive language to ground your readers in the setting. Feed them sensory details that also evoke the mood of the situation.
- A Story: A reason for this scene to be included. Each scene must play a role in intensifying or resolving the most pressing problem of the main character. (We’ll talk more about this problem, or “core challenge” shortly.)
- Rising Action: The first sign of trouble. Something signals the character’s problem is about to get worse. The wind picks up, angry voices approach, no lights gleam through the window. On the other hand, as the narrative moves toward the main problem’s resolution, the rising action can be the first sign that something is finally about to go right.
- The Crisis Moment: Point of impact with the core challenge. Trouble hits where it hurts. Or, in a scene of positive change, a possible solution appears.
- An Emotional Beat: The choice has to be made. The main character must decide how to respond to the crisis moment. Which course of action will they choose? Will they adopt one belief over another? Risk or retreat?
- Resolution: The tension drops as the character sits with their choice.
- Foreshadowing: A hint of what’s next. End the scene with a clue: has your character’s choice moved them closer to a solution or farther from it? If neither happened, the scene was not necessary. (See “Story” above.)
These first two storytelling tips provide a solid foundation for your narrative. You’ll have well-structured scenes arranged into a journey toward transformation.
Now, find out how to add even more impact to those scenes by using two more important storytelling techniques: voice and writing style. Read on to explore those next.
Choose Your Narrative Voice
How the narrator of your story “talks” to readers shapes their experience of the story. But you have many voices to choose from. Which of your many voices should you use?
You unconsciously choose a voice every time you speak. With friends, you might choose a snarky, casual voice. With employees, you might use an authoritative, no-nonsense voice.
In the same way, you can adapt your narrative voice to suit your audience and your message.
Tone of voice. The tone of your storytelling voice is a subtle filter through which readers will experience the story. It reveals the narrator’s feelings, their emotional perspective, on the story events. Critical, hopeful, or regretful, your narrator’s tone of voice shades the story.
Point of view. Point of view refers to where the narrator stands in relation to the story. A first-person narrator would be a voice from within the story, using “I” frequently because they were there. (A memoir writer usually writes with a first-person narrative voice.) Third-person narrators talk about the main character as “he” or “she” or the entity “it,” because they stand outside a story that happened to others. Third-person point of view is arguably the most common type of voice in non-memoir nonfiction. (Second-person narration—written as if the reader is the “you” living the story—is rarely used.)
Diction. Diction, or word choice, should meet the audience’s need for clarity and connection to the story. Some stories call for a scholarly voice speaking in intellectual words, for instance. Others land better with a conversational voice using simple, everyday words.
Next, closely related to diction, our final storytelling tip is about adding artistry to your sentences through literary techniques.
Employ Literary Techniques
To paint vivid scenes that engage readers, try applying a few literary techniques. For extra ideas, download my free tip sheet here.
If “literary” conjures up bad experiences in eleventh-grade English class, go relax by reading a good book.
Seriously.
Pick a book you’ve enjoyed before. Notice how the author made you like the book. They may have used literary techniques like the ones I describe below.
Figurative language. This employs imagery to layer emotional meaning onto bald facts. It looks at how the facts feel to a person, what they mean to the character, not just what they were.
- Symbolism, letting one thing stand for another, is one example. A beloved Grandpa’s pocket watch can represent his presence. When the main character associates a fallen feather with sadness, a feather will sound a sorrowful note each time it appears in a story.
- Hyperbole (intentional exaggeration) can express a character’s strong feelings without stating them directly: Sitting beside the beautiful Elaine, Marcus knew ice cream would never taste this good again.
- Simile and metaphor compare two things (with or without using like or as). These two sentences, “Summer sizzled me like a steak” and “Summer, a warm blanket, comforted me,” are much more fun to read than “I hated summer heat” or “I loved warm days.”
As you write, think about imagery that actually carries symbolic meaning for your main character. Then put it to work adding emotional significance to your sentences.
Patterns. Language patterns in storytelling also carry surprising impact. Your favorite book may use these techniques frequently; look closely. Two ideas follow, and my tip sheet [LINK] has plenty more.
- Rhythm impacts the feel of your sentences. Read them aloud to hear the effect. Notice how these different rhythms ramp up the contrasting emotions:
The children played in the shady woods until the sun had set.
They played. She watched, unnoticed.
- Alliteration and assonance lend evocative sound effects to your writing as well, just as effectively as the soundtrack of a movie.
Haunted by Monica’s loss, Mama wandered through daily life.
(The assonance of “ah” sounds winds through the sentence like a mournful sigh.)
When the big brass bands and boys banging drums paraded past, we covered our ears against the noise.
(The p and b alliteration mimics the force of sounds.)
Become a Nonfiction Storyteller
Put these four storytelling tips to work to help readers remember your story for its emotional impact. You will elevate your writing from an accurate account into a story that meant something…to your main character, and to your reader.
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