Moving from Fiction to Non Fiction

[Vessira]

So far I've written 2 stories and am slowly learning how to improve my work and such things. One of the next ideas I had is not a work of fiction, but non-fiction. I wonder if the other authors here have any advice? Any things you find common when making the transition (most of the stories I plan to write will be fiction, but this one in particular was too hard to resist). Trouble you've had in the past?

I appreciate your comments.
-Vess

 

[Weird Harold]

One of the next ideas I had is not a work of fiction, but non-fiction. I wonder if the other authors here have any advice?

A lot depends on what kind of "non-fiction" you're planning on writing -- about the only thing any non-fiction writing has in common is the need to get your facts in order.

Biography, Journalism, technical writing, popular science, and other non-fiction genres all have different levels of requirements for factual accuracy, but all of them are much more stringent than the requirement for accuracy in fiction.

Also, just as fiction generes have special tricks, techniques, and cliches that readers and writers expect -- because they work best for that genre -- so different types/genres of non-fiction have different tricks, techniques and cliches that work best for each specific essay.

 

[Vessira]

Well these would be lit stories.

A lot depends on what kind of "non-fiction" you're planning on writing -- about the only thing any non-fiction writing has in common is the need to get your facts in order.

Biography, Journalism, technical writing, popular science, and other non-fiction genres all have different levels of requirements for factual accuracy, but all of them are much more stringent than the requirement for accuracy in fiction.

Also, just as fiction generes have special tricks, techniques, and cliches that readers and writers expect -- because they work best for that genre -- so different types/genres of non-fiction have different tricks, techniques and cliches that work best for each specific essay.

 

[Weird Harold]

Well these would be lit stories.

The only difference between writing fictional erotica and relating a real life erotic incident is that you can't change the order or nature of events to suit the dramatic requirements of the story -- if you do it becomes a "fictionalized account based on a true story" instead of "non-fiction."

FWIW, you might as well fictionalize the story because nobody really believes a story that begins "this is a true story, the names have been changed to protect the guilty."

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Well these would be lit stories.

Vessira,
I've tried writing "non-ficton erotica" and found it doesn't really work that well. My rememberance of an incident is neither exact nor quite as interesting on paper as it seems in my mind.

Anything I write that is based on my own reality now is "fictionalized". That is the bare bones of the story is true but the characters, settings, etc are pure imagination to relate in an interesting way the occurance.

JJ