Creative nonfiction contrasts with other non-fiction, such as academic or technical writing or journalism, which are also rooted in accurate fact though not written to entertain based on prose style.
[3] Literary critic Barbara Lounsberry in her book, The Art of Fact, suggests four constitutive characteristics of the genre: the first is "Documentable subject matter chosen from the real world as opposed to 'invented' from the writer's mind".
The second characteristic is "Exhaustive research",[4] which she claims allows writers "novel perspectives on their subjects" and "also permits them to establish the credibility of their narratives through verifiable references in their texts".
She stresses the importance of describing and revivifying the context of events in contrast to the typical journalistic style of objective reportage.
"[7] Essayist and critic Phillip Lopate describes 'reflection' as a necessary element of the genre, offering the advice that the best literary nonfiction "captures the mind at work".
[8] Creative nonfiction may be structured like traditional fiction narratives, as is true of Fenton Johnson's story of love and loss, Geography of the Heart,[9] and Virginia Holman's Rescuing Patty Hearst.
Other books, such as Daniel Levitin's This Is Your Brain on Music and The World in Six Songs, use elements of narrative momentum, rhythm, and poetry to convey a literary quality.
Melanie McGrath, whose book Silvertown, an account of her grandmother's life, is "written in a novelist's idiom",[11] writes in the follow-up, Hopping, that the known facts of her stories are "the canvas on to which I have embroidered.
Nuala Calvi, authors of The Sugar Girls, a novelistic story based on interviews with former sugar-factory workers, make a similar point: "Although we have tried to remain faithful to what our interviewees have told us, at a distance of over half a century many memories are understandably incomplete, and where necessary we have used our own research, and our imaginations, to fill in the gaps.