by Lucy E. Zahnle

Created on: May 21, 2010   Last Updated: September 27, 2011

Many writers may view fiction and non-fiction as the antithesis of each other, but they are actually complementary approaches that cover an idea from different angles. In order to write good fiction, most writers must do research so that their characters, settings, and scenarios are believable. Conversely, non-fiction writers often find that a good example story whets their readers’ appetites for their non-fictional work. Writing both fiction and nonfiction can open up the twin worlds of entertainment and education for your readers while creating greater respect and credibility for you as a writer.

A well-developed non-fiction article that relates to your fictional work provides you as a novelist or short story writer with greater credibility amongst your readers. Your readers feel that they can trust the world and the characters that you have created in your stories, especially if those stories are set in the past, in exotic places, or if your characters have jobs that most people know little about. As a writer, you gain a reputation as both a great storyteller and a great scholar.

In addition to enhancing your reputation as a writer and adding credibility to your fictional work, writing non-fiction books and articles may introduce your work to a different set of readers than those who have read your fiction. Your non-fiction audience then becomes a potential new market for your fiction and vice-versa.

If you are doing a large amount of research for a novel or short story anyway, you can maximize your hours of work by using the same research to write non-fiction articles. When you research, you will probably dig up more information than you need for your fictional piece.  You can make the time you have spent researching more profitable by using both the information you have incorporated into your fiction and your extra unused information to write one or more non-fiction articles. 

If you freelance, writing non-fiction as well as fiction shows your versatility as a writer, demonstrating to prospective publishers and employers that you understand and can execute the different writing styles and approaches needed for their projects. With each new project you complete, your name and reputation will become more widely known and more work will follow.

All writers should explore both fiction and non-fiction writing. Authors who limit themselves to one type of writing also limit their potential as writers and as earners. Perhaps the hardest part of moving between fiction and non-fiction is shifting mental gears from that way of thinking that allows you to live in a fictional world you have created in a story to the more analytical, detailed, realistic approach demanded in a non-fiction piece. Once you have learned how to move back and forth between these approaches, planting one foot in the fictional world and one foot in the non-fictional world will become easier and feel more natural to you. Your mastery of both types of writing will open up the potential for a rich, varied, and satisfying writing career.

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