Literary Writing: Definition & Examples
- Melchior Antoine
- 3 days ago
- 10 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
When one thinks of literary writing, they think of a style that is more creative and less formal compared to academic writing. But is that really the case? Is literary writing less reliant on formal structure than academic styles of text? The answer is both yes and no.
Both literary and academic writing rely on craft. However, with academic writing, there is a greater emphasis on being objective and unbiased and standing apart from what is being said. This is often necessary. For example, the highest standard of academic writing is scientific reports that publish new findings from rigorous research or experiments.
This type of writing can be seen as a formal catalogue of discoveries and knowledge. As a result, scientific writing must be extremely objective and unbiased. The writer should try as much as is humanly possible to leave out their own subjective views and opinions when reporting results and the rigorous methods they used to determine these results.
Literary writing is more different and allows authors to express their own personal opinions in creative ways without relying on objective facts, even when they are not writing fiction. In this article, we look at examples of literary writing used in nonfiction, including examples from V.S. Naipaul's Among the Believers (published in 1981).
What is literary writing?
Literary writing refers to the genre of literature that we associate with creative works, such as poetry and fiction. Unlike academic writing, it employs flowery language, such as metaphors, symbolism, analogies, and subjective viewpoints. However, literary writing isn’t restricted to just poetry and fiction. Other types of writing also feature this literary style.
This includes genres such as:
New journalism
Biographies & autobiographies
Epistolary writing
Essay writing
Let’s look at an example of epistolary writing from the letters of a famous writer, namely, Mark Twain. This letter was sent to the Hartford Gas Company by Mark Twain on February 12, 1891, complaining about their habit of turning off the gas without notice:
Dear Sirs: Some day you will move me almost to the verge of irritation by your chuckle-headed Goddamned fashion of shutting your Goddamned gas off without giving any notice to your Goddamned parishioners. Several times you have come within an ace of smothering half of this household in their beds and blowing up the other half by this idiotic, not to say criminal, custom of yours. And it has happened again today. Haven't you a telephone?"
Now, this is not the type of poetic writing we expect from high literature. Instead of being filled with figures of speech and literary devices, it is full of expletives and irascible humor. Nonetheless, it does a good job of giving a vivid picture of the type of personality the author has and, of course, gives us a good laugh.
Let’s look at one more example of non-fiction literary writing. This time from the writer D.H. Lawrence, writing the introduction to his poetry collection called New Poems. The name of the essay is “The Poetry of the Present” (published in 1920):
.
It seems when we hear a skylark singing as if sound were running forward into the future, running so fast and utterly without consideration, straight on into futurity. And when we hear a nightingale, we hear the pause and the rich, piercing rhythm of recollection, the perfect past. The lark may sound sad, but with the lovely lapsing sadness that is almost a swoon of hope. The nightingale’s triumph is a pæan, but a death-pæan. . . . So it is with poetry. Poetry is, as a rule, either the voice of the far future, exquisite and ethereal, or it is the voice of the past, rich, magnificent.
This passage is much more serious than Mark Twain’s rant against the gas company. The writer is attempting to define or describe a new or modern style of poetry. In the process, he relies on classic literary devices. In this case, the devices in question are analogy and juxtaposition. The poet compares the poetry of the future with a lark’s song only to contrast it with the poetry of the past, which he likens to a nightingale’s song.
Literary writing, although not restricted to fiction and poetry, relies on the literary devices that we associate with fiction and poetry. In addition, it also often rejects the lack of bias and charged language that we expect from formal or academic writing. For example, the highly colorful language that Mark Twain uses in his letter to the gas company.
Mixing journalism with creative style
Journalism or reporting was long seen as a form of formal and fact-based writing that tried as much as possible to avoid subjectivity and report the facts. However, a form of journalism developed in the 1960s and 1970s challenged that assumption. It was called New Journalism and was pioneered by journalists such as Truman Capote and Gay Talese.
In this style of journalism, reporters abandoned the “corporate voice” or the newspaper that they worked for and immersed themselves in their story or subject. This immersion was typical of traditional journalism; however, the narrative approach that they took more resembled fictional or novel writing than journalism. They wrote from their own personal perspective and were unafraid to express how they felt about a topic.
In this excerpt, we look at the example from V.S Naipaul and his famous book Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey (published in 1981). It can be described as travel literature. It is an account of Naipaul’s impressions and observations after visiting Iran some years after the Islamic Revolution and a number of other Islamic countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Here, Naipaul is discussing an unpleasant experience with an Iranian driver who had agreed to take him to the famous Iranian city of Qom by car:
Sadeq was to go with me from Tehran to the Holy city of Qom, a hundred miles to the south. I hadn't met Sadeq; everything had been arranged on the telephone. I needed an Iranian interpreter, and Sadeq's name had been given to me by someone from an embassy.
Sadeq was free because, like many Iranians since the revolution, he had found himself out of a job. He had a car. When we spoke on the telephone he said it would be better for us to drive to Qom in his car; Iranian buses were dreadful and could be driven at frightening speeds by people who didn't really care.
We fixed a price for his car, his driving, his interpretation; and what he asked for was reasonable. He said we should start as soon as possible the next morning, to avoid the heat of the August day. He would take his wife to her office—she still had a job—and come straight on to the hotel. I should be ready at 7:30.
He came some minutes before eight. He was in his late twenties, small and carefully dressed, handsome, with a well-barbered head of hair. I didn't like him. I saw him as a man of simple origins, simply educated, but with a great sneering pride, deferential but resentful, not liking himself for what he was doing. He was the kind of man who, without political doctrine, with only resentments, had made the Iranian revolution. It would have been interesting to talk to him for an hour or two; it was going to be hard to be with him for some days, as I had now engaged myself to be. . . .
This is an interesting piece of writing, and it says as much about Naipaul as it does about the man — Sadeq — whom he is describing. He gives the impression of Sadeq being dishonest and unreliable. This is understandable. Sadeq promised to drive him by car and would arrive at 7:30, only to arrive some minutes before 8:00 AM. Even after arrival, Sadeq explains that his car has a problem and has difficulty starting.
However, if it could just start, then he would be able to drive Naipaul to Qom. Starting the car, however, meant that Sadiq would have to sit in the driver’s seat while Naipaul pushed:
We went to look at the car. It was suspiciously well parked at the side of the road not far from the hotel gate. Sadeq sat in the driver's seat. He called out to a passing man, one of the many idle workmen of Tehran, and the man and I began to push. A young man with a briefcase, possibly an office worker on his way to work, came and helped without being asked. The road was dug-up and dusty; the car was very dusty. It was hot; the exhausts of passing cars and trucks made it hotter. We pushed now with the flow of the traffic, now against it; and all the time Sadeq sat serenely at the steering wheel.
People from the pavement came and helped for a little, then went about their business. It occurred to me that I should also be going about mine. This—pushing Sadeq's car back and forth—wasn't the way to get to Qom; what had begun so unpromisingly wasn't going to end well. So, without telling anybody anything then or afterward, I left Sadeq and his car and his volunteer pushers and walked back to the hotel.
Naipaul is using journalistic techniques of reportage to make observations and subtle conclusions about Iranian society after the Islamic Revolution. This can be seen in what he emphasizes throughout the passage. For instance, he frequently mentions the unemployment among men in Iran. He says frankly: “Sadeq was free because, like many Iranians since the revolution, he had found himself out of a job.”
This theme is repeated in the casual observations that he makes, and they even come across as mean barbs against Iranian males. We see this in the way he compares the wife of Sadeq being employed as opposed to Sadeq: “He would take his wife to her office—she still had a job—and come straight on to the hotel.”
It is also shown in the way that he even refers to seemingly employed people as jobless or “idle.” He described one of the car pushers as “one of the many idle workmen of Tehran,” and another is described as employed but deciding to help with pushing the car “without being asked.” In short, Iranians being polite and willing to help is portrayed as them being idle and not concerned about work. More importantly, there is the conclusion that he draws about Sadeq.
He describes Saded as handsome and well-dressed in Paragraph 4, but then piles on negative characteristics. He says plainly that he doesn’t like Sadeq and more. Sadeq is said to be of simple origins with “sneering pride,” who was “deferential but resentful.” He goes on to extend his observation of Sadeq to the Islamic Revolution and its men: “He was the kind of man who, without political doctrine, with only resentments, had made the Iranian revolution.”
This is Naipaul’s opinion of the Islamic revolution. He sees it as lacking in political doctrine and fuelled by “resentment.” Now this is a very biased perspective. Naipaul gives us no reason to justify the idea of Sadeq having “a great sneering pride.” As to his opinions on the Islamic Revolution and its motivations, we are left to question the accuracy of his political opinions based on his obvious biases and rush to judgment.
Nevertheless, this is enjoyable reading. The excerpt ends in wry humor, with Naipaul leaving a bunch of well-meaning Iranian volunteers pushing a car in an effort to help him and his driver, while he quietly slips away without telling anybody. Naipaul doesn’t hide the fact that he is simply giving his own personal opinion and impressions of Iranian society and people in the wake of the Islamic Revolution.
He does not offer himself as an objective observer or even a journalist. Instead, we have a foreign man in a foreign society of foreign customs attempting to gain some understanding of said society. In short, the book is an interesting travel adventure with the author telling us more about himself than the people whom he describes, sometimes even unknowingly.
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Literary writing in the college application essay
In university contexts, students, unless they are enrolled in a literature or English program, hardly have the chance to do creative writing. Most of the writing you will encounter as a student is going to be academic in nature. This means research papers, five-paragraph essays, and even dissertations and theses if you are doing a postgraduate program.
However, there is one piece of writing in preparation for college that resembles literary writing more than academic writing, and it’s the college application essay. If you read examples of college application essays, you will learn that they do not require you to write in the rigid structure or format of an academic essay. Instead, it focuses on you telling a story about yourself that will convince college admissions officers that you deserve a place in their school.
You need to use the essay as an opportunity to portray yourself as intelligent, creative, dedicated, passionate about your interests, and capable of growth and expansion. Let’s take a brief look at a college essay example. This is from a student named Aubrey Wallen who was accepted into Hamilton. The essay is posted on their website here:
75,000 flipped pages. 11,520 packed boxes. 6 school maps. I began measuring my life in flipped pages, packed boxes, and school maps when I was 6. As my family and I flitted between states and coasts for my father’s job over the last decade, I shielded myself with fantasy novels. With my head propped on the baseboard near my nightlight and a book held up in front of me by aching arms, I would dance in whimsical forests, fight daring battles, and rule dangerous courts long after dark. In my fantastic universe, I could take turns being the queen, the knight, the hero, and even the villain. These books helped me express the happiness, anger, sadness, and queerness I could not have even begun to imagine alone.
This is the first paragraph of the essay, and it begins in dramatic fashion: with the exact number of pages, boxes, and maps the student has gone through in their life. Such detail is what we expect of literary writing or descriptive storytelling in fiction. But it is not just picturesque writing.
The student is describing their life as being defined by literature and constant moving. In the essay, the passion for literature is portrayed as an inspiration for the student to be an author, and the constant moving is described as being responsible for the student’s resilience and openness to change.
So the essay tells a story that shows that the student has a passionate interest as well as qualities of resilience and capacity for personal growth, both of which college admissions officers are looking for. More importantly, the poetic descriptions of the world of literature that is described give the impression of an intelligent and creative student who most colleges would be happy to have on their campuses.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2026, January 18). Literary Writing: Definition & Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/literary-writing |
