EMERGENT LITERACY

CREATIVE NON-FICTION: AN OVERVIEW       The Creative Nonfiction (CNF) genre can be rather elusive. It is focused on story, meaning it has a narrative plot with an inciting moment, rising action, climax and denouement, just like fiction. However, nonfiction only works if the story is based in truth, an accurate retelling of the author’s life experiences. The pieces can vary greatly in length, just as fiction can; anything from a book-length autobiography to a 500-word food blog post can fall within the genre.      Additionally, the genre borrows some aspects, in terms of voice, from poetry; poets generally look for truth and write about the realities they see. While there are many exceptions to this, such as the persona poem, the nonfiction genre depends on the writer’s ability to render their voice in a realistic fashion, just as poetry so often does. Writer Richard Terrill, in comparing the two forms, writes that the voice in creative nonfiction aims ...

FREYTAG’S PYRAMID  What is Freytag’s Pyramid?       Novelist Gustav Freytag developed this narrative pyramid in the 19th century, as a description of a structure fiction writers had used for millennia. It’s quite famous, so you may have heard it mentioned in an old English class, or maybe more recently in one of our online fiction writing courses.      Freytag’s Pyramid describes the five key stages of a story, offering a conceptual framework for writing a story from start to finish.  These stages are:            Exposition            Rising Action            Climax            Falling Action            Resolution --- READ MORE  (CLICK ME!)

TYPES OF CHARACTERS 1. Protagonist       The protagonist is likely a pretty familiar concept for most of us: this is the main character, the big cheese, the star of the show. Most of the action centers around them, and they’re the one we’re meant to care about the most.  2. Antagonist       If you’re an antagonist, you antagonize — it’s what you do. Specifically, you undermine, thwart, battle, or otherwise oppose one character: the protagonist.      Most of the time, the protagonist is good and the antagonist is evil, and such is the source of their conflict. This isn’t always the case — especially if the protagonist is an anti-hero who lacks typical heroic attributes, or the antagonist is an anti-villain who has noble characteristics. Still, 95% of the time, the protag is the hero and the “antag” is the villain.       Antagonists usually play just as important a role in a story as their protagonist counterp...

The 5R's of Creative Nonfiction       Lee Gutkind , who is a writer, professor, and expert on creative nonfiction, wrote an essay called “ The Five R’s of Creative Nonfiction.” In this essay, he identified five essential elements of creative nonfiction. These include:  1. Creative nonfiction has a “real life” aspect. The writer constructs a personal essay, memoir, and so forth, that is based on personal experience.  He also writes about real people and true events.  2. Creative nonfiction is based on the writer engaging in personal “reflection” about what he/she is writing about . After gathering information, the writer needs to analyze and assess what he/she has collected. He then must evaluate it and expression his thoughts, views, opinions. Personal opinion is permissible and encouraged.  3. Creative nonfiction requires that the writer complete “research”. The writer needs to conduct research to learn about the topic. The writer also needs to...

DIGITAL FICTION      Digital fiction is fiction written for and read on a computer screen that pursues its verbal, discursive and/or conceptual complexity through the digital medium, and would lose something of its aesthetic and semiotic function if it were removed from that medium.       Digital fiction as a genre thus does not include blogs, communitarian digital fiction, digital storytelling, and any other form of digital narrative that does not qualify as fiction. While we welcome the authorial democratization that Web 2.0 technology permits and wholeheartedly support research that seeks to understand it, life narratives are fundamentally nonfiction and therefore beyond our remit. It similarly does not include e-books or games we can’t ‘read’, or rather games where there is no dynamic relationship between the gameplay (rules) and its themes (representations) that we can read into, reflect on, or interpret. History       Digital ...

MANGA Manga is the form of comic books and graphic novels that originated in Japan. The word manga comes from two Japanese words: “man,” which means “whimsical or impromptu,” and “ga,” which translates to “pictures.”   The term manga in Japan encompasses both comics and cartoons, while it primarily refers to Japanese-originated comics when used outside of the country.   Most Manga narratives are presented in black and white , allowing readers to absorb the extensive material without any interruptions. Nevertheless, a few distinct full-color publications have been published.   Manga is commonly distributed in installments that come out every week or month and are featured in manga anthologies. These segments make up tankōbon volumes, which can be obtained at bookstores or dedicated manga shops as paperback books.   Manga, which encompasses various genres including romance, sports, science fiction and fantasy as well as horror among others topics is intricately linked...