I’m still working heads-down on the biology book. I wasn’t happy with the original structure, so I’m reorganizing it and moving stuff around, rewriting some stuff, and writing new stuff.
It’s times like this that I really envy fiction writers. They don’t have to work within the constraints that we non-fiction writers do. They can just make stuff up, and as long as it’s believable that’s all that matters. If a book runs too long, they can just cut stuff out; if it runs too short, they can just add some scenes. We non-fiction writers have to get everything right, and we have to fit everything in that belongs there.
I remember years ago at a mystery conference sitting down with Peter Robinson. When I told him that I wrote non-fiction, he said he could never do that because it would be too hard to get everything right. I told him that I’d never written fiction, but I thought it would be more difficult than writing fiction. Nowadays, I’m coming around to his point of view.
I think that both common and different skill sets are involved in the writing of non-fiction and fiction.
The common skills regards the technical aspects, like a good command of written language, grammar and spelling, format, etc.
Non-fiction, in my opinion, would demand attention to detail, veracity and a deep knowledge of your subject matter.
Fiction, and here I refer to good fiction, would demand not only the ability to interest the reader (be a good storyteller), but also to make every scene indispensible to the story. This makes is more difficult to add or subtract scenes later on. Clear writing necessitates a good imagination, which not everybody, including non-fiction writers, have. Characterisation is very important as well, because one has to engage the reader’s emotions to be successful with the story.
Just my 2c,
Regards
Well, if I did decide to try writing fiction, my first choice would be women’s porn.
When I said not everybody, including non-fiction writers, has a good imagination, I meant “including some non-fiction writers, has a good imagination.
Sorry!
Well the first rule is to write what you know, so you should have no trouble with the transition.