Fiction vs Nonfiction: Which Is Easier To Write?

[…] Fiction vs Nonfiction: Which Is Easier To Write? […]

Hey Rachel, good topic.

When I first read this, I thought oh this is easy– fiction is way harder. I can write non-fiction and it just flows but fiction I have to follow a lot more rules, craft, outline, and revise a lot more. But, then it hit me it is probably different for each writer. Some people can write fiction with confidence but ask them to write something non-fiction and it is like pulling teeth. I think in the end it depends on the writer.

I couldn’t agree more on all counts. Some Best Sellers have bored me to tears – Elizabeth Edwards “Saving Graces”, I didn’t even have the heart to donate it. Writing fiction and non fiction: just as difficult, but in fiction the writer can indulge and make up anything, that requires talent, no doubt, but real life…? that’s an art.

Great article….and while I agree that some folks may seem to share to much in Non Fiction,I can tell you that I write just for the internal and emotional release it gives me.

@Jinzo_2400

I think every type and and every genre requires it’s own level of skill. I write both fiction and nonfiction, but I mostly stay in fiction unless there is something “real world” want to share.

In the fiction realm (is my fantasy showing) a lot of people argue that fantasy and science fiction are more difficult to write than say a mystery or a thriller because you have to create a whole different world and somehow get the reader to believe it and understand it relative to our own. A thriller or a mystery you have to get more “real world” in about a general location or a place and you have to have some good red herrings to keep people guessing or risk straining the “suspension of disbelief”. If the reader guesses the killer to quickly before the big reveal then it’s a letdown.

Great article.

Personally, I write fiction because my nonfiction stinks. No one like it. They do think my fiction shows potential. I do like both though.