This has certainly been the case for me. Once I started pushing the boundaries of linear storytelling my personal essays were much stronger. They began to find literary homes and win awards. It’s been the case, too, for my student, Rowan Smith-McCandless, who recently won Room magazine’s 2017 CNF contest for her stellar hermit crab essay, “A Map of the World”.

Check out Rowan’s answers to 5 questions I asked about her discoveries exploring CNF for the first time in my course, and the genre’s more experimental forms.

And if experimental CNF is your jam (or you think it might be!), the next session of my CNF Outliers e-course opens on Monday, June 19. Space is limited, so please get in touch to confirm availability.

1) What positive discoveries did you make as you shifted from writing fiction to personal essays?

Foremost, I’ve discovered that I can complete a personal essay, that it’s possible to move past fear and my inner critic and embrace rather than abandon my attempts at writing personal stories. As well, I’ve found so many wonderful tools and craft techniques that enhance my creativity and complement my process as a writer; skills that readily transfer between genres.

2) What drew you to the CNF genre, and what do you find rewarding about it as a writer and reader?

A few years ago, I read “The Pain Scale” by Eula Biss; a powerful, beautifully written contemplation of the author’s experience with physical pain. I fell in love with CNF, both as a reader and writer! I’m drawn to the genre’s freedom of expression, how fact meets form meets improvisation.

3) What impact has working with CNF’s more experimental forms had on your storytelling — both process and product?

CNF’s more experimental forms have had a profound influence on my storytelling. I’m more thoughtful as a writer, more considerate of structure and how best to craft my writing, whether it be CNF or fiction. The lyric essay, the prose poem, the hermit crab and braided essay have opened channels of self-expression, freed me to write personal stories, something I’ve struggled with in the past because of the inherent vulnerability, the exploration of difficult subject matter.

In speaking with other writers, I’ve discovered that many share the same fears. What CNF’s “outlier” forms offer are the tools to get those stories onto the written page. The genre connects the personal with the universal, questions as much as it examines. It’s lyrical and poetic—jazz and a Jackson Pollock painting expressed in written form. Now, who wouldn’t find that exciting?

4) What tips would you offer writers who want to move into writing CNF but feel some fear about delving into sharing personal stories?

First, I’d say to persevere but consider pacing. It’s okay to put a piece aside for a while if it gets too intense. I’d suggest becoming familiar with the more experimental forms of the genre; the hermit crab essay is a personal favourite as the structure provides support when dealing with difficult subject matter! Build community. Connect with kindred spirits. Have a latte. Hug your dog. Join a writer’s group. Talk to people you trust about those fears. Consider finding a mentor who understands and writes within the genre.

5) What did you learn about fear and writing in the course?

I learned that fear is a beast that other writers struggle with as well, whether it be fear of vulnerability, of hurting loved ones, of breaking family rules or societal expectations. I’ve discovered that there are ways to deal with that inner critic that tries to silence our storytelling. As well, that writing within the sub-genres of CNF, such as the hermit crab essay, can liberate a writer from those fears.

Nicole Breit is a poet, essayist, and creative writing teacher who lives on British Columbia’s gorgeous Sunshine Coast. In 2016 she won Room magazine’s CNF contest and her lyric essay, Spectrum, was the winner of the 2016 CNFC/carte blanche creative non-fiction award. Visit the CNF Outliers landing page to learn more about Nicole’s popular e-course. To sign up for the June 19-July 24 session, please email nicole(at)nicolebreit.com.

Storyteller, thrift-store junkie and chai tea lover, Rowan Smith-McCandless writes and lives in Winnipeg. In 2015, her short story “Whale Song” placed second in Room magazine’s Annual Poetry and Fiction Contest. Her short story “Castaways” will be published this summer, having placed second in Prairie Fire’s 2016 annual Fiction Contest. Most recently, her CNF piece, “A Map Of The World” received first place in Room magazine’s 2017 Creative Nonfiction contest.

The post #5OnFri: Five Questions for an Award-Winning Creative Non-Fiction Writer appeared first on DIY MFA.

These five tips will help you hook your readers as you turn your personal stories into art.

1) Try a new form

Creative non-fiction is, itself, a hybrid genre – narrative prose that borrows the devices and techniques used by poets and fiction writers. Explore CNF’s lesser known genre-bending subgenres, such as the hermit crab essay or braided essay, to start telling your stories in new ways. Take a look at this craft article for a quick breakdown of what I call CNF’s innovative “outlier” forms.

2) Get crafty about “craft”

Remember cramming for your high school English quiz on literary devices? (That’s a distant, unhappy memory, for me, too.) If you’re a little rusty about the difference between allegory, alliteration and allusion, brush up on your literary tools and then put them to work. Try incorporating one or two devices in every new piece as a personal challenge. Keep learning about and practicing key craft elements to make your first drafts more interesting, and to become a stronger, more versatile writer.

3) Approach each story with curiosity

No one knows your life story better than you do – but if you already know what happened, down to what every nuanced moment means, what’s motivating you to stick with the hard work of writing it? And what’s going to keep your audience reading? Robert Frost is attributed with this sage quote: No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. The idea here is to stay open to possibility, to new discoveries, as you write about your experiences, so both you and your reader can take delight in what those experiences mean, personally and universally – even if (especially if!) you don’t set out knowing the answer to that question. Sometimes what’s uncovered in the process of writing can not only be surprising but transformative. (I was both surprised and humbled by what I learned in the process of writing a story I was 100% sure I knew inside out, but didn’t.)

4) Less can be more

Compression is a technique used by flash essayists to capture a scene, moment, memory or idea, by removing all the unnecessary words. For a few examples of highly compressed stories that maintain hyper-focus with very tight word counts take a peek at:

• Math Lesson by Rebecca McClanahan (636 words)
• How the Music Died by Tommy Dean (258 words)
• Memories of a Gun by Diane Payne (128 words)

As you practice cutting back what’s inessential to zoom into the heart of your story, try crafting a segmented essay. These essays employ the use of white space, recurring symbols or numbers to join separate narrative fragments without “filling in the blanks” via exposition. In Memories of a Gun, Diane Payne splices two memories using a short numbered list; Tommy Dean uses a single diamond symbol to separate segments in How the Music Died.

5) Don’t be afraid to dive deep

Writing personal essays is an act of courage; every CNF writer has to figure out how to manage their personal list of fears. Fear is very normal – after all, there’s much at stake when we share our experiences and what they meant to us. If a story makes you feel vulnerable and you’re not sure how to find your way in or through, try freewriting about what is at the root of your fear. Go deep by asking, as many times as you need to, why you feel the way you do. I keep a processing journal – a diary devoted to writing about my works in progress. This is the place I ask myself why I’m stalling in a piece and what I need to do to keep going.

I tell my students not to wait for the day they no longer feel fear about their deep truth-telling work to start writing. Rather, I tell them to stay open, to use up that scary energy as they write. To be fearful, not fearless, in their writing — but fierce.

Nicole Breit is a poet, essayist, and creative writing teacher who lives on British Columbia’s gorgeous Sunshine Coast. In 2016 she won Room magazine’s CNF contest and her lyric essay, Spectrum, was the winner of the 2016 CNFC/carte blanche creative non-fiction award. To learn more about Nicole’s CNF Outliers e-course, visit the course landing page where you can subscribe for updates.

The post #5OnFri: Five Hacks To Make Your Creative Non-Fiction More Compelling appeared first on DIY MFA.