I use the term ‘fictive’ to differentiate ever so narrowly from ‘fictional.’ There may be no difference to Daniel Webster, but there is a slight interpretative difference to me, and this text is meant as a guide for fiction and nonfiction alike, and thus admits to the notion that there is plenty about the nonfiction narrative that is ‘fictive.’ I refer here to the memoir and short memoir forms, and with an understanding that the best examples of these nonfiction genres conform to the rules of narrative both as to form and content. Like fiction, these require a narrative arc, effective story and plot, setting, point of view, characterization, style and voice, theme, and literary devices.
You will note that the succeeding documents in this text are format guides, first as to manuscript, next as to dialog (on the ‘Format’ page of this blog). These might normally be relegated to an appendix, the schoolhouse equivalent of the room at the end of the hall, but I place them foremost because manuscript and dialog format are paramount to the proper and professional submission of manuscripts to publishers, and must be mastered by the learning writer if she hopes to successfully submit her work for publication. If you want to be a successful writer, you must learn to prepare manuscripts in the ways that successful editors and publishers expect them to be prepared. If they are any less the standard, they will be the less considered. There are conventions for prose narrative manuscripts, including dialog, and these are not haphazard and optional, but rigorous and mandatory. If you want to become a successful writer, you must learn them.