Creative non-fiction (CNF) is a genre that combines imagination with reality. It is a cross between fact and fiction, and is a fantastic blend of the two. The best part is that you do not have to be a professional writer to produce creative non-fiction content. Anyone can do it.
What are the three primary elements of writing creative non-fiction?
Craft
Craft is important in every area of life, so it should come as no surprise that it is equally as important in the writing industry. In general, craft refers to skill, talent, and expertise. So, if you want to be a good writer, you need to learn how to craft a sentence, use proper grammar and punctuation, and develop your style.
You will start out simply by practicing every day and looking for opportunities to improve your craft. For those who want to dive deeper into the topic, there are countless books on writing and publishing that can help you get started. However, nothing can replace solid practice, and it is never too late to start learning.
Content
Content is information or data that is worth presenting or distributing. In other words, content is a part of your story that you feel could be helpful to your audience. With content comes the challenge of ensuring that your reader is taking in the right information while still keeping the interest of your audience. This is where your content strategy comes in. There are three steps to creating content strategy:
- Thought leadership: using your position to create thought leadership.
- Research: finding authoritative sources to support your ideas.
- Creating content: using the information you researched to create original, interesting, and informative content that is easily shareable.
In order to craft content that will engage your target audience, you need to consider what they want and need and how you can provide it to them. For instance, if you are targeting business owners, you might want to create a blog post series on the basics of hiring and managing employees. You can use research to establish credibility and add value to the blog post content. Once you have content, you can distribute it to media channels to increase its reach.
What is fantastic about content strategy is that it does not have to stay within the four walls of your company. It can be a living, breathing document that changes and evolves as your business evolves. This is why it is so important to have a content calendar so you can keep track of where you are in relation to your content strategy.
Distribution
Distribution is the process of getting your content in front of as many eyes as possible. When it comes to content strategy, this can mean publishing on a blog that has a wide reach or distributing content to major news outlets that has the potential to reach a massive audience. You can put out content now and potentially have it seen by hundreds of thousands of people. However, if you want to truly see your content reach its full potential, you need to plan to distribute it across multiple platforms.
The number of platforms that can be used to distribute content has increased dramatically. If you want to publish content on a blog, you can choose from thousands of pre-made blog templates that can be used. To reach a broader audience, consider using a content syndication company to distribute your content to thousands of websites across Europe. With millions of monthly active users, TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms globally. Whether you are a business or individual, you can take advantage of the platform’s massive audience to grow your reach and effectively engage with your audience.
As you can see from the three primary elements of writing creative non fiction, there is a lot to think about. The good news is that you do not have to be an expert in all three areas to produce quality content. Simply put, if you can think of a topic that you are passionate about, you can become a content creator. All you need is a laptop or a desktop computer, a WiFi connection, and some time to yourself to start creating content.