Writing Elements to Appreciate via The Best Creative Nonfiction: Volume 2

Here’s something I appreciated from each story in
The Best Creative Nonfiction: Volume 2.

Anyone should be able to use incorporate these ideas into their personal works whether they’ve read the stories or not.

1. Spire—mixes two creative elements (her asking for help and the puzzles) 
2. Final: Comprehensive, Roughly—uses charts! 
3. Here I Am in Bergdoff Goodman—uses childhood events to dream of a better future 
4. Instead of the Rat Pack—has an unhappy ending, similar yet different characters, and many visual items 
5. The Art of Writing a Story About Walking Across Andorra—focuses on a place, quotes others, incorporates text about the writing process itself 
6. Pursuing the Great Bad Novelist—uses a little-known historic figure and begins where it ends 
7. Moby-Duck—uses multiple perspectives to take an ordinary real event and makes it wonderful through imagination and research 
8. The Egg and I—chooses and explores a controversial subject, and pits two characters against each other 
9. Figurines—has characters with different levels of awareness about an issue 
10. The Writers in the Silos—imagines something impossible, makes it seem real, and reveals the different perspectives of new generations 
11. My First Fairy Tale—explores early childhood memory and shows that children know more than adults often guess 
12. A Sudden Pull Behind the Heart—tries to find meaning in an experience 
13. The Suicide Murder? Of Joseph Kupchik—uses solid researching and reporting skills (It also uses a strikethrough in the title! How cool is that?!) 
14. My Glove—deconstructs an object (and sport) that the author knows well 
15. Teaching the “F” Word—spins something vulgar (if not controversial) so that it seems helpful
16. Hi, I’m Panicky—makes something ordinary terrifying, uses humor, and is pleasantly short 
17. Wednesday, August 23, 2006—has an unusual formation of text and explores simple phrases 
18. Cracking Open—a gritty, shocking tragedy that must have taken serious guts to write; any reader should be able to feel the emotion of this story 
19. Range of Desire—attempts to break a stereotype 
20. The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex—shows pieces of a person’s life from beginning to end, and reveals the positive and negative sides of ambition; makes me want to get to work immediately because time is wasting! 
21. …By Any Other Name—uses a specific event to express a major issue
22. Ceremony—causes us to rethink something we all do 
23. Anti-Aliasing—merges two writing formats (instructional and memoir?)
24. Everything That’s Wrong With Facebook—cheapens one thing and shows that there’s more than what’s seen on the surface of another

    

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25.  It Was Nothing—includes many short scenes and fragments 
26. Shrinks Get It Wrong Sometimes— prepares readers for the future stages of life and deals with a personal mistake 
27. George—shows a person change over time 
28. Errands in the Forest—indicates mysteries in the world and, surprisingly, does not try to solve or spoil these things!

What other elements do you appreciate in these stories? What elements do your own stories implement that are similar or different?