GUTKIND AND CREATIVE NON-FICTION

He is the only major author I know from the world of creative non-fiction.  Although I have read some of his creative non-fiction books, I have never dared to explore the genre deeply.  I regret that; I am, however, grateful this fast-growing genre.

In his talk on creative nonfiction writing for scientists, Gutkind makes a compelling case on how creative nonfiction has become pervasive.  In our age, we have to understand robots or law.  Reading tomes of textbooks would not cut it for a majority of us.  They are too dry.  We need better resources: enter creative non-fiction.

The mantra of creative nonfiction is good stories well told.  Powered by this mantra, Creative nonfiction is exploding into traditional bastions of rigidly crafted textbooks like science, law, and medicine.

Instead of parading dry facts, creative non-fiction describes topics ranging from organ transplants to robots.  The technique supplants technical jargons with captivating storytelling to inform and illuminate the reader.  Everything that we need to know about a subject matter is told in a dramatic storytelling creating a more memorable reading experience.

A few years or decades ago, practitioners in such fields as medicine, law, or science may have cringed at the ‘creative’ part of creative non-fiction.  However, as Gutkind argues, stories make concepts more digestible than cold-blooded facts.  As a result, storytelling techniques are migrating en masse to science, law, and medicine.

In law, for example, lawyers are coached to make compelling arguments using the techniques of creative nonfiction.  

I am blessed to live in an age where storytelling is happily married to science writing.  Makes understanding the world much better as well as providing a better reading experience.