Fiction vs Nonfiction

So I learned something really powerful.

Nonfiction absolutely hates me.

I mean I like the idea of it and but it just doesn’t like me. And I only say that because I know that I’ve always been better at fiction because I like to make up stories, don’t ask me to lie for you though, I can do it but it will slowly eat me alive. Fiction makes so much sense to me, I had the same trouble with writing essays and even oral presentation because I’m afraid of getting my message across and it was purely because of that that I hated public speaking, it was later remedied with the fact that I did a talk on Rachel Vincent and was able to get everything out concisely AND even answer questions about her. That was definitely a win for me.

The great debate of fiction vs nonfiction is a hard on to even comprehend. Can fiction writers do nonfiction? Or are they strictly a one trick pony? I’m trying to understand this and it’s hard. Really hard.

As I sit down to write this e-book that will be available for everyone soon, I found that the initially wave of, fuck yeah, i can do this, was amazing. I pumped out an easy 1000 words, no problem, but beyond that. Oh man. It’s hard to write this. My brain doesn’t work in non-fiction things and it’s hard to keep it motivated. I’m having to use my own techniques to get it really going.

One such technique is introducing myself back into fiction. It’s Camp NaNoWriMo and I was planning to solely write this novel from start to finish but after discovering that I can’t I’ve brought in fiction. This novel is not even plotted out, at all, I have some inkling of what’s going to happen but beyond that I have nothing. It’s really not like me. I love my post-it notes, I love sitting around and sticking them to anything that will stick so that I can get a picture of what’s going on. The fact that I have nothing plotted out should be terrifying but life is too short to worry about that, they story will show up and tell me what’s happening in due time. It will show me the way and I’ll get frustrated but the worst thing about this? I already fucking love the characters in the story. I shouldn’t. It’s meant to be a short novella, but they’re trying to make me extend it out. And I can’t. I don’t have room for that. Not yet anyway. Maybe down the track I will but not right now.

Do you have a problem with filtering out ideas? My gorgeous friend Peta at Down to the Ground, wrote a beautiful piece about picking your order of horses. I mentioned earlier to her that I was having an overflow of ideas and that I was struggling to stick to one or any really. She told me that I needed to pick my order of horses. It was really enlightening and it gave me the realisation that I can write both a non-fiction book and a fiction book and it would be totally fine. I can use both of the ideas because they both use different areas of my brain, or well that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

So tell me, my lovely dreamers, do you prefer fiction to non-fiction? Or do you straddle the line of both (creative non-fiction anyone)? Leave me a note and tell me which you prefer and why.