What is nonfiction?
A definition and related terms

The quick — and inadequate — definition of nonfiction is that it is NOT fiction.

By the way, nonfiction is the correct spelling. There is no English language word non, so it is incorrect to write the term in hyphenated format. In other words, there is no English non fiction or non-fiction, only English nonfiction.

The prefix non means an absence. So when we say something is nonfiction, we are saying there is no fiction in it. Fiction is prose that is imagined, invented, fabricated, or feigned.

Nonfiction is prose that is not imagined, not invented, not fabricated or otherwise cooked up by the writer.

2 types of writing: prose & poetry

Prose, of course, is language that’s primarily concerned about the ideas conveyed. It has little interest in how the ideas sound.

Poetry, by contrast, cares about the music of the words as much as the ideas.

I know this is boring, but you need to get these definitions down cold. The fiction/nonfiction distinction is a basic literary concept, roughly on the level of the 3-times tables.

If your students can't write a paragraph answer to the question "what is nonfiction?" they shouldn’t get a high school diploma.

Imaginative writing genres

Let’s look at genres (types or classes) of the imaginative or fictive side of writing to get a feel for what nonfiction isn’t.

You can see that short stories and novels are fictional genres. Most plays are prose fiction, but some (like Shakespeare's plays) are in poetry form.

Novels, plays, and short stories employ setting, characterization, and dialogue to relate a series of related events we call a story.

As you can see from the diagram, it is absurd to talk about a “nonfiction novel.” A novel is fiction and there is no fiction in nonfiction.

Use the term true story to refer to factual accounts that use setting, characterization, dialogue and other techniques readers associate with fiction.

That language is less apt to create confusion than saying "nonfiction story." Students understand what true means, but nonfiction is a pretty hazy concept for most of them. Of course, some students will misunderstand no matter what you say. Be prepared to teach the fiction-nonfiction distinction many times!

The study of English language and literature is full of such terminology traps for the unwary student and his/her teacher.

To see what nonfiction is, instead of what it is not, we’ll need a fresh page and another diagram.