what is biography non fiction

Definition of Biography

A biography is the non- fiction , written history or account of a person’s life. Biographies are intended to give an objective portrayal of a person, written in the third person. Biographers collect information from the subject (if he/she is available), acquaintances of the subject, or in researching other sources such as reference material, experts, records, diaries, interviews, etc. Most biographers intend to present the life story of a person and establish the context of their story for the reader, whether in terms of history and/or the present day. In turn, the reader can be reasonably assured that the information presented about the biographical subject is as true and authentic as possible.

Biographies can be written about a person at any time, no matter if they are living or dead. However, there are limitations to biography as a literary device. Even if the subject is involved in the biographical process, the biographer is restricted in terms of access to the subject’s thoughts or feelings.

Biographical works typically include details of significant events that shape the life of the subject as well as information about their childhood, education, career, and relationships. Occasionally, a biography is made into another form of art such as a film or dramatic production. The musical production of “Hamilton” is an excellent example of a biographical work that has been turned into one of the most popular musical productions in Broadway history.

Common Examples of Biographical Subjects

Most people assume that the subject of a biography must be a person who is famous in some way. However, that’s not always the case. In general, biographical subjects tend to be interesting people who have pioneered something in their field of expertise or done something extraordinary for humanity. In addition, biographical subjects can be people who have experienced something unusual or heartbreaking, committed terrible acts, or who are especially gifted and/or talented.

As a literary device, biography is important because it allows readers to learn about someone’s story and history. This can be enlightening, inspiring, and meaningful in creating connections. Here are some common examples of biographical subjects:

• political leaders
• entrepreneurs
• historical figures
• serial killers
• notorious people
• political activists
• adventurers/explorers
• religious leaders
• military leaders
• cultural figures

Famous Examples of Biographical Works

The readership for biography tends to be those who enjoy learning about a certain person’s life or overall field related to the person. In addition, some readers enjoy the literary form of biography independent of the subject. Some biographical works become well-known due to either the person’s story or the way the work is written, gaining a readership of people who may not otherwise choose to read biography or are unfamiliar with its form.

Here are some famous examples of biographical works that are familiar to many readers outside of biography fans:

• Alexander Hamilton (Ron Chernow)
• Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Caroline Fraser)
• Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson)
• Churchill: A Life (Martin Gilbert)
• The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (Simon Winchester)
• A Beautiful Mind (Sylvia Nasar)
• The Black Rose (Tananarive Due)
• John Adams (David McCullough)
• Into the Wild ( Jon Krakauer )
• John Brown (W.E.B. Du Bois)
• Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo (Hayden Herrera)
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot)
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (Doris Kearns Goodwin)
• Shirley Jackson : A Rather Haunted Life ( Ruth Franklin)
• the stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit (Michael Finkel)

Difference Between Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir

Biography, autobiography , and memoir are the three main forms used to tell the story of a person’s life. Though there are similarities between these forms, they have distinct differences in terms of the writing, style , and purpose.

A biography is an informational narrative and account of the life history of an individual person, written by someone who is not the subject of the biography. An autobiography is the story of an individual’s life, written by that individual. In general, an autobiography is presented chronologically with a focus on key events in the person’s life. Since the writer is the subject of an autobiography, it’s written in the first person and considered more subjective than objective, like a biography. In addition, autobiographies are often written late in the person’s life to present their life experiences, challenges, achievements, viewpoints, etc., across time.

Memoir refers to a written collection of a person’s significant memories, written by that person. Memoir doesn’t generally include biographical information or chronological events unless it’s relevant to the story being presented. The purpose of memoir is reflection and an intention to share a meaningful story as a means of creating an emotional connection with the reader. Memoirs are often presented in a narrative style that is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Examples of Biography in Literature

An important subset of biography is literary biography. A literary biography applies biographical study and form to the lives of artists and writers. This poses some complications for writers of literary biographies in that they must balance the representation of the biographical subject, the artist or writer, as well as aspects of the subject’s literary works. This balance can be difficult to achieve in terms of judicious interpretation of biographical elements within an author’s literary work and consideration of the separate spheres of the artist and their art.

Literary biographies of artists and writers are among some of the most interesting biographical works. These biographies can also be very influential for readers, not only in terms of understanding the artist or writer’s personal story but the context of their work or literature as well. Here are some examples of well-known literary biographies:

Example 1:  Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay  (Nancy Milford)

One of the first things Vincent explained to Norma was that there was a certain freedom of language in the Village that mustn’t shock her. It wasn’t vulgar. ‘So we sat darning socks on Waverly Place and practiced the use of profanity as we stitched. Needle in, . Needle out, piss. Needle in, . Needle out, c. Until we were easy with the words.’

This passage reflects the way in which Milford is able to characterize St. Vincent Millay as a person interacting with her sister. Even avid readers of a writer’s work are often unaware of the artist’s private and personal natures, separate from their literature and art. Milford reflects the balance required on the part of a literary biographer of telling the writer’s life story without undermining or interfering with the meaning and understanding of the literature produced by the writer. Though biographical information can provide some influence and context for a writer’s literary subjects, style, and choices , there is a distinction between the fictional world created by a writer and the writer’s “real” world. However, a literary biographer can illuminate the writer’s story so that the reader of both the biography and the biographical subject’s literature finds greater meaning and significance.

Example 2:  The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens  (Claire Tomalin)

The season of domestic goodwill and festivity must have posed a problem to all good Victorian family men with more than one family to take care of, particularly when there were two lots of children to receive the demonstrations of paternal love.

Tomalin’s literary biography of Charles Dickens reveals the writer’s extramarital relationship with a woman named Nelly Ternan. Tomalin presents the complications that resulted for Dickens from this relationship in terms of his personal and family life as well as his professional writing and literary work. Revealing information such as an extramarital relationship can influence the way a reader may feel about the subject as a person, and in the case of literary biography it can influence the way readers feel about the subject’s literature as well. Artists and writers who are beloved , such as Charles Dickens, are often idealized by their devoted readers and society itself. However, as Tomalin’s biography of Dickens indicates, artists and writers are complicated and as subject to human failings as anyone else.

Example 3:  Virginia Woolf  (Hermione Lee)

‘A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living’: so too with the biography of that self. And just as lives don’t stay still, so life-writing can’t be fixed and finalised. Our ideas are shifting about what can be said, our knowledge of human character is changing. The biographer has to pioneer, going ‘ahead of the rest of us, like the miner’s canary, testing the atmosphere , detecting falsity, unreality, and the presence of obsolete conventions’. So, ‘There are some stories which have to be retold by each generation’. She is talking about the story of Shelley, but she could be talking about her own life-story.

In this passage, Lee is able to demonstrate what her biographical subject, Virginia Woolf, felt about biography and a person telling their own or another person’s story. Literary biographies of well-known writers can be especially difficult to navigate in that both the author and biographical subject are writers, but completely separate and different people. As referenced in this passage by Lee, Woolf was aware of the subtleties and fluidity present in a person’s life which can be difficult to judiciously and effectively relay to a reader on the part of a biographer. In addition, Woolf offers insight into the fact that biographers must make choices in terms of what information is presented to the reader and the context in which it is offered, making them a “miner’s canary” as to how history will view and remember the biographical subject.

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Literary Devices

Literary devices, terms, and elements, definition of biography.

A biography is a description of a real person’s life, including factual details as well as stories from the person’s life. Biographies usually include information about the subject’s personality and motivations, and other kinds of intimate details excluded in a general overview or profile of a person’s life. The vast majority of biography examples are written about people who are or were famous, such as politicians, actors, athletes, and so on. However, some biographies can be written about people who lived incredible lives, but were not necessarily well-known. A biography can be labelled “authorized” if the person being written about, or his or her family members, have given permission for a certain author to write the biography.

The word biography comes from the Greek words bios , meaning “life” and – graphia , meaning “writing.”

Difference Between Biography and Autobiography

A biography is a description of a life that is not the author’s own, while an autobiography is the description of a writer’s own life. There can be some gray area, however, in the definition of biography when a ghostwriter is employed. A ghostwriter is an author who helps in the creation of a book, either collaborating with someone else or doing all of the writing him- or herself. Some famous people ask for the help of a ghostwriter to create their own autobiographies if they are not particularly gifted at writing but want the story to sound like it’s coming from their own mouths. In the case of a ghostwritten autobiography, the writer is not actually writing about his or her own life, but has enough input from the subject to create a work that is very close to the person’s experience.

Common Examples of Biography

The genre of biography is so popular that there is even a cable network originally devoted to telling the stories of famous people’s lives (fittingly called The Biography Channel). The stories proved to be such good television that other networks caught on, such as VH1 producing biographies under the series name “Behind the Music.” Some examples of written biographies have become famous in their own right, such as the following books:

• Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (made even more famous by the musical “Hamilton,” created by Lin-Manuel Miranda)
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
• Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

Significance of Biography in Literature

The genre of biography developed out of other forms of historical nonfiction, choosing to focus on one specific person’s experience rather than all important players. There are examples of biography all the way back to 44 B.C. when Roman biographer Cornelius Nepos wrote Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae (“Lives of those capable of commanding”). The Greek historian Plutarch was also famous for his biographies, creating a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans in his book Parallel Lives . After the printing press was created, one of the first “bestsellers” was the 1550 famous biography Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari. Biography then got very popular in the 18th century with James Boswell’s 1791 publication of The Life of Samuel Johnson . Biography continues to be one of the best selling genres in literature, and has led to a number of literary prizes specifically for this form.

Examples of Biography in Literature

And I can imagine Farmer saying he doesn’t care if no one else is willing to follow their example. He’s still going to make these hikes, he’d insist, because if you say that seven hours is too long to walk for two families of patients, you’re saying that their lives matter less than some others’, and the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world.

( Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder)

Tracy Kidder’s wonderful example of biography, Mountains Beyond Mountains , brought the work of Dr. Paul Farmer to a wider audience. Dr. Farmer cofounded the organization Partners in Health (PIH) in 1987 to provide free treatment to patients in Haiti; the organization later created similar projects in countries such as Russia, Peru, and Rwanda. Dr. Farmer was not necessarily a famous man before Tracy Kidder’s biography was published, though he was well-regarded in his own field. The biography describes Farmer’s work as well as some of his personal life.

On July 2, McCandless finished reading Tolstoy’s “Family Happiness”, having marked several passages that moved him: “He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others…” Then, on July 3, he shouldered his backpack and began the twenty-mile hike to the improved road. Two days later, halfway there, he arrived in heavy rain at the beaver ponds that blocked access to the west bank of the Teklanika River. In April they’d been frozen over and hadn’t presented an obstacle. Now he must have been alarmed to find a three-acre lake covering the trail.

( Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer)

Jon Krakauer is a writer and outdoorsman famous for many nonfiction books, including his own experience in a mountaineering disaster on Mount Everest in 1996. His book Into the Wild is a nonfiction biography of a young boy, Christopher McCandless who chose to donate all of his money and go into the wilderness in the American West. McCandless starved to death in Denali National Park in 1992. The biography delved into the facts surrounding McCandless’s death, as well as incorporating some of Krakauer’s own experience.

A commanding woman versed in politics, diplomacy, and governance; fluent in nine languages; silver-tongued and charismatic, Cleopatra nonetheless seems the joint creation of Roman propagandists and Hollywood directors.

( Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff)

Stacy Schiff wrote a new biography of Cleopatra in 2010 in order to divide fact from fiction, and go back to the amazing and intriguing personality of the woman herself. The biography was very well received for being both scrupulously referenced as well as highly literary and imaginative.

Confident that he was clever, resourceful, and bold enough to escape any predicament, [Louie] was almost incapable of discouragement. When history carried him into war, this resilient optimism would define him.

( Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand)

Laura Hillenbrand’s bestselling biography Unbroken covers the life of Louis “Louie” Zamperini, who lived through almost unbelievable circumstances, including running in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, being shot down as a bomber in WWII, surviving in a raft in the ocean for 47 days, and then surviving Japanese prisoner of war camps. Zamperini’s life story is one of those narratives that is “stranger than fiction” and Hillenbrand brings the drama brilliantly to the reader.

I remember sitting in his backyard in his garden, one day, and he started talking about God. He [Jobs] said, “ Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don’t. I think it’s 50/50, maybe. But ever since I’ve had cancer, I’ve been thinking about it more, and I find myself believing a bit more, maybe it’s because I want to believe in an afterlife, that when you die, it doesn’t just all disappear. The wisdom you’ve accumulated, somehow it lives on.”

( Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson)

Steve Jobs is one of the most famous cultural icons of modern-day America and, indeed, around the world, and thus his biography was eagerly awaited. The author, Walter Isaacson, was able to interview Jobs extensively during the writing process. Thus, the above excerpt is possible where the writer is a character in the story himself, asking Jobs about his views on life and philosophy of the world.

Test Your Knowledge of Biography

1. Which of the following statements is the best biography definition? A. A retelling of one small moment from another person’s life. B. A novel which details one specific character’s full life. C. A description of a real person’s entire life, written by someone else.

2. Which of the following scenarios qualifies as a biography? A. A famous person contracts a ghostwriter to create an autobiography. B. A famous author writes the true and incredible life story of a little known person. C. A writer creates a book detailing the most important moments in her own life.

3. Which of the following statements is true? A. Biographies are one of the best selling genres in contemporary literature. B. Biographies are always written about famous people. C. Biographies were first written in the 18th century.

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Memoir, Biography, Narrative Nonfiction—How Are They Different?

Posted by Lisa Dale Norton | Feb 1, 2019 | Writing Insights | 0 |

Here we are in February, the time of year when we throw ourselves back into writing the story of our life. The end of the year, with its deepening dark and circle of celebrations, distracts. But now, we begin again, clawing our way through the relentlessness of the information cycle to a quiet rhythm of shaping words, and asking fundamental questions: What is a memoir? How is it different from biography, and how are both related to that thing called narrative nonfiction?           

Here’s my take on it:

Memoir is a story based on your life experience and what you have learned from it.

It is a winnowing of all that has happened into a tight view of a slim section of experience: the coming of age years; the head-spinning start of a career; early motherhood. But always, it is a winnowing of the vast, complicated arc of events that has constituted your life. Narrow, narrow, narrow. Find one series of events that linked together explores some vulnerable and pressing universality of life.

Biography is all about you, too—and all is the correct word. This is where you get to write about where you were born, and what went on during your young years, leaving home, setting out to make your way in the world, love, relationship, work, loss—the whole canvas.

See how biography is different from memoir?

Of course, we hope a biography will show us mistakes made and lessons learned—the vicissitudes that brought a woman to be who she is, pimples and all. We hope for some readers’ transformation as we witness the arc of that person’s life, but this is different from the expectations of the reader of memoir.

 The reader of memoir dives in for the short version, the lens of the camera zooming in to show the close up of just the years from 6 to 18, or just that summer your husband died, or just the college years that led to a Rhodes Scholarship, or just the years when you, through sheer fortitude, worked your way out of poverty, of just those events that came together to make you the vocal activist you are today. Slim focus. And from that slim focus a nugget of wisdom.

 Narrative nonfiction is a similar but slightly different beast.

This is a form where you might write about yourself and your experience a good deal, but you will also be teaching us something about the world. Maybe it’s the world of a dwindling tribe of the last subsistence whalers in the world (“The Last Whalers: Three Years in the Far Pacific with a Courageous Tribe and a Vanishing Way of Life” by Doug Bock Clark, recently published by Little, Brown and Company), so that the story ends up being about the writer’s experience getting the story, and about the nonfiction information itself.

We could say narrative nonfiction is the wedding of journalism and memoir, and while you may not be a journalist, you can do the same thing with your story by finding a topic that is central to your manuscript and making it an equal and parallel part of the story you write about yourself. Here’s a book where a writer did just that: “Don’t Make Me Pull Over: An Informal History of the Family Road Trip” (Simon & Schuster, 2018), which combined author Richard Ratay’s personal experiences with road trips, and the history of the American road trip from post-WWII to the 1970s.

See what I mean?

If you take the time to peruse the shelves of current nonfiction in your local book shop, you will see a lot of nonfiction with the author as player in the story. Why? Because we are a culture obsessed with the personal, the “I” of everything. Neither good nor bad, just ‘tis. And so, many contemporary nonfiction books give us the writer as a character and that character’s experience. But, they also give us information: the biologist who writes about his early days in the Galapagos, and Charles Darwin; the violinist who writes about becoming first chair of an orchestra, and the violin; the dog lover who writes about her dogs, and the industry of dog shows—two parallel stories that dip into and weave around each other giving us something fresh.

The name narrative nonfiction tells you everything you need to know: narrative, which means a story, and nonfiction, which refers to a topic from our world.

Can you find your project in this spectrum? Doing so now in February will make your writing year more productive, and make you more savvy about the marketplace.

About The Columnist

Lisa Dale Norton

Lisa Dale Norton is an author, developmental book editor, and a dynamic public speaker. She is passionate about layered writing structures in narrative nonfiction that reflect the complexity of life experience, and about the transformative power of writing a memoir. She is a gifted teacher, clear communicator, and a pro at creating an environment were learning can happen. Lisa wrote America’s go-to memoir writing guide, Shimmering Images: A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir (Macmillan), and the literary nonfiction story Hawk Flies Above: Journey to the Heart of the Sandhills (Picador USA), which won comparisons to the writing of Annie Dillard. https://lisadalenorton.com/

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What Is Biography? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples

Biography definition.

A  biography  (BYE-og-ruh-fee) is a written account of one person’s life authored by another person. A biography includes all pertinent details from the subject’s life, typically arranged in a chronological order. The word  biography  stems from the Latin  biographia , which succinctly explains the word’s definition:  bios  = “life” +  graphia  = “write.”

Since the advent of the written word, historical writings have offered information about real people, but it wasn’t until the 18th century that biographies evolved into a separate literary genre.  Autobiographies  and memoirs fall under the broader biography genre, but they are distinct literary forms due to one key factor: the subjects themselves write these works. Biographies are popular source materials for documentaries, television shows, and motion pictures.

The History of Biographies

The biography form has its roots in Ancient Rome and Greece. In 44 BCE, Roman writer Cornelius Nepos published  Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae  ( Lives of the Generals ), one of the earliest recorded biographies. In 80 CE, Greek writer Plutarch released  Parallel Lives , a sweeping work consisting of 48 biographies of famous men. In 121 CE, Roman historian Suetonius wrote  De vita Caesarum  ( On the Lives of the Caesars ), a series of 12 biographies detailing the lives of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire. These were among the most widely read biographies of their time, and at least portions of them have survived intact over the millennia.

During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church had a notable influence on biographies. Historical, political, and cultural biographies fell out of favor. Biographies of religious figures—including saints, popes, and church founders—replaced them. One notable exception was Italian painter/architect Giorgio Vasari’s 1550 biography,  The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , which was immensely popular. In fact, it is one of the first examples of a bestselling book.

Still, it wasn’t until the 18th century that authors began to abandon multiple subjects in a single work and instead focus their research and writing on one subject. Scholars consider James Boswell’s 1791  The Life of Samuel Johnson  to be the first modern biography. From here, biographies were established as a distinct literary genre, separate from more general historical writing.

As understanding of psychology and sociology grew in the 19th and early 20th centuries, biographies further evolved, offering up even more comprehensive pictures of their subjects. Authors who played major roles in this contemporary approach to biographing include Lytton Strachey, Gamaliel Bradford, and Robert Graves.

Types of Biographies

While all biographical works chronicle the lives of real people, writers can present the information in several different ways.

• Popular biographies are life histories written for a general readership.  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  by Rebecca Skloot and  Into the Wild  by Jon Krakauer are two popular examples.
• Critical biographies discuss the relationship between the subject’s life and the work they produced or were involved in; for example,  The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune  by Conor O’Clery and  Unpresidented: A Biography of Donald Trump  by Martha Brockenbrough.
• Historical biographies put greater understanding on how the subject’s life and contributions affected or were affected by the times in which they lived; see  John Adams  by David McCullough and  Catherine the Great  by Peter K. Massie.
• Literary biographies concentrate almost exclusively on writers and artists, blending a conventional  narrative  of the historical facts of the subject’s life with an exploration of how these facts impacted their creative output. Some examples include  Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay  by Nancy Milford and  Jackson Pollock: An American Saga  by Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh.
• Reference biographies are more scholarly writings, usually written by multiple authors and covering multiple lives around a single topic. They verify facts, provide background details, and contribute supplemental information resources, like bibliographies, glossaries, and historical documents; for example,  Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007  and the  Dictionary of Canadian Biography .
• Fictional biographies, or biographical novels, like  The Other Boleyn Girl  by Philippa Gregory, incorporate creative license into the retelling of a real person’s story by taking on the structure and freedoms of a novel. The term can also describe novels in which authors give an abundance of background information on their characters, to the extent that the novel reads more like a biography than fiction. An example of this is George R.R. Martin’s  Fire and Blood , a novel detailing the history of a royal family from his popular  A Song of Ice and Fire

Biographies and Filmed Entertainment

Movie makers and television creators frequently produce biographical stories, either as dramatized productions based on real people or as nonfiction accounts.

Documentary

This genre is a nonfictional movie or television show that uses historical records to tell the story of a subject. The subject might be a one person or a group of people, or it might be a certain topic or theme. To present a biography in a visually compelling way, documentaries utilize archival footage, recreations, and interviews with subjects, scholars, experts, and others associated with the subject.

Famous film documentaries include  Grey Gardens,  a biography of two of Jacqueline Kennedy’s once-wealthy cousins, who, at the time of filming, lived in squalor in a condemned mansion in the Hamptons; and  I Am Not Your Negro , a biography of the life and legacy of pioneering American author James Baldwin.

Television documentary series tell one story over the course of several episodes, like  The Jinx :  The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst , a biography of the real estate heir and alleged serial killer that focused on his suspected crimes. There are many nonfiction television shows that use a documentary format, but subjects typically change from one episode to the next, such as A&E’s  Biography  and PBS’s  POV .

These films are biographical motion pictures, written by screenwriters and performed by actors. They often employ a certain amount of creative liberty in their interpretation of a real life. This is largely done to maintain a feasible runtime; capturing all of the pivotal moments of a subject’s life in a 90- or 120-minute movie is all but impossible. So, filmmakers might choose to add, eliminate, or combine key events and characters, or they may focus primarily on one or only a few aspects of the subject’s life. Some popular examples:  Coal Miner’s Daughter , a biography of country music legend Loretta Lynn;  Malcom X , a biopic centered on the civil rights leader of the same name; and  The King’s Speech , a dramatization of Prince Albert’s efforts to overcome a stutter and ascend the English throne.

Semi-fictionalized account

This approach takes a real-life event and interprets or expands it in ways that stray beyond what actually happened. This is done for entertainment and to build the story so it fits the filmmaker’s vision or evolves into a longer form, such as a multi-season television show. These accounts sometimes come with the disclaimer that they are “inspired by true events.” Examples of semi-fictionalized accounts are the TV series  Orange Is the New Black ,  Masters of Sex , and  Mozart of the Jungle —each of which stem from at least one biographical element, but showrunners expounded upon to provide many seasons of entertainment.

The Functions of Biography

Biographies inform readers about the life of a notable person. They are a way to introduce readers to the work’s subject—the historical details, the subject’s motivations and psychological underpinnings, and their environment and the impact they had, both in the short and long term.

Because the author is somewhat removed from their subject, they can offer a more omniscient, third-person narrative account. This vantage point allows the author to put certain events into a larger context; compare and contrast events, people, and behaviors predominant in the subject’s life; and delve into psychological and sociological themes of which the subject may not have been aware.

Also, a writer structures a biography to make the life of the subject interesting and readable. Most biographers want to entertain as well as inform, so they typically use a traditional  plot  structure—an introduction,  conflict , rising of tension, a climax, a resolution, and an ending—to give the life story a narrative shape. While the ebb and flow of life is a normal day-to-day rhythm, it doesn’t necessarily make for entertaining reading. The job of the writer, then, becomes one of shaping the life to fit the elements of a good plot.

Writers Known for Biographies

Many modern writers have dedicated much of their careers to biographies, such as:

• Kitty Kelley, author of  Jackie Oh! An Intimate Biography; His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra ; and  The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty
• Antonia Fraser, author of  Mary Queen of Scots ;  Cromwell; Our Chief of Men ; and  The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605
• David McCullough, author of  The Path Between the Seas; Truman ; and  John Adams
• Andrew Morton, author of  Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words; Madonna ; and  Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography
• Alison Weir, author of  The Six Wives of Henry VIII; Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God; Queen of England ; and  Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess

Examples of Biographies

1. James Boswell,  The Life of Samuel Johnson

The biography that ushered in the modern era of true-life writing,  The Life of Samuel Johnson  covered the entirety of its subject’s life, from his birth to his status as England’s preeminent writer to his death. Boswell was a personal acquaintance of Johnson, so he was able to draw on voluminous amounts of personal conversations the two shared.

What also sets this biography apart is, because Boswell was a contemporary of Johnson, readers see Johnson in the context of his own time. He wasn’t some fabled figure that a biographer was writing about centuries later; he was someone to whom the author had access, and Boswell could see the real-world influence his subject had on life in the here and now.

2. Sylvia Nasar,  A Beautiful Mind

Nasar’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize-nominated biography of mathematician John Nash introduced legions of readers to Nash’s remarkable life and genius. The book opens with Nash’s childhood and follows him through his education, career, personal life, and struggles with schizophrenia. It ends with his acceptance of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Economics. In addition to a Pulitzer nomination,  A Beautiful Mind  won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, was a  New York Times  bestseller, and provided the basis for the Academy Award-winning 2001 film of the same name.

3. Catherine Clinton,  Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom

Clinton’s biography of the abolitionist icon is a large-scale epic that chronicles Tubman’s singular life. It starts at her birth in the 1820s as the slave Araminta Ross, continuing through her journey to freedom; her pivotal role in the Underground Railroad; her Moses-like persona; and her death in 1913.

Because Tubman could not read or write, she left behind no letters, diaries, or other personal papers in her own hand and voice. Clinton reconstructed Tubman’s history entirely through other source material, and historians often cite this work as the quintessential biography of Tubman’s life.

4. Megan Mayhew Bergman,  Almost Famous Women

Almost Famous Women  is not a biography in the strictest sense of the word; it is a fictional interpretation of real-life women. Each short story revolves around a woman from history with close ties to fame, such as movie star Marlene Dietrich, Standard Oil heiress Marion “Joe” Carstairs, aviatrix Beryl Markham, Oscar Wilde’s niece Dolly, and Lord Byron’s daughter Allegra. Mayhew Bergman imagines these colorful women in equally colorful episodes that put them in a new light—a light that perhaps offers them the honor and homage that history denied them.

Further Resources on Biography

Newsweek  compiled their picks for the  75 Best Biographies of All Time .

The Open Education Database has a list of  75 Biographies to Read Before You Die .

Goodreads put together a list of readers’  best biography selections .

If you’re looking to write biographies,  Infoplease  has instructions for writing shorter pieces, while  The Writer   has practical advice for writing manuscript-length bios.

Ranker  collected  a comprehensive list of famous biographers .

Related Terms

• Autobiography
• Short Story

An Introduction to Literary Nonfiction

Using Literary Techniques Usually Found in Fiction on Real-Life Events

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Like literary journalism , literary nonfiction is a type of prose that employs the literary techniques usually associated with fiction or poetry to report on persons, places, and events in the real world without altering facts.

The genre of literary nonfiction, also known as creative nonfiction, is broad enough to include travel writing, nature writing, science writing, sports writing, biography, autobiography, memoir, interviews, and familiar and personal essays. Literary nonfiction is alive and well, but it is not without its critics.

Here are several examples of literary nonfiction from noted authors:

• "The Cries of London," by Joseph Addison
• "Death of a Soldier," by Louisa May Alcott
• "A Glorious Resurrection," by Frederick Douglass
• "The San Francisco Earthquake," by Jack London
• "The Watercress Girl," by Henry Mayhew

Observations

• "The word literary masks all kinds of ideological concerns, all kinds of values, and is finally more a way of looking at a text , a way of reading...than an inherent property of a text." (Chris Anderson, "Introduction: Literary Nonfiction and Composition" in "Literary Nonfiction: Theory, Criticism, Pedagogy")
• Fictional Devices in Literary Nonfiction "One of the profound changes to have affected serious writing in recent years has been the spread of fiction and poetry techniques into literary nonfiction: the 'show, don’t tell' requirement, the emphasis on concrete sensory detail and avoidance of abstraction, the use of recurrent imagery as symbolic motif, the taste for the present tense, even the employment of unreliable narrators. There has always been some crossover between the genres. I am no genre purist, and welcome the cross-pollination, and have dialogue scenes in my own personal essays (as did Addison and Steele). But it is one thing to accept using dialogue scenes or lyrical imagery in a personal narrative, and quite another to insist that every part of that narrative be rendered in scenes or concrete sensory descriptions . A previous workshop teacher had told one of my students, 'Creative non-fiction is the application of fictional devices to memory.' With such narrow formulae, indifferent to nonfiction's full range of options, is it any wonder that students have started to shy away from making analytical distinctions or writing reflective commentary?" (Phillip Lopate, "To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction")
• Practical Nonfiction vs. Literary Nonfiction "Practical nonfiction is designed to communicate information in circumstances where the quality of the writing is not considered as important as the content. Practical nonfiction appears mainly in popular magazines, newspaper Sunday supplements, feature articles, and in self-help and how-to books... "Literary nonfiction puts emphasis on the precise and skilled use of words and tone , and the assumption that the reader is as intelligent as the writer. While information is included, insight about that information, presented with some originality, may predominate. Sometimes the subject of literary nonfiction may not at the onset be of great interest to the reader, but the character of the writing may lure the reader into that subject. "Literary nonfiction appears in books, in some general magazines such as The New Yorker , Harper's, the Atlantic , Commentary , the New York Review of Books , in many so-called little or small-circulation magazines, in a few newspapers regularly and in some other newspapers from time to time, occasionally in a Sunday supplement, and in book review media." (Sol Stein, Stein on Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies)
• Literary Nonfiction in the English Department "It might be the case that composition studies...needs the category of 'literary nonfiction' to assert its place in the hierarchy of discourse comprising the modern English department. As English departments became increasingly centered on the interpretation of texts, it became increasingly important for compositionists to identify texts of their own." (Douglas Hesse, "The Recent Rise of Literary Nonfiction: A Cautionary Assay" in "Composition Theory for the Postmodern Classroom") "Whether critics are arguing about contemporary American nonfiction for historical or theoretical purposes, one of the primary (overt and usually stated) aims is to persuade other critics to take literary nonfiction seriously—to grant it the status of poetry, drama, and fiction." (Mark Christopher Allister, "Refiguring the Map of Sorrow: Nature Writing and Autobiography")
• Creative Nonfiction
• Defining Nonfiction Writing
• Genres in Literature
• A Guide to All Types of Narration, With Examples
• Interior Monologues
• What Are the Different Types and Characteristics of Essays?
• AP English Exam: 101 Key Terms
• What Is a Synopsis and How Do You Write One?
• What Literature Can Teach Us
• The Difference Between an Article and an Essay
• What Is Prose?
• How to Write a Great Book Report
• The Writer's Voice in Literature and Rhetoric
• Examples of Images in Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction
• Book Report: Definition, Guidelines, and Advice

Types of Nonfiction Books

Nonfiction books appeal to everyone. No matter your interests, you’ll be able to find a subject that fits your taste. Just like fiction, nonfiction, too, has a lot of different genres to choose from.

Examples of popular nonfiction genres:

• Autobiography
• Cultural Criticism/Responses
• History/Law/Political
• True Crime/Investigative
• Self-help/Motivational
• Coloring Books

Out of these types of nonfiction books, people often mix up memoir, autobiography, and biography. Why do they mix them up, though? Keep reading!

What is a Memoir?

Defining a memoir can be tricky. It can take a lot of shapes, and different authors will have different approaches when writing one. derived from the French word for “memory,” memoirs find roots in memory.

Differentiating between a memoir and an autobiography can be a bit tricky. Memoirs and autobiographies are often mixed up, and it’s not surprising why: both are about the life of the author. However, the main difference between the two is that memoirs do not span the entire life of the author. Usually connected by some sort of unifying theme, idea, or incident, memoirs tell stories and lessons learned from the author’s life without covering everything that happened from the writer’s birth until old age.

Some common themes you’ll encounter when reading memoirs:

• Strength and overcoming obstacles
• The power of faith/religion in the author’s life
• Friendship and love

What is an Autobiography?

We’ve already covered that a memoir is comprised of stories or experiences from the life of the author that are tied together with an overarching theme or idea. An autobiography, however, usually tells the author’s life story, whether there’s a unifying theme or not.

Autobiographies are chronological, too. While memoirs can bounce around in time, autobiographies follow a strict timeline.

The terms autobiography and memoir are used so interchangeably that they’ve begun to lose distinction. Calling a book an autobiography when it is actually a memoir isn’t, at the end of the day, wrong . Memoirs are autobiographical. However, the next nonfiction genre we’re discussing cannot and should not be used interchangeably with these terms.

What is a Biography?

A biography is not the same thing as an autobiography, despite how often people attempt to use the terms interchangeably. They’re two entirely different genres, and the distinction is made in who is writing the story.

While an autobiography is a true story about the author’s own life, a biography is the story of an influential figure’s life written by another person. Most biographies are about well-known or famous influential figures. Popular biographies are written about presidents, movie stars, rock stars, political leaders, revolutionaries, etc.

What About Ghostwriters?

The whole autobiography/memoir vs. biography distinction gets a little hazy when a ghostwriter is involved. A ghostwriter is someone who is tasked with writing a book (or article or speech) while credit is given to another. Not just limited to nonfiction books, ghostwriters can help with any genre of writing. Many celebrities and other public figures use ghostwriters when publishing their autobiographies and memoirs, if they feel their writing isn’t strong enough but they nonetheless have a story to tell.

Ghostwriters do the actual writing, but they don’t get credit. Ghostwriters assist with the craft. Writing a book is hard, and not everyone can do it, even though many feel they have a story to tell. Despite the author not writing the book themselves (or writing it with assistance), they are the author, so the book would be considered an autobiography or memoir.

You may be asking yourself why anyone would want to ghostwrite a book if they do not receive credit for the work. The reason behind each ghostwriter’s decision to accept the job will vary.  For some, the pay rate makes ghostwriting worthwhile. For others, it may be because of their relationship with the author.

Self-Publishing Nonfiction Books

At DiggyPOD, we print all types of nonfiction books. From cookbooks to memoirs, our multiple binding options, paper types, and cover styles make your nonfiction book endlessly customizable. You can self-publish any of the above types of nonfiction books with DiggyPOD. Our Print on Demand technology transforms your book from a PDF file on your computer to a beautiful book. You’ll be proud to sell, gift, or display that book on your bookshelf for all to see.

Our spiral bound printing is perfect for all types of nonfiction books that need to lay flat when open. This includes coloring books,  cookbooks, and training manuals.

DiggyPOD’s paperback and hardcover binding styles make nonfiction books look beautiful. Perfect for any and all genres, check out our paperback and hardcover book printing.

Whatever your project, no matter the genre, DiggyPOD prints beautiful books. You’ll be so happy with the final product. Everything from paper type to margin size to cover design is entirely up to you, the author.

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What is a Biography? Definition, Elements, and More

POSTED ON Oct 12, 2023

Written by Nicole Ahlering

Have you found yourself browsing the biography section of your favorite library or bookstore and wondered what is a biography book ? 

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! 

In this brief guide, we’ll explore the definition of a biography, along with its purpose, how you might write one yourself, and more. Let’s get started.

Need A Nonfiction Book Outline?

In this article, we'll explore:

What is a biography of a person .

A biography is simply a written account of someone’s life. It is written by someone other than whom the book is about. For example, an author named Walter Isaacson has written biographies on Steve Jobs , Leonardo da Vinci , and Einstein . 

Biographies usually focus on the significant events that occurred in a person’s life, along with their achievements, challenges they’ve overcome, background, relationships, and more. 

They’re an excellent way to get a comprehensive understanding of someone you admire. 

What is the point of a biography? 

Biographies have a few purposes. They can serve as historical records about a notable figure, inspire and educate readers, and give us more insight into how the folks we’re interested in lived their lives. 

They can also be valuable research resources for people studying a notable figure, like Einstein! 

Does a biography cover someone’s entire life? 

Biographies typically encompass most of a person’s life. Obviously, if the subject of the book is still alive, their entire life cannot be written about. 

If the person lived a long and eventful life with many achievements, the author may cover only an especially noteworthy period of the subject’s life. 

Even so, the point of a biography is to learn about your subject beyond just what they achieved, so there will likely still be contextual information about the subject’s childhood, formative experiences, and more. 

Is a biography always nonfiction? 

Surprisingly, a biography is not always nonfiction . There is a genre called biographical fiction in which the author uses real-life people and events to inspire their fictional narrative . 

This genre is fun because the author can postulate about what their subject may have been thinking, feeling, and more in a way they may not be able to with a nonfiction biography. 

Just keep in mind that biographical fiction blends facts with made-up information, so it can’t be used as a primary research source. That said, it’s a fun supplement to learning about a figure you’re interested in, and can help generate curiosity and insights about their lives. 

If you’d like to read a biographical fiction book, check out books like: 

• The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
•   The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
• The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin 

Why would someone write a biography? 

An author may want to write a biography about someone because they’re inspired by them and want to educate the public about them. Or, they want to create a historical resource for scholars to study. 

An author may even have a commercial motivation for writing a biography, like a lucrative celebrity profile or a biography that has the potential to be adapted into a film or television series. 

Is it possible to write a biography about yourself? 

If you write a book about yourself, it’s called an autobiography or a memoir—not a biography. So, when you start writing your book, make sure you don't get caught in the autobiography vs biography or biography vs memoir maze.

If you’d like a book written about you that you’re not the author of, you can hire a writer to create one for you. You may choose to do this if you feel your writing skills are not up to par or you don’t have time to write your own biography .

Hiring a writer to write your biography can also make sense if you’d like to make sure the book is as objective and professional as it can be. Of course, this means you have to surrender control of the narrative! 

Some folks may also feel that a biography has more credence than an autobiography or memoir since the book’s subject doesn’t get to decide what is said about them. So hiring a writer for your biography can be a good way to credibly get your story out there. 

Can you write a biography about anyone you’d like? 

When it comes to writing about other people’s lives, it’s wise to proceed with an abundance of caution. After all, you don’t want to be sued for defamation or find yourself in other legal hot water. 

We highly suggest you look into the legal ramifications of writing about your chosen subject before you begin writing about them, but here are a couple of general things to know: 

• Typically, you don’t need permission to write about someone who is a public figure. However, the definition of a public figure can vary depending on your jurisdiction and more, so you’ll need to do your research.
• Even if you discover that you can write about your subject without permission, it’s still advisable to contact the subject and or their family. Not only is it good manners, but it may afford you some insider information about your subject. 
• If your subject or the family of your subject tells you they don’t want a biography about them, you may still legally be able to proceed—consult a lawyer—but you might face backlash when the book is published, limited access to information about your subject, and perhaps a pressing sense of guilt. Not worth it, if you ask us! 

Examples of biographies

Ready to get started reading biographies? Here are a few of the best biographies you should add to your list: 

• Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera 
• Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross
• Anne Frank: The Biography by Melissa Müller
• You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe
• The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz
• Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire by Julia Baird

Final thoughts 

Reading a biography is a great way to get inspired, learn from other people’s experiences, and more. And writing a biography can be an excellent educational experience in its own right! If you’d like to publish a biography but don’t know where to start, we’re here to help. Simply schedule a book consultation to get started. 

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Literary Terms: Narrative Nonfiction, Autobiography, and Memoir

 There’s something special about excellent nonfiction, but the water gets muddy when you try to label works under its large umbrella. Today, as part of our literary terms series, we examine three methods of telling a true story as we explore the similarities and differences among narrative nonfiction, autobiography, and memoir. (In past literary terms posts we have discussed the difference between terror and horror ; apocalyptic, dystopian, and post-apocalyptic fiction; and legend, myth, and fairy tale . Take a look!)

Narrative Nonfiction

Considered a fairly new genre, narrative nonfiction (also called creative nonfiction) uses literary styles and techniques to write factually accurate narratives. Some recognizable narrative nonfiction titles include: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Into Thin Air by John Krakauer, and The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. What is apparent in each of these titles—and in narrative nonfiction in general—are the features of fiction, such as scenes and plot, adapted for the purpose of journalism to create a compelling and readable story. Clearly, there are no thesis statements allowed. According to literary critic Barbara Lounsberry, there are four recognizable elements to narrative nonfiction: the topics and events must exist in the real world (not in the mind of the author), there must be exhaustive research, all scenes must be in context, and it should all be presented in a literary style. Narrative nonfiction is therefore a broad category, lacking hard rules on subject matter or style. And to make things difficult, both autobiography and memoir fall under its large umbrella.

Autobiography and Memoir

Jokingly coined in 1797 by William Taylor as an absurdly precise combination, the term “autobiography” is composed of the Greek words for self , life, and to write. True to Taylor’s description, an autobiography is an account of a person’s life written by that person. Although they have gone by different names in the past, autobiographies have been around for literal ages—from Augustine to Rousseau. Autobiography can be difficult to differentiate from memoir (it is interesting to note that Amazon puts them in the same category), and often the terms are used interchangeably but there are a few distinct differences.

Autobiographies tend to chronicle the writer’s entire life, or a vast majority, whereas a memoir’s focus can rest on a smaller set of years or single event. In an article by The Guardian, Ian Jack refers to the autobiography as a record of accomplishment, one that can be written (or written by a ghostwriter) by any kind of person, whereas memoir has a more literary style. He writes: “The memoir’s ambition is to be interesting in itself, as a novel might be, about intimate, personal experience. It often aspires to be thought of as “literary”, and for that reason borrows many of literature’s tricks—the tricks of the novel, of fiction—because it wants to do more than record the past; it wants to re-create it.” Elie Wiesel’s Night is an autobiographical account of his own experiences in the concentration camps of World War II, but it is classified as a memoir because it covers a very specific time in his life. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden is also a memoir, as it covers only two years of his life and dwells on very specific memories. Because both autobiography and memoir are generated from the memories and personal experiences of the writer, by nature they are more subjective and therefore naturally draw questions regarding factual accuracy. As a result, there is an ongoing debate about how closely the two forms should be classified, or given distance from, the term nonfiction .

Do you have a favorite piece of narrative nonfiction or a way you clarify between the three categories? If so, share in the comments!

by Kimberly Guerin

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What Is Nonfiction?

Based in fact, nonfiction serves to inform..

Nonfiction has been around ever since ancient civilizations needed to record and explain their laws, and it’s still evolving today.  Here’s how we define nonfiction, a look at its history, and some of the genre’s most popular sub-genres.

What is Nonfiction?

Nonfiction is literature that, regardless of the subject matter, has a simple goal: to provide information. It should be based on facts and conclusions of the author’s research or expertise, as opposed to the creativity of the author’s imagination. Granted, storytelling skills are required when writing a great work of nonfiction, but the content is still expected to be accurate. In addition to this, modern nonfiction is prose — writing that sounds like everyday speech and is not written in meter, like poetry.

History of Nonfiction

The earliest works of nonfiction can be traced back to ancient Bronze Age civilizations. By 740 BC, ancient Akkadian literature was already producing The Babylonian Chronicles , a history of the lives of kings, philosophers, and the workings of the empire. In the first century AD, Rome’s Pliny the Elder created the earliest recognized encyclopedia,  Naturalis Historia , a popular record of current-day science, art, and history. Fast forward another 1,100 years, and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles celebrates the history of England between the expulsion of the Roman Empire and the arrival of the Normans.

Through the centuries, sub-genres were established. Histories branched off into biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, and books about current affairs. Science and nature writing broke away from religious texts. The “teaching guides” of ancient Egypt, full of advice on how to live a proper life, led to Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack (1732) and the self-help bestsellers of today. Let’s take a deeper look at the modern sub-genres of nonfiction.

Common Types of Nonfiction

There’s a lot of overlap here, but most nonfiction literature falls into these categories.

Histories are as popular now as they were in ancient times. Today, they serve the same purpose – to shine a light on the past and cement its importance. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020) by Isabel Wilkerson looks at the history of discrimination in the Unites States and how it provided the framework for an unseen caste system today. Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile (2020) takes readers into the personal life of Winston Churchill as WWII rages in Europe, and is a part of a long tradition of military histories.

Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir tells the important stories of a person’s life, whether they’re a well-known public figure or someone who has an interesting story that inspires us all. Biographies are written by an author about someone else, such as The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X (2020) by Les and Tamara Payne. Autobiographies, such as Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s My Own Words (2018) are written by the author about themselves. Memoirs , such as J. D. Vance’s examination of his Appalachian childhood, Hillbilly Elegy (2016), are a type of autobiography, but they focus on a narrow, life-changing moment in time.

Science and Nature writing seeks to make complicated matters easier to understand, and rejoices in the lessons learned from the natural world. The Genome Odyssey: Medical Mysteries and the Incredible Quest to Solve Them (2021) by Dr. Euan Ashley explains genome sequencing and the many ways it has helped him diagnose issues in his patients. Vesper Flights (2020) by Helen Macdonald celebrates what she has learned by observing the animals in her life.

Leadership and Self-Help books are part of a long tradition of nonfiction that provides instructions for how to rise up and become your best self — whether in your personal or professional life. In Never Enough (2021), Mike Hayes distills the lessons he learned as a Navy SEAL commander and shows us how to use these tactics inside and outside the boardroom. In Talking to Strangers (2019), Malcom Gladwell demonstrates where we fail in our conversations with people we don’t know, and how we can avoid the conflict this creates. In 2014, Marie Kondo famously taught the world how to graciously kick our clutter to the curb with The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up .

Books about Current Affairs and Politics often pick up where histories leave off, taking a deep dive into the impactful events of today. Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man (2020) is Emmanuel Acho’s attempt at explaining systemic racism and the steps we can take to begin righting a long list of wrongs. Dan Rather draws on a lifetime of experience as a journalist in America to examine the soul of the nation in What Unites Us (2017).

Nonfiction Novels . The line between fiction and nonfiction is often blurred. The roman à clef , a novel that includes real events and characters who are barely disguised from the real people they represent, first became popular in the 1600s. It has been a particularly useful tool for authors writing semi-autobiographical novels, such as Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963) about her struggles with bipolar disorder. In Cold Blood (1966) by Truman Capote marks the rise of the modern true crime genre. His nonfiction novel recreates the real-life circumstances around the 1959 murders of four people in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, and includes the author’s theories on the murderers’ motives. In 1971, Hunter S. Thompson channeled his subjective, first-person gonzo journalism style to create Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . The narrative, also a roman à clef , blurs fiction with fact as it describes a wild, law-breaking road trip to Las Vegas in the waning days of America’s counterculture era.

True Crime books examine the impact of real-life crimes, often tracking a criminal case from the beginning of an investigation to the apprehension and prosecution of the perpetrator(s). The sub-genre has exploded in popularity in recent years to include other types of media, like true crime podcasts , documentaries, movies, and TV shows. Yet the sub-genre itself dates back centuries, from the topical crime pamphlets of the 1600s to the shocking penny dreadfuls read throughout 19th century England and America. In 1966, Truman Capote ushered in a new era of true crime writing with the publication of the aforementioned In Cold Blood . In 1979, Norman Mailer won the Pulitzer Prize for The Executioner’s Song , a true crime novel centered on the execution of Gary Gilmore. Other popular true crime books include Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter (1974), the best-selling true crime book of all time, and Ann Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me (1980), about serial killer Ted Bundy.

More recent true crime books have turned away from the lurid sensationalism of previously published works, focusing instead on the lives of the victims and giving a voice to the lost. Examples include Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (2018), which tracks the author’s quest to unmask the Golden State Killer, Robert Kolker’s Lost Girls (2013),  which chronicles the victims of the still-unidentified Long Island Serial Killer, and Elon Green’s Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York (2021), which shines a light on a set of brutal crimes targeting gay men in 1980s and ‘90s New York City at the height of the AIDS epidemic.

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What is Non-Fiction? Exploring the Facts and Real-Life Stories

• July 4, 2023

Table of Contents:

What is non-fiction, sub-genres of non-fiction, creative non-fiction, examples of popular non-fiction books.

• "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle
• "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
• "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey
• "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
• "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" by Michelle Alexander
• "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
• "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl
• "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
• "The 4-Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferriss

Importance of Non-Fiction

Key characteristics and profound details.

As readers, we are often drawn to books and articles that transport us to another world, be it a work of fiction or fantasy. However, there is a genre of literature that presents the facts and real-life experiences of people, places, and events – Non-Fiction. In this article, we will explore what non-fiction is and the various sub-genres that fall under it.

It is literature presenting factual information about real-life people, events, places, or ideas, It is different from fiction, which gives imaginary stories and characters. This can be found in various forms, such as books, articles, essays, memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies.

Non-fiction can be divided into sub-genres based on the content type. Here are a few of the most well-known factual subgenres to consider in more detail:

Biographies are non-fiction books that chronicle the life and experiences of a person. A biography is usually written by someone else and is based on extensive research and interviews. Biographies often focus on famous people, such as politicians, celebrities, and historical figures. For more on this, read What is Biography?

An autobiography is a book that tells the story of a person’s life written by that person. Discover more in Autobiography vs. Biography . This kind of book is different from a biography because it is more personal, and the author tells the story from their point of view. Autobiographies can be about many things, like what happened when the author was a kid or what they did for work.

Memoirs are similar to autobiographies in that they are both personal narratives. However, memoirs focus more on a specific event or period in the author’s life than a comprehensive overview. Memoirs are often used to reflect on a particular experience or to share a lesson learned. Learn more about this genre at Memoir vs. Autobiography.

Essays are non-fiction works that explore a particular topic or idea. Essays can be formal or informal, often presenting an argument or point of view. For insights into crafting compelling essays, see How to Write Non-Fiction Book .  It can be found in various places, from academic journals to magazines and newspapers.

Journalism is a form of non-fiction writing that focuses on reporting and investigating news and events. Journalists use a variety of sources and methods to gather information, and they are trained to write clearly and engagingly. Journalism can be found in newspapers, magazines, and online media outlets. For a deeper understanding.

Speeches are talks that are meant to be spoken instead of written down. They are given by people like politicians, activists, and other important people, and they aim to share a message or motivate the audience. You can hear speeches in many places, like political events or school graduations.

Creative is a genre of non-fiction writing that uses literary methods to tell a true story. It can take many forms, including memoirs, essays, and journalism. Creative factual fiction aims to tell a compelling and engaging story while remaining true to the facts.

History studies previous vents and their significance in shaping our world today. It involves researching and analyzing past events, individuals, and societies to understand how they have influenced human history. In the world of nonfiction, Memoir Writing Services are often utilized by experts or public figures who may not have the time or writing skills to write their books.

We will explore some popular non-fiction books that have significantly impacted readers.

“The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle

“The Power of Now” is a spiritual guidebook about how important it is to live in the moment. The book tells people to live in the moment and not think about the past or worry about the future. It has been praised for its superficial but deep message, which has helped people become more aware and relaxed in their daily lives.

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot

The book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is about a woman whose cancer cells were used in a medical study without her authorization or knowledge. Skloot looks at the moral questions raised by medical studies and how they can affect people and their families. People have said that the book does a brilliant job of putting a human face on medical ethics and telling powerful stories.

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey

“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is a self-help book with valuable tips on success and living a whole life. Covey talks about seven habits that he thinks are important for personal and professional growth, such as being aggressive, starting with the end in mind, and trying to understand before being understood. The book has become a landmark in the self-help field and has helped millions of people improve their lives. This book has been used for branding self-help, a concept further explored in Brands for Authors.

“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari

“Sapiens” is a work of literature that gives a broad look at the past of humans, from when Homo sapiens first appeared to the present day. Harari looks at the agricultural revolution, the rise of nations, and the scientific revolution that has significantly impacted human history. People have said good things about the book’s story, which is exciting and makes you think, and its ability to explain complicated ideas in simple terms.

“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander

“The New Jim Crow” is a book that explores the racial disparities in the criminal justice system in the United States. Alexander claims that the War on Drugs has led to a way of locking up many people, especially black Americans, which keeps racial injustice going. The book has influenced conversations about racial justice and criminal justice reform.

“Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer

“Into Thin Air” is a memoir that recounts Krakauer’s experience climbing Mount Everest in 1996, during which a disastrous storm claimed the lives of several climbers. The book explores the risks and rewards of extreme sports and the moral dilemmas that can arise in life-and-death situations. The book has been praised for its gripping storytelling and vivid portrayal of the harsh realities of high-altitude mountaineering.

“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl

“Man’s Search for Meaning” is a memoir and a philosophical treatise that recounts Frankl’s experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The book explores the human capacity for resilience and the search for meaning in the face of extreme adversity. The book has influenced existential psychology and inspired readers to find purpose and meaning.

“The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

“The Elements of Style” is a classic guide to writing that offers practical advice on how to write clearly and effectively. The book covers grammar, punctuation, and style and has become a staple reference for writers of all levels. The book has been liked for its concise and straightforward advice and its ability to improve readers’ writing skills.

“The 4-Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss

“The 4-Hour Work Week” is a self-help book that challenges the traditional idea of work-life balance. Ferriss argues that it is possible to achieve a fulfilling and successful career while still having time to pursue personal interests and hobbies.

It plays a vital role in our lives, providing information and knowledge about the world. It helps us understand our history, science, and society and provides new insights and perspectives. This encourages critical thinking and analysis, allowing us to form our opinions and beliefs. It can be used for branding and publicity factors also, as seen in the services offered by Content Development Services .

Non-fiction is a diverse and essential genre of literature that provides factual information about real-life people, events, places, or ideas. It can be found in various forms and covers a wide range of subjects, from history and science to memoirs and self-help. By reading non-fiction, we can broaden our knowledge and better understand the world around us.

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What Is Nonfiction: Definition and Examples

Sarah Oakley

Table of Contents

What is nonfiction, is nonfiction a genre, what is a nonfiction book example, how prowritingaid can help you write nonfiction.

Nonfiction writing has become one of the most popular genres of books published today. Most nonfiction books are about modern day problems, science, or details of actual events and lives.

If you’re looking for informative writing made up of factual details rather than fiction, nonfiction is a great option. It serves to develop your knowledge about different topics, and it helps you learn about real events.

In this article, we’ll explain what nonfiction is, what to expect from the nonfiction genre, and some examples of nonfiction books.

If you’re considering writing a book, and you can’t decide between fiction or nonfiction , it helps to know exactly what nonfiction is first.

Similarly, if you want to indulge in some self-development, and you decide to read some books, you’ll need to know what to look for in a nonfiction book to ensure you’re reading factual content.

Nonfiction Definition

To define the word nonfiction, we can break it down into two parts. “Non” is a prefix that means the absence of something. “Fiction” means writing that features ideas and elements purely from the author’s imagination.

Therefore, when you put those two definitions together, it suggests nonfiction is the absence of writing that comes from someone’s imagination. To put it in a better way, nonfiction is about facts and evidence rather than imaginary events and characters who don’t exist. 

Nonfiction Meaning

As nonfiction writing sounds like the opposite of fiction writing, you might think nonfiction is all true and objective, but that’s not the case. While nonfiction writing contains factual elements, such as real people, concepts, and events, it’s not always objectively true accounts.

A lot of nonfiction writing is opinionated or biased discussions about the subject of the writing.

For example, you might be a football expert, and you want to write a book about the top goal scorers of 2022. Your piece could be objective and discuss exactly who scored the most goals in 2022, or you could add some opinions and discuss who scored the best goals or who performed the best on the pitch.

Opinions make nonfiction books more unique to the author, as it sounds more authentic and human because we all have our own thoughts and feelings about things.

Adding opinions can also make nonfiction books more interesting for readers, as you can be more controversial or use exaggeration to increase reader engagement. Many readers like to pick up books that challenge their thoughts about certain topics.

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Nonfiction is a genre, but it’s more of an umbrella term for several reference and factual genres. When you’re in the nonfiction section of a bookstore or library, you’ll find the books in categories based on the overall theme or topic of the book.

There are several categories of nonfiction:

Biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs

Travel writing and travel guides

Academic journals

Philosophical and modern social science

Journalism and news media

Self-help books

How-to guides

Humorous books

Reference books

Historical, academic, reference, philosophical, and social science books often focus on factual representations of information about specific subjects, events, and key ideas. The tone of these books is often more formal, though there are some informal examples available.

Biography , memoir, travel writing, humor, and self-help books are creative nonfiction. This means they’re based on true events and stories, but the writer uses a lot more creative freedom to tell stories and pass on information about what they have learned from life.

Readers often criticize journalism and news media for not being objectively truthful when telling people about events. However, almost all journalism is biased or opinionated in one way or another. Therefore, it’s good to read from multiple different sources for your news updates.

If you want to read nonfiction to get an idea of what it’s like, we’ve got several examples of great nonfiction books for you to check out.

Historical : The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

Biography : This Much is True by Miriam Margolyes

Travel Writing : Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon

Philosophical : The Alignment Problem: How Can Machines Learn Human Values? By Brian Christian

Self-Help : Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? By Dr. Julie Smith

Humor : What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

If you want to write nonfiction, you can use ProWritingAid to ensure you avoid publishing a manuscript full of grammatical errors. Whether you’re looking for a second pair of eyes catching quick fixes as you write, or a full analysis of your manuscript once it’s written, ProWritingAid has you covered.

You can use the Realtime checker to see suggested improvements to your writing as you’re working. If you use the in-tool learning features as well, you’ll see fewer suggestions as you write because it’ll essentially train you to become a better writer.

If you’re more of a full-blown analysis editor, try using the Readability report to see suggestions highlighting where you can improve your writing to ensure more readers can understand what you’re saying. Readability is important if you want to reach more readers who have different levels of reading comprehension.

Another great report you can use for nonfiction writing is the Transitions report. Transitions are the words that show cause and effect within your writing. If you want your reader to follow your points and arguments, you need to include plenty of transitions to improve the flow of your writing.

Now that you know what nonfiction means and how ProWritingAid can help you produce a great nonfiction book, try nonfiction writing , and see how fun it is to share your knowledge and opinions with the world. Just don’t forget to check your work is factual and relevant.

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Is Autobiography Fiction Or Nonfiction? (Detailed Comparison)

Last Updated on July 20, 2022 by Dr Sharon Baisil MD

Publishers often consider novels when contemplating the publishing of a book. Yet, nonfiction books account for a significant portion of bestselling novels, such as mystery, romance, fantasy, historical, or science fiction.

Nonfiction, like fiction, includes a wide range of books and genres. True stories are what connect all nonfiction works. Fiction is entire of an author’s imagination (with some input from reality). As a result, nonfiction cannot be fabricated.

In this blog, we’ll look at if autobiography is fiction or nonfiction. Is there anything called fictional autobiography? So, let’s clear all your doubts ahead without any further delay!

Fiction vs. Nonfiction: Defining the Differences in Detail

“Fiction” is a term that refers to works written from the imagination. Fiction genres include mysteries, science fiction, romance, fantasy, chick-lit, and crime thrillers. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, 1984 by George Orwell, and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen are all examples of classic literature.

“Literature-based in fact” is referred to as “nonfiction.” It encompasses most types of literature. For example, biography, business, cooking, health and fitness, pets, crafts, home décorating, languages, travel, home improvement, religion, and art are a few categories covered in the Nonfiction Department.

Different Types of Non-Fiction Books

Everyone is drawn to nonfiction books. There is a topic that suits your interests, regardless of what it is. Nonfiction, like fiction, has a wide range of genres to pick from.

Examples of popular nonfiction genres:

Autobiography

• Cultural Criticism/Responses
• History/Law/Political
• True Crime/Investigative
• Self-help/Motivational
• Coloring Books

What is Creative Nonfiction?

It cannot be easy to write a nonfiction tale of any kind. You are in charge of telling an accurate tale and presenting the facts as accurately as possible while also making the reading experience enjoyable for the reader.

The genres of memoir , autobiography, and biography are the three primary styles for conveying a creative nonfiction narrative. Knowing the distinctions between them is vital to ensure you’re writing within the proper scope. Each has its unique traits.

A memoir is a compilation of individual recollections about specific periods or occurrences in the author’s life. Memoirs are written in the first-person point of view , and they’re told from the author’s perspective.

The scope of a memoir distinguishes it from autobiographies and biographies . Memoirs are structured around one aspect of a person’s life, such as addiction, parenting, adolescence, disease, or religion. The other genres focus on the whole lifespan of that person.

An autobiography is a story told in the first-person point of view, with the author serving as the main character. It is similar to a memoir in that it is a retelling of one’s life.

Autobiographies are usually written in the first-person point of view like: “I was a Southern California high school student when I decided to run for Student Body President. My life changed forever.”

The autobiography is about own life and is made by own soul, so it has little interest compared with other genres, but that is not always true because some are very interesting than others. Many autobiographies have been sold well and become best-sellers, such as JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series.

Autobiographies, unlike memoirs, are more concerned with facts than feelings. As a result, a collaborator frequently joins the project to assist the author in creating the most realistic, unbiased tale possible. The short stories in autobiography fiction mix real life with fantasy and fiction.

A biography is written by another individual other than the person about the events and conditions of that person’s life. People often write biographies of historical or public figures, and with or without the subject’s permission, they may be written.

Unlike both memoirs and autobiographies, biographies are usually written in the third person point of view and have a more professional and objective tone than both.

What is called a fictional autobiography?

The term “fictional autobiography” has a variety of connotations that overlap with “autobiographical novel” or “autofiction,” which are used interchangeably. A fictional autobiography is a story that portrays an autobiographical discourse without any suggestion of identity between the protagonist/narrator and the author of the work in a restricted sense.

Autofiction approaches, or the merging of autobiographical and fictitious aspects, are used in an autobiographical book. However, the stipulation of being fiction distinguishes a literary technique from an autobiography or memoir.

Whereas, in the fictional autobiography, the autobiographical character of the text refers to its representational frame of it.

Final Words

In this blog, we discussed the difference between autobiography fiction and nonfiction and the various types of creative fiction. We also looked at some FAQs that can help better understand the difference between these two genres. Do you have any questions that you would like to ask about this topic? Please feel free to leave a comment below, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

What are the benefits of writing an autobiography, fiction, or nonfiction?

Answer: Writing an autobiography, fiction or nonfiction, may be the perfect career if you have a story to tell. Both genres offer a unique opportunity to share your story with the world, and both can be extremely rewarding. As a memoirist, you will have the chance to explore your past and share your experiences with the reader. This can be a cathartic experience, and it can inspire others who may be struggling in their own lives. As a fiction writer, you will be able to create a story based on your own life experiences. This can be a thrilling experience, and it can be enriching to see your story come to life on the page. Both genres offer opportunities for book signings, media appearances, and more. However, autobiography fiction or nonfiction is particularly rich in opportunities for advertising and marketing.

How do you choose a good topic for your autobiography, fiction, or nonfiction book?

Answer: When writing a book, it is essential to choose a topic you are passionate about. This will give your book a personal touch to make it more exciting and engaging for your readers. Once you have identified a topic, the next step is to develop a compelling and interesting story that will capture your readers’ attention. This story should be based on your chosen topic, and it should be easy to follow. Once you have your story lined up, it is important to research to ensure that your book’s information is accurate.

Is it okay to use copyrighted material in your autobiography fiction or nonfiction book, such as quotes from people who have written books on similar topics as yours, new articles that relate to topics, etc.?

Answer: You can use copyrighted material in your autobiography, fiction, or nonfiction book, as long as you do not use the entire quote or article. Instead, you are permitted to use a small excerpt, and you must attribute the quote or article to the source. You can also include a link to the webpage or article if you would like the reader to be able to find the source material.

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The Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 (So Far)

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We’re a quarter of the way through the year, if you can believe it, which makes it a good time to look back at the state of books so far in 2024. Goodreads has just released a list of 51 Nonfiction Hits of 2024 (So Far), separated into Essays, Memoirs, History & Biography, Science, and General Nonfiction. These are the books that have been added by Goodreads users to their Read and Want to Read shelves the most, as well as gathering a lot of positive reviews.

Here are a few of the best and buzziest nonfiction books of 2024 so far:

There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

You Get What You Pay For: Essays by Morgan Parker

Like Love: Essays and Conversations by Maggie Nelson

Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe

I Finally Bought Some Jordans: Essays by Michael Arceneaux

Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

The House of Hidden Meanings by RuPaul

This American Ex-Wife by Lyz Lenz

Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne

Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine by Uché Blackstock

History & Biography

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson

Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong by Katie Gee Salisbury

A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks by David Gibbins

Science, Technology & Health 

Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie

Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka

Burn Book: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher

General Nonfiction

The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell

Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed

To see all 51 of the Nonfiction Hits of 2024 (So Far), check out the full list on Goodreads .

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What is Non-Fiction?

• Teaching Strategies, Tactics, and Methods

So, what is non-fiction? The definition of non-fiction is any writing created to relay truth or information of actual events to the audience – it’s the opposite of fiction. It’s often misidentified as the statement of facts, but non-fiction can still form a narrative.

Non-fiction can come in various forms, including writings on history, biographical and autobiographical writing, opinions, journalism, essays, and academic criticism.

When reading non-fiction, there’s a certain level of trust by the audience that what you’re reading is accurate. Of course, facts can be misrepresented or interpreted with a bias, but the information that non-fiction conveys should be true on a fundamental level.

For example, an opinion piece in a political magazine may only include factual details. Still, it might omit specific details or over-emphasize the importance of others to make its narrative. While writing like this isn’t technically all truth and facts, it’s still non-fictional.

What’s the difference between fiction and non-fiction?

Non-fiction contains information that has been discovered and researched, while fiction is created using the writer’s imagination.

While some fiction may be based on or inspired by actual events, fiction writers typically make the events more exciting or the timeline of events easier to understand.

True non-fiction doesn’t adjust or amend any of the facts – it simply presents them as they are and leaves the reader to interpret them as they like.

What are the different types of non-fiction texts?

The significant types of non-fiction writing are:

Historical non-fiction is reporting facts and accounts of events a significant amount of time after they’ve happened. While historical non-fiction can have a personal bias, for the most part, they’re assumed to be reporting merely what happened as it happened.

Biographies and Auto-biographies

A biography is a long-form report based on the complete story of a single subject. Autobiographies are traditionally first-person accounts told by the author about the author. Biographies are third-person accounts of an individual or entity other than the author.

Travel texts can be either heavily factual guides to a particular place or point of interest. They can also be travelogues where the author discusses a place or places they’ve visited.

Journalism reports events often as they’re happening or in the immediate aftermath. While most often found in newspapers and magazines, it can also be found on TV and Radio news broadcasts and even in book form.

An area of non-fiction that is self-aware of its representation of facts through the author’s lens, opinion writing can be comedic in its commentary on a factual event or even satirical by exaggerating events for comedic effect. It’s based on the author’s interpretation of current events, not invented ones.

Guides and Instructions

Guides and instructions can be precise step-by-step guides on how to do something through to looser collections of tips on how one person either undertook or improved an activity.

Essays and Academic Criticism

Essays are focused on providing the most comprehensive knowledge of a particular area possible. They can range from literal texts on a site to philosophical texts, expanding on theoretical musings on human nature through to criticism that provides an interpretation of another non-fictional or fictional text. Essays can often take the form of discursive writing.

Is non-fiction a genre?

Non-fiction is a genre alongside fiction. Both non-fiction and fiction are then divided into sub-genres.

Sub-genres of non-fiction could be:

• philosophy;

So while non-fiction can be called a genre, it’s a broad generalization.

5 Examples of Non-Fiction Texts

Non-fiction texts are based on facts. As a result, we encounter them much more frequently than we may realize – they’re just any text that isn’t fictional or made up. You can find pieces of non-fiction wherever you look. For example, the ingredients list on a bar of chocolate, a news article online, or even on a birthday card are all types of non-fiction. Read below to find five examples of non-fiction texts that you’re likely to encounter in your everyday life:

• Newspapers and magazines: newspapers and magazines are printed publications that consist of news stories, articles, advertisements, interviews, and correspondence, among many other things.
• Advertisements: advertisements, also commonly known as ‘adverts,’ are public notices or announcements promoting things like a product, an event, a service, or a job vacancy.
• Autobiographies and biographies: autobiographies and biographies are examples of literary non-fiction. Literary non-fiction texts use similar writing techniques as pieces of fiction to build and create an attractive, detailed report of writing about actual events that have happened. An autobiography is a book where someone writes about themselves, and a biography is a book where someone else writes about you and your life. You may encounter autobiographies and biographies about people like politicians, celebrities, and sportspeople.
• Diaries: a diary is a book in which people record events and experiences regularly.
• Letters: a letter is a form of written or typed communication that is put in an envelope and sent by messenger or postal service.

What is a non-fiction narrative text?

Narrative non-fiction (also known as literary non-fiction or creative non-fiction) is a true story written in the style of a fictional novel.

It goes beyond stories that are ‘based on’ or ‘inspired by’ events – narrative non-fiction texts aim to represent what happened through a story’s lens accurately. It uses facts to tell a story.

These types of texts use real people and real-life events, taking care to use the correct details and facts. Unlike other types of non-fiction, it uses elements of fiction to tell a compelling story at the same time. Not only does it aim to educate and share the facts with the reader, but it also aims to entertain them.

A lot of research and planning must be done before writing narrative non-fiction. It should be as accurate and true to real life as possible, avoiding exaggeration and half-truths.

Children’s non-fiction narrative texts are often used to teach children about specific subjects. For example, a story about going to the zoo would include lots of information about the animals and how the workers at the zoo take care of them animals.

So, now you know the answer to ‘what is a non-fiction narrative text?’ you can use them in your teaching. They’re a brilliant way to engage children and encourage them to learn about new topics simultaneously.

Is non-fiction real or fake?

Non-fiction means that it’s NOT fiction. This means the content is accurate and based on truth rather than made up or created from the imagination. Usually, non-fiction aims to represent the truth using facts and evidence.

However, some non-fiction texts can emphasize or omit some elements of truth to tell a particular narrative. While these non-fiction texts are still based on facts, they aren’t truthful. This is why it’s essential to be critical of everything you read.

Some non-fiction texts are based solely on the writer’s opinion. While these texts aren’t fiction, they don’t necessarily convey facts or information either. You also might disagree with that writer’s opinion. However, that doesn’t mean the writing is fake or made up. An author is a natural person writing their views, which means it’s non-fiction.

So, while non-fiction can tweak some things to fit a narrative, it’s safe to say that you wouldn’t find a dragon in a non-fiction text (unless it’s a creature like a bearded dragon, of course).

Is poetry non-fiction?

Whether poetry is fiction, non-fiction, or its unique category is heavily debated! However, bookshops and libraries often classify poetry as non-fiction because it’s not a fictional story like a novel.

But in fact, whether poetry is fiction or non-fiction entirely depends on the poem itself. Poems can be written about absolutely anything, so poets will use their imagination to create worlds and characters, just like story writers do.

Take the poem ‘The Jabberwocky’ by Lewis Carroll, for example. There isn’t a creature called the Jabberwocky that exists in real life. The poem is full of nonsense words that aren’t recognized by the English language. It even follows a narrative and includes characters and dialogue. Can this be called non-fiction?

The poem may be based on actual events or real emotions, which could make it a type of creative non-fiction.

These Rainforest Poems, for example, are written about rainforests and the animals and plants that live in them, drawing on facts about the rainforest itself.

So the answer to ‘is poetry non-fiction?’ is – it can be! It just depends on the content and purpose of the individual poem.

What are some non-fiction writing techniques?

In literary non-fiction, the author uses a range of non-fiction writing techniques to engage and entertain the reader, just like in fiction.

For example, articles, travel writing, autobiographies, and memoirs are often read for pleasure. Hence, the author uses similar techniques that you’d find in fiction, all to win over the reader.

Some of these non-fiction writing techniques are:

• emotional language;
• saying things simply;
• surprising twists;
• using narrative structure;
• using different points of view;
• focusing on details;
• being persuasive.

You might notice that all of these techniques are also used in fiction. That’s because, while non-fiction aims to educate, many texts also tell a story and follow a plot. So, for example, a recount of a historical event will have a beginning, middle, and end, just like a story. The only difference is that the possibilities are based on truth.

From this list, one of the most often used (and practical) non-fiction writing techniques is being persuasive.

Omitting, twisting, and emphasizing details without technically altering the truth is what many creative non-fiction texts do.

An author of an autobiography might omit details to make the reader more empathetic to their character. On the other hand, an advertisement may emphasize specific product parts to convince people they need or want it.

Using a range of these non-fiction writing techniques can make non-fiction just as creative as fiction.

What is the purpose of non-fiction text features?

Typical non-fiction text features have the purpose of helping the reader to navigate their way through the text.

Features like captions, a table of contents, headings, photographs, and a glossary help guide readers through the texts by pinpointing certain elements to help make the information more digestible and readable.

What is a caption in a non-fiction book?

A caption in a non-fiction book is usually found near a photo, illustration, diagram, or another visual to help explain what the graphic is showing. They’re most often used in newspaper articles, journals, and biographies/autobiographies.

For example, if it’s an image of two people, the caption would say their names and relevance to the non-fiction book. If it’s a chart or diagram, the caption would explain what the data shows and its meaning.

Captions are typically one or two sentences long. They should be concise and informative, telling the reader about the visual at a glance.

Here are some examples of captions in a non-fiction book or text:

Each of these captions is short and snappy – they tell the reader the visual in a quick and easy-to-understand way.

Many skim-read articles by looking at the captions of the images and other visuals, so they need to be just as well-written as the rest of the text. However, if the captions are compelling, you should be able to pull together the main parts of the story just by reading the captions.

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A Warhol Superstar, but Never a Star

Cynthia Carr’s compassionate biography chronicles the brief, poignant life of the transgender actress Candy Darling, whose “very existence was radical.”

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By Alexandra Jacobs

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CANDY DARLING: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar, by Cynthia Carr

Never mind soup-can paintings and portraits of the famous — what Andy Warhol keeps on giving is books . He’s like Mother Ginger in “The Nutcracker” : Smaller people keep running out from under his capacious skirts to bow or curtsy.

The latest is Candy Darling, the transgender actress who succumbed to cancer at 29 in 1974 , after being immortalized in a famous photograph by Peter Hujar and in the Lou Reed song “ Walk on the Wild Side .” She had lived fast — indeed frequently on speed — died young, and left a mutable corpse, with considerable dissent among family and friends about whether she should be buried and eulogized as a man or a woman.

The first full-length biography of her, by Cynthia Carr, a longtime staff writer for The Village Voice — quite the Mother Ginger itself, of late — is compassionate and meticulous, reconstructing its brittle, gleaming subject as one might a broken Meissen figurine.

Born the day after Thanksgiving in 1944, Candy Darling was christened James Lawrence Slattery in Queens, soon moving to the ticky-tacky conformist hamlets of North Merrick and then Massapequa Park, Long Island, which she’d later euphemize as her “country home” but which was then an apparent cesspool of toxic masculinity.

Her father, John, was a cashier for the New York Racing Association who gambled, drank and was violent: the ultimate Daddy Dearest for a child with effeminate tendencies. Her mother, Terry, a receptionist and bank teller, was more supportive and loving — but still, hamstrung by shame. Candy’s half brother, Warren, babysat for her as a child but did not accept her as a woman.

As a child, “Jimmy,” as Candy was known then, was shunned socially and bullied terribly, once ushered onto a box and into a noose by two teenagers in a neighbor’s backyard. Understandably, she avoided regular school as much as possible; her education was in magazines, cosmetology and, of course, movies — she was a Kim Novak superfan, later emulating her.

She worked briefly at a beauty parlor, whose sympathetic owner she took on adventures like horseback riding. “We can always imagine we’re out in the wide-open spaces,” she said dreamily. “And if you imagine it strong enough, you will be.”

Like Ada Calhoun, the daughter of the art critic Peter Schjeldahl who took over his unfinished biography of the poet Frank O’Hara with sparkling results , Carr gets a boost from someone else’s abandoned legwork. Darling’s close friend Jeremiah Newton interviewed many of her intimates before they died — he features prominently in a 2011 documentary, “ Beautiful Darling ” — and shared copious photos, letters and the diaries that Darling began keeping at 13 (some previously published ). One is titled “The Worst Years of My Life.”

Carr spares us the ponderous establishing shots that weigh down many books of this genre. Though “Worst Years” covers the early ’60s, for example, the only mention of John F. Kennedy in Carr’s book comes via a fan taking a picture of Marilyn Monroe the night she sang for his birthday. Candy Darling was apolitical, the author writes — she had a wistful incandescence more than a “fire in the belly” (as Carr titled a previous book about the artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz) — “yet her very existence was radical.”

She and the future Holly Woodlawn, another Warhol favorite, both toiled as file clerks and got out of the draft, Holly by showing up in hot pants and rouge; Candy by bursting into tears.

Stardom was Darling’s absolute raison d’être. You might argue that she was not only transgender but trans-era, longing to be a product and protectorate of the studio system. Alas, Warhol was no Louis B. Mayer, his films mostly art-house experiments — Carr is heroic at summarizing them — and when Darling finally gets to Los Angeles, for the premiere of his movie “ Women in Revolt ” (titled “Sex” at the time), the closest thing she gets to a break is broken promises from a drunk Ed McMahon needing roadside assistance. She does appear for about 15 seconds, uncredited, in the nightclub scene of “Klute, ” and for a while dated Roger Vadim.

Starring in Tennessee Williams’s late-career work “Small Craft Warnings” off Broadway was another high point — though even then neither the male nor the female actors wanted her in their dressing room, and she was consigned to a broom closet. She appeared in a Warhol-staged fashion show for Halston, but was only allowed to wear a maid’s costume.

Darling kept her chin up despite these humiliations, but again and again the rest of her body betrayed her. (Poverty and drugs didn’t help.) By 18, she’d lost almost a third of her teeth. She agonized about what she called “my flaw” — the pesky penis — but vacillated on what the publicist R. Couri Hay, one of those who eulogized her using the masculine pronoun, termed “the final cut.”

The massive quantities of unregulated female hormones she took, doctors and others thought, probably killed her — and yet dying young was in keeping with her fantasy of kinship to platinum-haired idols like Jean Harlow. Sardonic to the end, she joked that the presumed tumor hardening her belly was some kind of immaculate conception.

In a society ill equipped to accept her, Candy Darling’s short life was one of couch-surfing and cadging, which can make for some weird and grotty pages — oh, there’s a desiccated chicken under the bed. Many of those who remember her are unreliable narrators. But, as Carr notes: “All of them so delightful!” Bob Colacello, the O.G. Warhol chronicler, wrote that news of her fatal illness led to the only time he’d seen the artist cry.

There wasn’t really vocabulary to describe the territory Darling was exploring back then — maybe there’s too much vocabulary now, but that’s a different conversation — and her biographer extends a sure hand across the breach. To push her from the Warhol wings to center stage, at a moment when transgender rights are in roiling flux, just makes sense.

And you have to cheer when Tennessee Williams is asked by some rude person whether his star is a transsexual or a transvestite, and he roars back: “What a question to ask a lady!”

CANDY DARLING : Dreamer, Icon, Superstar | By Cynthia Carr | Farrar, Straus & Giroux | 432 pp. | $30

Alexandra Jacobs is a Times book critic and occasional features writer. She joined The Times in 2010. More about Alexandra Jacobs

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