I heard what they all said. Pick one. Pick one for a major: creative writing or journalism. Pick one for a focus: poetry or real life stories. Pick one for a blog: fiction or nonfiction.
It never felt right for me to pick one, but I signed on to the belief that it was one or the other for too, too long.
And then I wrote a fiction book the same year I wrote a nonfiction book, and I asked the question over and over and over, because there needed to be a choice. I could not do both, or so I thought.
Maybe it’s because nonfiction felt too hard, like I was baring too much of myself, like I was sharing more than I should about the people I love, like I was cutting open and bleeding all over a page. Fiction was clothed in metaphors, so I could bleed all I wanted and no one would ever know.
But I could not escape my love for both.
Nonfiction is scary, opening all those secret places, but I needed to tell my story, and I needed to affirm and heal others in their similar stories, and I needed to go to war for the hearts of all those locked and chained by life and death and all the world in between.
Fiction is lovely, spinning its lyrical webs around a heart so it stays hidden and safe and soft, healing in the deep down without a person even knowing it.
But all those “experts,” they said one or the other if you want to be successful, if you want to be taken seriously, if you want to be called a real writer.
I don’t believe them anymore.
The years I have spent in journalism, chasing stories, crafting questions, writing to deadlines and space counts are years that have shaped my writing voice and years that have taught me how to tell a story and years that have shown me how to create something from what looks like nothing at first glance.
Those years have made me a better story-seer.
Story seeing is what we need to be story tellers. Story seeing means watching the moon at night, the way the clouds look like opaque veils shimmering across its glow and finding the right words to speak about beauty and warmth and summer night. Story seeing means turning that dad-leaving into a narrative of hope and joy and forgiveness. Story seeing means feeling the frustration of a won’t-go-to-bed child and writing about the ways they are changing us with their very presence.
So, every day, I write in journals. I have a many of them. Nonfiction, for all the inspiration that might find its way into a piece. Fiction, for snippets of conversation or the description of a sky or an unexpected plot line twist. A mama journal, for all the maddening challenges and wonderful moments of being a mama. A writer’s journal, for the stuck places and the doubt places and the hope-and-dream places. A brainstorm journal, for all the ideas that come to mind (no idea is too silly…they’re all written down). A write-every-day journal, for the practice every day (at least 15 minutes of it, if I can’t get more). A general journal, for all the rest of life.
Sometimes those entries just stay in the journal. Sometimes they turn into nonfiction pieces or fiction stories or poems or songs. No matter what they may become, there is a place for everything.
Because the writing I do, of course it’s for the world, but mostly it’s for me. The nonfiction and the fiction help me work out the hard places in life, and they help me celebrate all the wonder of the world, and they help me recognize the broken places that need my words to heal and affirm and lift up and become.
It doesn’t have to be fiction OR nonfiction, not in my world. It can be fiction AND nonfiction.
I choose both.
What about you? Do you lean toward fiction or nonfiction, and why? Do you believe it has to be one or the other?
Welcome to The Ink Well Creative Community.
The Ink Well Community is evolving. While this used to be a place where I posted a prompt for writers to share their creative works, I have been receiving several inquiries about my process, how I create and read and manage a household with half a dozen little ones. So I thought we could turn this into a community of people who share about the creative process in all its many facets, from where we find our inspiration to when we find time to create (especially if we work other jobs). I’ll be sharing struggles about my creative life and logistical information about my particular creative process and what I’m learning about creativity, among many other things. I hope you’ll weigh in with your own struggles and observations and lessons. Let’s start a conversation. Let’s encourage one another. Let’s live the creative life together.
And if you have your own questions about creativity or process or inspiration, feel free to visit my contact page and send me a note.
