Republic of the Philippines

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Regional Office 8 Division of Northern Samar
Catarman Northern Samar

CREATIVE NON-FICTION MODULE

Week 1
PREFACE

Literature has always been part and parcel of the Philippine curriculum. That should be the case,
of course, because literature is the proverbial soul of a nation. To speak of Philippine literature, for
example, is to plumb the depths of the Filipino soul, and to read the literatures of other nations is to know
about their cultures even from a distance. It should be noted, however, that many literary textbooks have
failed or refused to deal with the complexity of a continual evolving field. These books have only settled
for the classical and the canonical, thus ignoring the emerging genres.

The introduction of Creative Non-Fiction (CNF) in Senior High School, therefore breaks new
ground. Despite its seemingly novelty, however, CNF should not be a cause of apprehension to educators
and students. First it is more of a reinvention (rather than an invention) of the older genres such as the
narrative and the essay. Secondly, it is characterized by a wide and flexible range of subtypes. Thirdly,
the ongoing technological revolution (especially in the field of information and communication) has played
a role in the growth and development of CNF, Weblogs, for instance, which also fall under CNF, have
been made possible by the internet. As a recent addition to the field of literature, CNF must be made
familiar to students and teachers alike, for whom this module was so designed.

For this semester, as education endeavors to bring quality learning to all students amid the global
crisis we are facing today, this module is designed purposively for the convenience of distance learning
modality while the whole province is under community quarantine. The content and activities in this
module are contextualized and localized according to the current events and experiences of the learners.
CNF will be also effective in addressing psychological associated problems that we are experiencing
caused by the pandemic.

SUBJECT DESCRIPTION: Focusing on formal elements and writing techniques, including autobiography
and blogging, among others, the subject introduces the students to the reading and writing of Creative
Nonfiction as a literary form. The subject develops in students skills in reading, and thinking critically and
creatively, that will help them to be imaginative readers and writers.

CONTENT STANDARD: The learner understands the literary conventions that govern the different
genres. (e.g., narrative convention of fiction, etc.)

PERFORMANCE STANDARD: The learner clearly and coherently uses a chosen element conventionally
identified with a genre for a written output.

LEARNING COMPETENCIES:
1. Identify dominant literary conventions of a particular genre. (HUMSS_CNF11/12-In-1)

UNDERSTANDING CONVENTIONS OF TRADITIONAL GENRES

National artist for Literature Cirilo F. Bautista calls literature the “ also the title of his collection of
short essays. It is no wonder that when we deal with literary pieces, we deal with the great human
emotions like love, anger, fear, sadness. It is often been said that literature is about the “significant human
experience.” As humans, we experience the world with different emotions.
 Unit 1 is about Creative Nonfiction being compared to three other major literary genres namely
Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Creative Nonfiction or the essay is sometimes called as the “fourth genre”. In
recent years, personal narratives (a kind of Creative Nonfiction) became a fad worldwide. Even
bestselling and serious literary writers like Umberto Eco and Haruki Murakami published books of
Creative Nonfiction.
This Unit will describe the elements of Fiction, Poetry and Drama and will identify what elements
are useful in writing and reading Creative Nonfiction.

Theodore A. Rees Cheeney (as quoted by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo in her book Creative Non-
fiction: A Manual of Filipinom Writers) compared creative Nonfiction with news reporting, a kind of
reporting with a twist. “Creative Nonfiction requires the skill of the story teller and the research ability of
the reporter… This type of writing, begins with the facts, but does much more. It elaborates on the facts,
interprets them, and more significantly, presents them in an interesting and engaging way. It is a more
imaginative approach to reporting”, he said. That “skill of the story teller” is what an essayist, or a writer of
Creative Nonfiction, is common with fictionists, poets, and playwrights.

Writing and reading literature, particularly Creative Non-fiction, will take more than mastery of the
elements of fiction, poetry, drama, and the essay. It is often been said that in order to write well one
should read well. In order to write and read well, one should fall in love with language. And in telling in
love with language, one would fall in love with literature.

Great Hiligaynon writer Magdalena G. Jalandoni in her autobiography has this description fro
writing. “I will be forced to write when I feel that my nose is being assaulted by the scent of flowers, when
my sight is filled with the promise of the sun, and when my soul is lifted by winged dreams to the blue
heavens.”

Let us get all this high in writing our essays!

WRITING DRILL
Now, before you proceed to the discussion in this module, let us have a writing drill which will
serve as your transition from your academic idle days of vacation to the beginning of the new
school year. Happy writing!

A. Free Write and Highlight

Look for a place where you think can write without any distraction. Sit down and write your stream
of conscious thoughts for 5-10 minutes. Follow these two simple rules: never lift your pen from the paper,
and when you can’t think of anything new to write, simply write” I can’t think of anything” again and again
until your next thought arrives. Once you’ve finished your free write, go back through what you wrote and
highlight the thoughts or ideas that are most interesting to you.

POETRY AND CREATIVE NONFICTION

Poetry, even when apparently most fantastic,

is always a revolt against artifice, a revolt, in a sense,
against actuality.

- James Joyce
The learner is expected to:
1. describe some of the elements of poetry and their importance to Creative Nonfiction
2. analyze sample texts for comprehension
3. express insights on the different definitions of poetry
4. express thoughts and feelings about the pandemic
 LET’S GET STARTED

Take a
good
look at
this
picture. What are your thoughts on the picture? What feelings does it invite?

COMPARING NOTES

According to Laurence Perrine in his classic book Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry
(1977) “poetry might be defined as a kind of language that says more and says it more intensely
than does ordinary language.” In other words poetry uses a “heightened language.” For poetry to achieve
this, the poet uses “imagery” by employing figurative language. Imagery is one of the most important
elements of poetry.
Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo in her book Creative Nonfiction: A Manual for Filipino Writers (2003)
defines creative nonfiction as “nonfiction prose which utilizes the techniques and strategies of fiction.”
One strategy of fiction (and therefore nonfiction) that it shares with poetry is the inclusion of “concrete and
evocative details” which can also be achieved by employing imagery and other literary devices.
According to Hidalgo, “Descriptive details are of particular importance for travel writing, the point
of which is, to begin with, to literally transport the reader to the place to which the traveler has been.

READING

In the midst of sudden and drastic changes brought by the corona virus pandemic, some people
ae finding creative outlets in literary works. For Filipina writer, Viva Andrada O’Flynn, poetry can
be a platform to deal with the weight of the crisis, and at the same time underscore the importance of
individual efforts to stay at home in the collective fights against the disease. Her poem entitled “Who
knew” was recently selected out of over 3,000 entries as one of the winners in the Covid Times Poetry
Competition. It paints lockdown scenarios while highlighting the value of staying indoors to reduce the risk
of COVID-19 transmission.
 Below is the poem “Who Knew”. Pick out the concrete and evocative details while reading. What
do you think do the images symbolize?

Who knew
we could be heroes
staying at home all day
binging on tv shows and movies
Netflix, amazon prime, youtube, regular programming,
Live streaming cooking shows, exercise videos, art workshops, musicals, jam sessions,
poetry readings, networking meetings, concerts, pub quizzes
we’re dressed in pjs, sofa is our throne
dreaming, planning, resting, healing ourselves and nature
experimenting on our play and creativity palette
mixed with words, art, recipes, fun and games
blowing bubbles, gardening growing our greens, DIY’s
what can we learn today
a new language, hobby, craft, skill, level up
what we can support
even a 99 year old war veteran can walk to raise millions in donations
why can’t we
just giving fundraising to help those in need
text or bank transfer to give to charities and those vulnerable
we work from home, mingle with our family and friends on line
we fight the virus from spreading, together one world at home
while front liners work around the clock to keep life moving
staying at home all day
we could be heroes
who knew
note: now, read from the bottom.

Questions to ponder:
1. Who is the persona in the poem? Describe.
2. what does the poem tell us about the current situation the whole world is facing?

The following passage is about the narrator’s feelings and thoughts towards the pandemic as the
world continues to grapple the viral disease that has infected millions of people globally.

Arras, Rehas, Oxygen Mask

Musings of a pandemic bride to be

Katrina Gomez
July 25, 2020

I was supposed to change, or at least hyphenate, my last name next week to match that of my
best friend and long-time partner. Most of the plans were set: it was to be on a Friday morning (a
holiday so no one would have to miss work), followed by a reception in one of Malate’s oldest extant
restaurants. We had invited 150 guests. We would not be having an entourage of bridesmaids and
groomsmen, but we were sure our friends from different parts of our lives would turn out to
celebrate alongside our big and diverse families. We had briefed our photographer about the little
details to consider given our guests’ various personal and political leanings that could lead to
awkward scenes captured for posterity. We would be celebrating the day in scarlet and silver: scarlet
for boldness and my favorite color, and silver to evoke that vintage feel we both adore.
 Of course, none of these plans (or the contracts surrounding them) ever considered the
possibility of a pandemic. For a very short span of time I remained hopeful that quarantines would
quickly ease up and that maybe we would be able to push through with our original date, albeit with
some modifications for the sake of social distancing. As the numbers began to climb and the
quarantines grew longer, I had to be reconciled to the fact that we would not only have to severely
downscale our plans, but we would have to move our wedding date too.

How does one grieve a path postponed or not taken? Till now I am not sure how to exactly
describe it. It was more than cursing the fact that our wedding bands would now have the wrong
date engraved on them, or worrying that my very girly dress would not fit with all the quarantine
stress eating, or stressing out about guest lists changing, volatile supplier schedules and potentially
losing deposits. It was about letting go of that certainty of starting a new chapter on that specific
date, with a particular person. It was about coming to terms that I would not be able to leave my
family’s house right away and move to the home that my partner and I have been building. It was
about having to hold on to the label of “bride” when I was ready to become a wife.
Just when I was starting to come to terms with the whole sadness of it all, the question of
the Anti-Terror Bill came to the fore. If I had to pinpoint a day when I began to become truly afraid of
that bill and its ramifications, it had to be the day that I found a multiplicity of fake accounts to my
name. Friends and I spent the better part of two days reporting as many fake accounts as we could
find, even those of acquaintances and strangers asking for our assistance. As more and more
discussions on the anti-terror bill came to the fore and the bill was eventually passed into law, I was
asked if I would start concealing my social media presence, or if I would go incognito. I remember
laughing and saying, “What do you mean? I’d have to conceal my whole life!” My political leanings
and the circles I run in have been inextricably linked to a lifetime of protests, letter campaigns, civic
projects, and other peaceable activities that would be disallowed or looked on with suspicion under
this piece of legislation. Why would I have to hide my past and being, when my future was already
hanging in the balance?

Yet throughout this, the threat of the pandemic still looms. I am not in a situation wherein I
can work from home; I am a frontliner and in the health profession. My weekdays are filled with seeing
patients for a plethora of complaints and situations ranging from “most likely this is not COVID, this is
your arthritis or acid reflux acting up” to “sorry, we have to put your name in for monitoring since you
are symptomatic.” Despite all the assurances that my situation in a health center is “low-risk”, I have
had the feeling of dread from having colleagues go into 14-day quarantine due to being exposed to
symptomatic patients or fellow healthcare workers who tested positive for the virus’ RNA. Each day
feels a little like a net closing in, with me wondering if I will be the next doctor in our area who is going
to be sick, or test positive. Public health, one of the great loves of my life, is now taking on a dark
import for me that I fear will never really leave even years after this pandemic has fizzled out.
So what awaits me? Arras: a postponed wedding in a time when starting a new chapter seems
bleak or even pointless? Rehas: time behind bars for speaking out on the things I see around me, or
for refusing to be silenced? Oxygen mask: something I will almost certainly need if I ever do fall sick
thanks to my various co morbidities. It’s a question I try not to contemplate at length because of the
way that fear can paralyze a person. And where I am, I do not think I am in a position to be afraid or
 stop moving because of all the responsibilities I have on my plate. Every day is a struggle to move
forward to a future I cannot quite visualize as clearly anymore.

Perhaps, more than my wedding day, I pray for the day I can dream again.

WRITER’S BLOC

A. The following are some popular quotations on poetry and the poet. Write down your interpretation
of each quotation.
1. “ The poet makes himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disordering of all the senses.” –
Arthur Rimbaud
2. “ A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.” –Robert
Frost
3. “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.” – T.S Eliot
4. “Poets are shameless with their experiences: they exploit them.” – Freirdrich Nietzsche
5. “We were clever enough to turn a laundry list into poetry.”- Umberto Eco

How do you think can these insights help in writing Creative Nonfiction?

Prepared by:

LOVELY APRIL I. BASIERTO

Subject Teacher