Jumping from non-fiction to novel?

You'll never know until you try it.

A few years ago, I was in a similar posiion to you. I had written stories and stuff since I was about 12, but then went into radio journalism & spent the next 10 years researching, recording and writing educational programmes about history & travel for German public radio (I'm biligual BTW). I didnt touch fiction for years. Then wrote a mystery novel, couldnt get it published, spent more years not writing fiction.
And then an idea for a short story jumped on me -- to re-write an alerady existing legend. I wrote that, thoght it was a one-off, and then the idea jumped on me to write a whole book of short stories all with that same system, if you like: re-writing existing stories/legends. That way, I woudlnt have to think up a plot but could still "practice" (in both meanings of the word) fiction-writing. It took a while, but the result is the book you see in my sig line.
And Ive found that exercising the creative brain is kind of like exercising muscles, Ive since had ideas for plots coming out of my ears.

Go for it, I say.

Definitely do it. What have you got to lose? I wrote three nonfiction history books. Then, during a period of unemployment, I wrote a children's story--historical in nature, but fiction geared for 8-10 year olds, mostly because I had the idea for the story and I wanted to write it.

It's still unpublished.

But that was a good training ground, anyway, for writing longer fiction, because after I finished it, I started writing a novel. And currently I'm about 20 pages away from finishing Draft 2, although I've been working on the thing for over two years.

I didn't want to pigeonhole myself in writing only nonfiction, although there are a variety of nonfiction subjects I'd like to write about (and none of them are regional history).

allen

My first finished MS was my memoir, which I know isn't exactly the same as the type of non-fiction you're talking about, but it's still different than fiction. I'm several thousand word into my first novel and I'm loving it. The freedom to make things up as you go along is very... um... freeing. I say go for it!

MarijkeD said:

I can't believe I'm writing this. But here goes.

I know that writing a novel is way, way different from what I'm used to. The thing is, do I have the confidence to give it a try?

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I think some novels may have started without any ideas at all. So, having an idea puts you ahead of the game.

As for worrying about this, some of us put some rather dreadful things down on the page, and it took quite some time to make them even remotely presentable. Go with the flow and see if more ideas come to you. At worst, you'll have an interesting hobby. At best, you'll have something worthy of publication.

If you're already making a good living writing, there's no reason why you shouldn't feel confident about your ability.

Granted, it's a different beast from non-fiction, but that only means you'll have to go through an uncomfortable period of learning new tricks. Difficulties will arise that you haven't had to deal with before, but your basic understanding of writing will pull you through.

Success in writing comes from grabbing and holding the reader's attention. It's done differently in fiction than in non, but the techniques are pretty basic and aren't exactly trade secrets.

Go for it. And enjoy the trip.

MarijkeD said:

The thing is, do I have the confidence to give it a try?

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Why are you asking us?

If you're concerned about maintaining confidence, I've been writing my first novel for the past three days. The people here have been fantastic. I have had more interest and praise and encouragement here, during that short time, than I have ever had for my writing from friends and family. I've also had more reliable critiques and more sensible criticism.

So if you're still going to be hanging around these parts, chances are your confidence will be shored up rather than demolished - provided it's realistic.

Post #200? Man... do I really talk that much? Oh, wait, yeah. I do.

Sure. I went from outdoor and science articles to novels. The non-fiction training has been HUGELY useful for putting in the right bits into the novel to make it believable. If your characters are expected to be "experts" in ANYTHING---at least as much as we are in our own jobs, then you've got to have the casual trappings that come with day-to-day living of it.

Article training comes in great for that, and you've got the advantage in that you already know how to stay in word count. That makes your writing lean and tight.

Go forth and write your novel with a song in your heart!

I'm in a similar position. I published two nonfiction books and have switched to historical fiction. You could invent practical considerations about why this is or isn't a good idea, but I love writing the novels. So if you love your idea, go for it. At the very least, you'll scratch an itch and learn why you do or don't feel cut out for that kind of writing.

The only person who has to give you permission to switch genres is yourself. And once you have, you may not be murdering your career as you seem to fear you will. I haven't published any of my novels, but over the past four years, I've had encouraging signs in the process of submitting them and refining my work. Since it took me five years to publish each of my nonfiction books, the timing's just about right for lightning to strike again. And since I write fiction based on a nonfiction subject I've published on, that establishes my expertise; nobody ever questions whether I'm the one to write this story. So, though I have no track record in fiction, I'm certain that I've gotten readings from agents who wouldn't have given me a second look had I not been published at all.

I actually wrote non fiction before I turned to fiction. I figured, Heck if I can do one, I can do the other. Boy was I naive. Its a completely different skill. There are things a fiction writer needs to learn, such as: bring the reader into the story as if it is real, make em want to turn the page each time, help them to visualize the scene/environment, evolve the character as the story evolves, and a ton more that I didn't need when I wrote non friction. But, that didn't stop me, just took me longer to learn the skill before I got my first book published.

By all means try or you'll never know. One book I read (I think it was called "The complete handbook of writing fiction") was actually very helpful in terms of making me realize what my first drafts were missing.

Why not give it a try? If you're an outline/research kind of person, as many nonfiction writers are, then outline and research. Or just jump in and write, see where the story takes you. Either way can work.

But above all, remember and constantly recite this mantra: First drafts are crap. This is the secret to freedom from the dreaded Inner Editor, self-appointed god of aborted stories and novels.

I'm doing just that. My agent, fortunately, does both nonfiction and mysteries, and was pleased about the whole thing. I could see it might be a problem for many agents, though, because not all do both, or at least all kinds of fiction.