Ross Raymond Nunamaker

In my first post on the writing journey I addressed writing tight, and referenced the genres I encountered.

This post is about the genres.

As I wrote, “I had never heard of Creative Non-Fiction,  Fiction Adjacent, or Autofiction prior to 2026.”

My first challenge with genres came with the great American novel I was working on. I wanted it to be literary fiction not commercial. Then I was at a conference and heard of Upmarket. What was that?

There was also the specificity of Suspense, Thriller, Crime, Detective, etc.

They were all fiction, though. After two drafts of my novel I came to the conclusion that I had written part literary fiction, part crime/detective varying from commercial to upmarket. I needed to work things out. I took a break from it to learn more and hone my craft.

With short writing, fiction and non-fiction dance along a knife’s edge. Personally, I struggle with my pieces being defined as fiction or non-fiction.

I’ve come to realize it is much like telling a lie. When is it okay, and when is it not?

Creative non-fiction and autofiction or fiction adjacent, is what I find mostly to be writing in now. 

For me, as I understand each, the lie differentiates autofiction from creative non-fiction.

In one story, I consider it autofiction, because the key statement told to us by the doctor was ‘if this was identified earlier, abortion could be considered,’ whereas in the story we were forced to choose to abort or not.

To me that change was enough in impact and magnitude to say it was fiction, despite all other elements being the same.

In another, I called it creative non-fiction. It was, however, a blending of two hikes within a few weeks. The tire and exact part of the trail were not on the birthday hike, the considerations of being lonely, the relationship, etc were considered on both.

The changes were not substantial. The biggest difference is that while I originally deleted my dating profile and did in real life on my birthday, I revised the story to leaving it, but not using it.

I’m not sure how this lands, I feel like the stakes or magnitude warrant it in one and are open to interpretation in the other. The hike happened, the conjoining of the two hikes doesn’t change the story. The revision, might, but I don’t feel it is significant enough to switch it to fiction.

In another case, despite telling readers it was fiction, I was asked if it was a true story. In that instance the only real elements were the weather and setting. I took that as a compliment.

Only one story I wrote so far was completely fictional and it was told from a female genz perspective. I had only been to Austin, Texas one time and not to the part of town I wrote about. This story was created from the novel I’ve been working on.

I’m not sure how much I contributed to understanding some short forms of writing I’ve been exposed to, I didn’t even mention poetry, which I took up at a workshop, or prose poetry.

Prose poetry is structured as prose, but descriptive and open like a poem in word choice, if that makes sense.

I’m quite sure as I continue to write and gain confidence in my writing, I’ll find more and more I’m unaware of at the current stage of my development as a writer and I’ll certainly pass my confusion along to others who may be interested in being confounded.