True, False, Other: Breaking the Rules in Nonfiction and Realistic Fiction [Bonnie J. Rough]

Intermediate | Are you a storyteller working in prose with a personal or reality-based project that feels constrained by the requirements of factual vs. fictional storytelling? Do you dream of crossing over, combining, blending, seeing what happens if you allow a well-in-hand muse to go wild, even to the point of absurdity? In this class, using published examples of literary experiments and guided excursions in our own creative work, we will review the behaviors typically expected of creative nonfiction, realistic fiction, and researched narratives. After acknowledging the usefulness of those conventions, we’ll blow it all up, exploring both fruitful and disastrous ways to leap out of bounds and break the rules as we turn life into literature and fact into art.