A long time ago, in what now feels like a previous, pre-kids lifetime, while I was still working on the redrafts of my first novel Lycopolis, I wrote a blog post titled Why Fiction is So Hard to Write (www.aliventures.com/hard-fiction).
Seven years on, with three novels out there and a novella on the way, I still feel the same.
It's fairly easy to write non-fiction that's of a publishable standard that clients will pay for; writing fiction is much
harder.
Of course, there are plenty of books out there, both traditionally published and self-published, that you might feel AREN'T that well written. I'm sure that, like me, you've occasionally come across the book that you're amazed ever saw the light of day – perhaps the characters were paper-thin stereotypes, the plot was a chain of co-incidences, or
the writing style was oddly stilted or cringingly overblown.
But even these books were probably written to a standard that would have been competent, or even good, for non-fiction. After all, non-fiction readers aren't generally too bothered if an author uses the same word a few too many times on a page, or if they can already figure out what's going to happen in
Chapter 10 when they're on Chapter 1.
Fiction is a huge writing challenge because it needs to do so many things at once, and because there are so many things you need to get right that non-fiction writers don't have to worry about. For instance:
- You need to convince the reader to care about made-up characters and a situation that didn't actually take place. This immediately sets a higher bar than if, say, you were writing a news story (where the writing itself might be clumsy or at least prosaic, but the fact that it really happened is a big draw).
- You need to invent those characters and the situation in the first place! Even
if you draw on real life, you'll still be filling in lots of gaps with your imagination. Non-fiction writers don't need to do that.
- Although you're writing fiction, you don't get a free pass on facts. You need to get the details right – and that can take a lot of research, especially if you're writing historical fiction or hard SF.
- You have to pace your story correctly. This is a difficult thing to learn, but it's crucial. In non-fiction, you can be a bit wordy and readers can simply skim read ... but that doesn't work in fiction.
- You've got to get, and keep, your readers' attention – despite the millions of other books they could equally well be reading. With non-fiction, readers have chosen a book to solve a
problem (e.g. they're reading about parenting toddlers) rather than simply looking to be entertained by a story.
Here's the good news: even if you've got a long way to go before your fiction is up to a publishable standard, you've already learnt a huge amount about writing. Perhaps you can write clear, grammatical sentences so easily that you now take
that for granted (don't – it's a real skill!), or you've got the knack of writing characterful dialogue, or you're great at constructing a plot that includes lots of twists and turns.
But ... you might be wondering whether it's worth writing fiction at all, given how hard it is to do well. Should you just quit
now?
Well, if you're debating between non-fiction or fiction writing as a career, and you enjoy both equally – go with non-fiction. It'll be much easier to make a reliable income.
For most writers, though, that's not how it
works. Maybe you've always dreamt of being a novelist. Maybe you love working on short stories at the weekends. Maybe you're developing your career as a self-published author alongside making a living freelancing. Whatever your exact circumstances, if you love writing stories and can't imagine not being able to do so ... then of course persevere with your fiction!
It might take a lifetime to truly master, but it'll be very much worth it.
