I’ve got the blues. Since sending my two fiction books to beta readers in late January, I have been floundering for true writing direction. Fiction or nonfiction? That is the question.
Let’s face it, most people who dream of writing, dream of writing a knock-out, impossible-to-put-down novel. They want to weave the perfect story with stellar prose, memorable characters and gripping plot.
Most people don’t think, “I know how to strip wooden floors. I should write a book about that.” (By the way, I don’t know how to do that – even though I have done it before. I call it selective memory.)
If you claim to be an author, people don’t expect you to list nonfiction titles when they ask what you’ve written. Nonfiction is so stuffy and boring. Why would anyone volunteer to write a textbook?
Sure, only a few nonfiction titles have achieved amazing notoriety. “Who Moved my Cheese?” is one little pamphlet that comes to mind. Although, everyone is familiar with the line of “for Dummies” books.
I have steered clear of nonfiction because of the research involved. I finished my Bachelor’s degree in July of 2013. Long before that day, I reached my research quota. And I’m not really anxious to dig in again.
However, I do have several book ideas that would be classified as nonfiction. If you dare, take a peek into my brain to see what other ideas I have.
Things I have considered in the past twelve months
- A Bible study on women’s ministries – as in wife, mother, sister, teacher
- A collection of short stories
- A series for young adults set in a post-apocalyptic setting
- Dragons from another realm falling into our modern world
- A memoir-style self-help book about grieving
- A shifter romance for an anthology call
- An alien-cowboy story
- A romance involving an invisible boyfriend
- Dark Biblical tales for young adults
- A journal from the perspective of Mary, mother of Jesus
- Magic as an allegory for Spiritual gifts
- How to dispose of a body (for a short story written during NaNo)
- Focusing on New Adult romance
- Writing for an interesting fantasy collection called The Legend
- Writing only fantasy
- If writing for young adults is the right path
- A short story about betrayal
- A story about one poor choice ruining a lifetime dream
- Poems for the blog
- Story lines for a young adult romance
- And a million other things – that I can’t remember just now because it’s making my head throb
Things I have started in the past six months
- A series for young adults set in a post-apocalyptic setting
- A short story about betrayal
- A story about one poor choice ruining a lifetime dream
- A memoir-style self-help book about grieving
- An alien-cowboy story
- A romance involving an invisible boyfriend
- Dark Biblical tales for young adults
- Brainstorming plots and characters for four different stories or novels
- A novel based on a short story written during NaNo
Things I have finished (sort of) since January 1, 2015
- A journal from the perspective of Mary, mother of Jesus
- An alien-cowboy story
- A dark Biblical tale about a demon possession
- A beta draft about dragons and teenagers with special abilities
- 60 blog posts
Things I need to focus on NOW
- Editing the dark Biblical tale which will be published in October
- Finishing the romance involving the invisible boyfriend (it will make sense, I promise)
- My next project
What should my next project be? You’ve seen the list. What do you think would be a good investment of my time – AND find a market with my readers?
what is your heart telling you to write? Whatever is tugging at you the most is the one I’d tackle first. If nothing is tugging at you in particular, then pick on and start writing. If it doesn’t resonate within you, you’ll put it aside and move on to something else. Keep doing this until you find ‘the one’. This is what’s worked for me in the past. Maybe it will work for you, too.
Thanks, Jenny.
I decided to try submitting a YA romance to an anthology, so I’m working on the first draft of that. I do want to get Doomsday Dragon in some sort of shape to submit (once I get your feedback). Based on the emotions that surface when I work on the memoir part of the NF project, I’m not quite ready to tackle that one just yet. And I had really hoped to pitch it to agents at a writer’s conference this summer. There might still be time – if my head gets in the right place.