Throughout Juila Novak’s “Experiments in Life Writing” many different aspects of the relationship between nonfiction and fiction writing are discussed. Throughout the excerpt, Novak describes the relationship between fiction and nonfiction writing as somewhat intertwining and without one there cannot be the other. Novak does discuss the idea that fact and fiction have a categorical distinction as she referenced The Distinction of Fiction by Dorrit Cohn. But as she continues on to analyze this relationship she shows the reader how nonfiction and fiction are often intertwined throughout many novels. This happens in novels that claim to be “based on a true story”. What these novels do is they “contain external, real-world references, but these can be combined with non-factual elements; the selected facts can be imaginatively manipulated in fiction, as fiction is not bound to factual accuracy”. (Page 7) Authors that write novels as such take nonfiction stories and add fiction to them to make them more appealing to their targeted audience while still referencing the factual aspects of the story, event, etc. This ideology does not just apply to books, it also applies to other forms of media and entertainment such as movies, short films, and television programs/series. Novak does a tremendous job of showing both the drastic differences in fiction and nonfiction pieces while still showing the reader how much more similar and needed together they are than the eye really can see. When the idea of fiction in life writing is approached many restrictions come into play as Novak says that editors are quick to change the genre when fiction is involved so there is still a struggle in finding the balance in life writing when it comes to the bleeding of fiction and nonfiction in the writing.  

The difference between fiction and nonfiction is assumed to depend on whether stuff is made up or factually reliable. In some kinds of writing such as history, reports and some types of memoir there is zero room for wiggle room in adding fictional aspects. Everything must be rigorously fact-checked. However, when the authors start to add references from real-world events into fictional stories the binding of fiction and nonfiction comes to life. Similarly, when nonfiction novels are written and the author change’s names of character’s to protect the privacy of people who went through the event they are writing about, aspects of fiction also come into play. All in all fiction and nonfiction are constantly used in many different ways throughout many different art forms which allow for these two genres to bleed into each other and create intriguing content for the intended audiences.