In the book “Experiments in Life Writing” by Julia Novak’s, chapter one talks about the differences between nonfiction and fiction pieces of writings throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century. She first starts the chapter off by introducing the ideas of autobiography and biographies and how they have evolved or developed into newer versions of themselves. She also talks about how genres are being mixed together to create new genres such as “autofiction, metafiction, heterobiography, and other combinations. Throughout the book, Julia Novak emphasizes that there is a relationship between fiction and nonfiction writings and you would not find a piece of writing without it using a little bit of both. In the chapter, it states, “Fictional narratives may 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. One writing piece that shows this idea is the famous book Percy Jackson & the Olympians, the series shows how the main character is learning about himself and as the story goes on the audience also learns about the main character which shows nonfiction. The book also shows fiction by introducing all these characters in the novels that would not exist out of the Percy Jackson world. This novel supports Julia Novak’s idea that non-fiction and fiction usually have a correlation.

Fiction is usually interpreted as a piece of writing that is in the form of a short story and novels. Some examples of this genre are Nineteen Eighty-Four a Novel by George Orwell or Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone by J.K. Rowling. Non-Fiction usually a piece of writing that is based on facts, real events, or real people. Some examples are The Diary Of a Young Girl a Book by Anne Frank, and A Brief History of Time a Book by Stephen Hawking. 

Fiction is usually made up of imagination and creative products that have made up ideas included. But sometimes fiction writings use real places and events to help make the story more appealing to the audience. For example horror movies such as Annabelle state that the movie was based on real events to give the audience a more terrifying experience. If the writer was to just add made-up places and details the audience would not be able to relate to the movie as well.  In autobiographies, the author might add details that we would not be able to fact check to help make it more entertaining.