2011 SPILT INK COMPETITION - Submissions now open!
Each year OOTA conducts a writing competition for its sole membership. In alternate years we have run a Poetry, then a Prose Competition. However, this year our competition is "Creative Non-Fiction."
Note: Guidelines are to be strictly observed otherwise your entry will not be accepted.
Download our pdf (in landscape) entry form here or our .doc entry form (in landscape) here or simply click on image, then print.
What is Creative Non-fiction?
by Rose van Son
Creative non-fiction is the writing of a personal essay. The word non-fiction is the clue: prose that is not fictional but of an event in the writer’s life, told creatively.
Often these events are memorable, even life-changing for the writer and therefore the need to put pen to paper, to tell the story in a creative way. The power of creative non-fiction is in the telling; whether the story is life-changing or whether it is simply a moment of everyday life, the telling is important. Creative non-fiction writing frees the writer from the constraints of the formal or academic essay; the telling can be a journey, or a new way of seeing or developing an issue important to the writer.
If research is used in the creative non-fiction essay, it must be acknowledged in the essay, as in the academic essay, to avoid plagiarism. The story-telling must be smooth and can include dialogue or analysis but the reader must feel that this is the ‘telling’ of something that has happened to the writer; an event that may have changed the writer in some way or has influenced the writer sufficiently to pick up a pen. As the story unfolds, the reader may be influenced by both the story and the telling. The writer may use the first person ‘I’ to share his or her personal story with the reader. A good piece of creative non-fiction will leave the reader thinking.
