Idealogian

I plan on writing a book based on certain experiences in my life. I was looking for help on how to formulate my ideas. The book I bought is on "creative nonfiction". That does not describe all nonfiction, but it covers personal essays that would otherwise seem boring if only give the title of "nonfiction"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1884910505/qid=1072360428//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl14/002-9205961-0908002?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Otherwise better put as:

"creative nonfiction has emerged in the last few years as the province of factual prose that is also literary-infused with the stylistic devices, tropes, and rhetorical flourishes of the best fiction and the most lyrical narrative poetry. It is fact based writing that remains compelling, undiminished by the passage of time, that has at heart an interest in enduring human values: foremost a fidelity to accuracy, to truthfulness."

Faction = nonfiction

Doh!

Destiny -
Let me know when the book is out - I'm sure it'll be a great read!

Picking up on something you quoted, I was going to go with "fact-based literature," but I actually like Stewart's idea a lot (though maybe more of a "facttion" - emphasis on the "t"). Google turns up a few usages on the web, where it is used to describe something pretty close to what Destiny was talking about - nonfiction events related with fictional overtones - but that doesn't seem to be an official definition yet, so I don't see why we can't redefine it as we see fit!

The terms Creative or Literary non-fiction, i believe, are used semi-regularly. My old roommate is actually in a creative non-fiction MFA program in Iowa (as she described it). Also, non-fiction is a general term that can include more specific types of writing (journals, memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, personal essays, commentaries, etc, etc, etc). So non-fiction would just be the general term to use.

But yes, it still is defined in terms of what it is not, so I don't have an answer for that.