Ep 6: Creative non-fiction isn't a contradiction

History can be pretty boring when it’s a series of dry facts, but fitting it to a narrative arc, while engaging, can also lead to problems. This week I speak to Kelly Gaumont from the Canuck is a Slur podcast about creative non-fiction, facts, storytelling and the opportunities of new media. Kelly’s linktree:https://linktr.ee/CanuckIsASlur And Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/c/canuckisaslur/about If you have thoughts, drop me an email at [email protected] or on Bluesky at ourstories.blusky.social. Blatantly stealing some of Kelly’s pre-show notes because they are greatKate Beaton, creator of the history-heavy comic strip Hark! A Vagrant; was a major gateway for me to develop a newfound interest in Canadian history specifically (although the strip was not at all limited to that), because it was now trying to tell me the same information through a much more engaging mediumHere is an exampleHere is anotherHere is one that isn’t Canadian at allRyan North, creator of the heavily-constrained comic strip Dinosaur Comics taught me that format constraints (such as having the six-panel visual arrangement of your comic never change for decades on end) can actually allow your creativity to flourish as it pushes against those limitations, as well as allow your audience to have a familiar structure through which they can understand your messageHere is one about stories and literatureHere is one that refers to the Canadian phenomenon of bagged milkRyan North studied computational linguistics, so he wrote a lot of comics about various aspects of language that you can learn a lot fromSome of the other things we mentioned:Story Garden: https://youtu.be/YUfzr5tJlpo?si=5rEOPHZsyhH5aLjs Beneath the skin: https://linktr.ee/beneaththeskinpod Lions led by Donkeys: www.youtube.com/@lionsledbydonkeyspodcast7424Revolutions Podcast by Mike Duncan: revolutionspodcast.com