The Intricacies of Fiction and Nonfiction

Exploring the Boundaries of Fiction and Nonfiction

Every book, short story, or novel ever written will have bits and pieces of fiction inside of it, and every different type of writing is considered to be a story. What exactly is a story? According to the dictionary, the word “story” is defined as “an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment.” Authors want to intrigue their readers by writing something captivating, and in order to write captivating work, you have to use your imagination. According to class discussion, a story can never be completely real unless it is an annal, “a single record of an historical chronicle” I Put Link to site this source at the bottom Based on the information provided above, can we conclude that all stories are fictional? Authors who write fictional books are able to pull places, events and people from their imagination to create their own characters, storylines and plots. Fictional work is something that tells a “fake” or “made up” story, however, some authors will pull real-life events to use as stepping stones in their stories.

In order to be able to fully answer the question “are all stories fiction?” we have to take a closer look at what the terms fiction and nonfiction really mean. There are three different types of fiction: A short story, a novella, and a novel. Each of these styles of fiction have characteristics that are different from each other, but in spite of this, they remain similar at the same time. A short story is something one could sit down and read in one sitting, usually no longer than thirty pages. Short stories are meant to have very few characters so that the focus is able to fall more on the plot or the storyline. A Novella, which is more along the lines of 120 pages, is essentially a much longer version of a short story, consisting of a much more complex plot or storyline and typically a lot more characters. A good example of a Novella would be “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London. A novel, on the other hand, can range anywhere between 120 pages to 3,000 pages, which gives the author a lot more room to work with multiple plots or storylines and better develop the characters. The freedom to create whatever the author wants with no worries of running out of paper is bestowed upon the authors of novels, because novels have no limit on their length.

The Distinctions Between Fiction and Nonfiction

In contrast to these fictional styles of writing, nonfiction is something that involves real people, real places, and real events –fiction, does not– because nonfictional stories must be true and they also must contain facts that can be proven true. Most of the time writers are creating a non-fictional book to be able to inform or express some sort of meaning to their audience. If the author's purpose is to express, the concepts or ideas that are being expressed must be based on true, real-life situations. There are two main types of nonfiction, the first being literary nonfiction and the second being informative nonfiction. Literary nonfiction includes nonfiction writing that reads like fiction, meaning it includes elements of fiction like characters, settings, and plots. Examples of literary nonfiction would be biographies, autobiographies, and essays. The second type of nonfiction is informative nonfiction and its purpose is to explain or inform the readers about a concept or situation. This type of nonfiction writing exists to provide the reader with factual information. Examples of informative nonfiction would include articles and interviews.