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Fiction (made-up stories) and literary non-fiction (creative writing based on facts) often use many of the same techniques, and share the same topics, so it makes sense that they can be compared. They are usually compared when they’re about the same thing. For example, you might look at fictional and non-fictional accounts of:

• a journey in a particular place
• a family meal
• a day out

You might compare the methods the writers use to create effective texts, but you might also compare the ideas that they give of their topic. Do they show similar ideas despite one being fiction and the other non-fiction?

Example

The two extracts below give descriptions of Christmas dinner. One is a fictional account by Charles Dickens, taken from a novel. The other is an introduction to a collection of recipes you might use to cook your own feast, by Nigella Lawson.

There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't believe there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as Mrs Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn't ate it all at last. Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows. But now, the plates being changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs Cratchit left the room alone -- too nervous to bear witnesses -- to take the pudding up and bring it in.

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

The old fave, my Spiced and Superjuicy Turkey is hard to resist – there's something about the brining method which makes the turkey easier to carve into elegantly thin slices, so not only will you feel better on the day but also the turkey will go further – and for me this has to go with Allspice Gravy, Gingerbread Stuffing and Redder Than Red Cranberry Sauce. But I do want to draw your attention, as well, to the Turkey Breast Stuffed with Italian Sausage and Marsala-Steeped Cranberries. This is particularly fab for a party, when you can cook it and slice it (easily) into generous slabs. I know that Perfect Roast Potatoes is an immodest title but, I promise you, they are a seasonal spud sensation. My mother always served her Brussels Sprouts with a lot of buttered chestnuts (and cooked and peeled her own). I have upped the ante by adding gorgeous salty pancetta cubes (feel free to substitute bacon) and been unapologetically lazier by buying vacuum-packed ready cooked and peeled chestnuts.

Christmas Recipes, Nigella Lawson’s blog

Analysis

• Dickens is describing a fictional meal, whereas Lawson is describing her Christmas menu in an introduction to a collection of recipes.
• Both extracts focus on the food, and emphasise its deliciousness. In both, there is a central roast, and then accompanying potatoes and sauces.
• The extract from Lawson’s blog places more emphasis on a variety of recipes, and the richness of food, as you would expect from a recipe book.
• Both extracts suggest the themes of thrift – the Dickens passage uses the word ‘eked’ to suggest making food stretch, whereas Lawson talks about making the turkey ‘go further’. Christmas dinner might be about indulgence, but it’s also expensive.
• Lawson uses alliteration to emphasise the food – ‘seasonal spud sensation’ – while Dickens uses the metaphor of the children being ‘steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows’ to emphasise how much they have eaten.
• In both texts there is an expectation that Christmas dinner means eating so much you feel sick – in A Christmas Carol this is shown through the characters, but Lawson has to show this through the number of recipes she mentions.