I was always a writer, like many writers are. I was the elementary school class reporter, the middle school reporter, the high school reporter and worked on the literary magazine. That was my extracurricular activity of choice.
So I was in London, working for a weekly magazine. My editor, John, was a nervous, hyper, chain-smoking fellow. I wrote whatever they wanted me to: I interviewed people, reviewed books, wrote articles on “slimming,” whatever. I was waaayyyy down on the totem pole, but they were all really nice to me.
One day John came to me in a panic. It was deadline day and somehow they’d come up short when they were laying out the copy.
“I need,” he said as he dashed up behind my rolling chair, “a story. Right now.”
“On….?” I asked.
“Spring fashions. Yeah. London’s spring fashions.” He dashed off again—this time out the door.
Well, I was in a fix. This was before the internet. Okay, yes, there was internet in the early 90s, but it was in some government building somewhere and the computer it was running on was as big as a city block or something.
At that moment I realized that nonfiction could be a major pain in the rear end. I was recently off the plane from America. I don’t follow fashion. I didn’t have any contacts to call up.
So…I made it up as I went along. It was my opinion of what the trends would be in London–heavily influenced by the trends in South Carolina, USA. Oh, I did look out the window for a few minutes to see what people were wearing as they walked down the street, but that was about it.
I continued working for different magazines after that, but I was a whole lot more interested in making things up full-time.
I chose fiction and my genre because that’s what I read. I’d read so many of them, I knew I could write my own.
I still write articles occasionally and they’re challenging in their own way. But…it’s actually easier for me to make stuff up.
Have you ever changed from fiction to nonfiction or vice versa? Did you like them both equally? Have you found your niche? Are you happy with it?
Lasagna at the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen today, y’all! Run over and help your plates…
Hey, Elizabeth!
I tried writing a nonfiction book a year ago and was so bored I didn’t want to keep writing. Maybe I shouldn’t admit that, but it’s true. So that book has been dumped. Maybe one day I’ll try again.
Fiction is definitely my niche. I love it!
I write scripts for my husbands production company and that is totally different from writing fiction. Fiction is my great love. I’m telling you, that lasagna looks good.
Elizabeth – Like you, I have a nonfiction background. Since I’m in higher education, I’ve written several articles books, etc.. After a long time in higher education, and a lifetime of loving mysteries and crime fiction, I decided to try my hand at writing fiction. I’ve found that I love it! Writing fiction fulfills me in a way that writing nonfiction never could, so yes, I’d say that I’ve found my niche.
I needed to write a Funder Report the other day with practically no information. Fiction writing came in useful in concocting stories!!!
Among other things, I write reports for a living, and I like fiction and report writing equally.
I am in the process of leaving nonfiction and trying my hand at fiction-writing. It is daunting and terrifying. I don’t find non-fiction boring at all and I’m worried about where the ideas will come from for fiction. I’ll let you know if my niche switches.
Karen
I used to write media release about small town events. It could be rather difficult because every week nearly the same things happened. I got bored with it. With ficiton, the sky is the limit.
Bargain with the Devil
I used to write/edit newsletters about recycling and waste reduction (interesting to me, maybe not so interesting to others!).
Now I write fiction, and making up stuff is so much funner.
I’d never even thought about being a writer, except for the occasional storied I made up in my head. My first writing was non-fiction: training manuals and curriculum. But that was either part of a job or because I’d volunteered to do it.
I got into writing fiction totally by mistake. But I love it.
I thought when we moved back from overseas, I’d write non-fiction pieces about the places we’d lived and visited. It didn’t take me long to realize I’d prefer to make things up. I love writing fiction.
That lasagne looks delicious!
I’d always written fiction, but getting involved online prompted me to write some non-fiction articles to promote my books. After speaking on the subject of goal-setting and leadership for a year, I was prompted to write a book that tied in with my topics and my first non-fiction title came out earlier this year. It was a lot of work, but that title came together much faster than my fiction works. I’ll continue doing both, but I may be better at the non-fiction than the fiction!
It’s odd to say, but I don’t think I’ve found my niche yet. I’ve written a fantasy series, I’m starting a mystery series, I have several non fiction “life style” ideas but nothing sticks. I can’t honestly look at one and say, “o yes! That’s it.” I suppose I’ll just have to keep trying on hats until one fits!
Jen
I come from a business background, and have written a lot of marketing copy over the years. But I never really knew I wanted to be a writer. I’ve written non-fiction articles and find them a little boring, but I wrote a series of profiles on older women and enjoyed that. I love people, research, and making things up. So I think I’m a fiction writer.
You lived in London???!!! My envy is boundless; I love London.
I didn’t start off wanting to be a writer; I wanted to act. I wrote plays for my class so I could be in them! Later on when I ran a theatre company I wrote hundreds of press releases. It was only a few years ago I realized I had been writing for years. The press releases were fine, but making stuff up is far more fun!
Elspeth
I have written academic stuff for twenty years and is quite good at it, but it is not nearly as fun as committing crimes on paper. It does take time to switch genre, though.
I have changed. I wrote fiction. Now I write nonfiction. I like different things about them. I’ve surprised myself by finding out that I like doing research. But I still think I like making things up and may eventually go back to writing fiction.
Helen
Straight From Hel
I’ve always written fiction. My life is too boring to write a memoir. Me, I’m the vanilla ice cream of the human race.
Stephen Tremp
Of course writing is not my “niche,” but I’ve written non-fiction throughout my career. Research articles, reports, a lot of statistical “stuff” from my corporate life, critiques for clients’ fiction books. That I find it easy.
What I find truly amazing are fiction writers – to be able to have an idea, create characters, a storyline, a plot, twists, turns – OMG! The talent! Authors, novelists…you have me in awe, literally.
Kristen–Me too! I did enjoy the challenges of nonfiction, but not nearly as much as the rush I get from being creative.
Elizabeth–Now THAT would be interesting! I can see how completely different it would be, too. Thanks re the lasagna. :) It’s so easy to make that we can all have some…
Rayna–That’s what I hated..the gathering of info. I liked the actual interviewing pretty well, liked the research–but not deciding where I needed to start to get my info.
Enid– And God forbid you get any info wrong in a small-town newspaper! They will come after you with pitchforks. :) Fiction is much nicer.
Jane–And the great thing is that you can still incorporate all the cool things you saw and learned about overseas into a fictional book.
Diane–I bet with your organizational skills that nonfiction comes really easily to you.
Margot–You were definitely made to write crime fiction! You clearly love mysteries and know so much about them. Nonfiction isn’t quite the same.
Karen–The exciting part of nonfiction, for me, was interviewing. I think a memoir would definitely be more of a challenging, interesting project than some of the stuff journalists write on. I think you’re going to be great at fiction, too!
Alan–I dunno…I think there’s definitely a market out there for waste reduction (although maybe ‘waist’ reduction is actually a hotter topic for most..)
Terry–Training manuals! Oh gosh. That would be a challenge, too–relaying the info in an interesting way and not leaving anything out.
Helen–You’d be good to write a thoughtful book that has been heavily researched. I have one in the back of my head that I’d love to write, but with the research required, it will probably be another 20 years out.
Jen–I conveniently left out that I wrote greeting cards, children’s books, started a YA, and researched for a nonfiction children’s picture book. None of those took off–and then I realized that what I REALLY knew was mysteries. But it did take some stumbling around for me.
Stephen–Vanilla is nice, though. And you can live vicariously through your books!
Crystal–I think your writing could be the most challenging of all! You’ve got to take data, understand data, and relate it. That would have me completely flummoxed.
Carol–The nice thing is that you can always try it on for size and see if you enjoy writing fiction. I wrote some short stories to get my feet wet and it turned out pretty well.
Elspeth–Not for very long, though…I was in college still. I LOVED London and would move back there in a heartbeat.
In some ways, do you think acting and writing are closely related? Except a writer gets to play all the parts through her characters…
Niche’s are really hard to fine. I’m still searching for mine!
Making stuff up is SO much better than the technical/scientific writing I do in my day job. For one thing, in science your experiments have to work–and there’s never any guarantee that they will–then you have to make logical sense of the results and fit it into the current literature. Plus, it has to be novel, so similar to fiction there. I find that I come up with great theories and hypotheses, but the experiments seldom bear them out. Fiction is wonderful because I can devise a plausible story and Mother Nature can’t swoop in and say I’m wrong. I feel all powerful (evil laugh).
Dorte–But I bet that your background helps you to organize your manuscript when you write. But nothing beats committing murder on paper! :)
Marybeth–It can take some time, for sure!
So far my niche has been writing pattern articles for beadwork magazines, but I would love to break into fiction. I’ve been working on several short stories and hope to make the jump to published fiction author soon!
Lorel–We can make it all up! We can make up a whole WORLD if we want to! If we don’t like our characters, we can kill them off. It’s amazing what fiction lets us get away with.