Mixing Fiction and Non-Fiction: Dangers and Pluses for a Writing Career

Many writers begin writing for one field-either fiction or non-fiction. The choices can be altered constantly, depending on the mood of the writer. When choosing to write, we do not have to make a clear choice. But, as this article will state, there are dangers in writing fiction and non-fiction at the same time. There are pluses to this approach to writing as well.

Offering myself as an example, I have found that mixing these two fields does not always work. Sometimes it does work out. The novel makes writing the article easier. The article leads us to a new choice of phrases. However, more often than not we will be killing time on one and anticipating the other. An example would be working on a novel that we think is boring and will never pay us, and working on an article for a magazine. Depending on where we are at creative wise, the article will have the faster rewards. The novel will seem a waste, and we will only continue writing it because we started it.

The pluses stated are not the only ones. Perhaps we dream of writing a published short story or novel. Beginning a fiction career seems to get harder every time someone new, or thousands of new people, decides to pick up the pen with a story they have floating in their minds. We will be competing with these newcomers. Some will have talent and will be published before us. What we can do is allow the non-fiction to pay the bills while we take a long shot and enjoy the novel. Consider writing an article for a magazine every time you finish a chapter of a novel or a short story. This does not guarantee success, but we are moving towards it.

Richard Yates, a renowned novelist, had a hard time mixing fiction and non-fiction. He wrote articles for a computer company early in his career, but was also pursuing fiction. He could not write on both in the same day, or rarely attempted it. Instead he would take two weeks for the paid work and two weeks for the work he figured he would be paid for. It did get to a point where he could no longer continue the non-fiction, but he would have been better of had he did so.

Writers have plenty of options in the fields of fiction and non-fiction. We need to utilize the tools at our disposal when considering a career in writing. The pluses and minuses of writing both fiction and non-fiction are just the beginning. More often than not we will change when we begin to succeed. One career will stand out above the others. We will discover homes for our writing.