People have been writing nonfiction creatively for thousands of years, but only since the 1960s has creative nonfiction been considered a genre unto itself. While you can apply some of the skills of creative writing to your works of nonfiction, if you want to write exclusively in this genre, you must know its distinct features; what distinguishes it from other genres; the requirements and ethics of writing in the genre; and of most importance, how to apply the techniques of fiction writing to nonfiction.