My Transition from Blogger to Fiction Writer
After several years as a serious blogger, I made the transition from writing non-fiction blog posts to writing fiction. It was a huge change. One I honestly didn’t think I had in me. I had always thought people who wrote fiction were different from me. They were the people who had dreamed of writing since they were a kid. The people who felt as though they would perish if they couldn’t write. I fell into neither category.
In fact, I learned to write almost by accident, through years of writing papers in graduate school. My skills grew with each mark of my professors’ red pens. I couldn’t help but improve. To obtain my degrees I had to get with the program and write properly.
It seemed to me that fiction writers were “real” writers. I’m not sure what I thought blogging was, but I didn’t give it enough credit in the “writer” department. (Now I realize that there are all types of writing, just different forms of it – all worthy.) Fiction intimidated me. I didn’t have the audacity to write fiction. That was like saying, “Hey, I really think I can write!” And I didn’t have the confidence to do that. Not at first.
The first fictional passage I ever wrote was a sexy scene inspired by a dream I’d had. Embarrassed as hell, I showed it to my boyfriend (now husband). He’s a slow reader and every second he was reading felt like an eternity. I curled up in the fetal position and almost sucked my thumb waiting for his reaction. I felt like an artist at a gallery opening who wanted to hear what people thought of his work, but hid in the back room for fear they wouldn’t like it.
I was shocked when he told me he thought it was better than anything else I’d ever written. I tried not to be miffed. Had to reminded myself that he was NOT dissing my years of blogging, rather he was praising my fictional work. (Artistic types can sometimes be ultra sensitive aka. pains in the ass. Have you noticed?) He followed up his assessment with the information that he used to listen to Playboy radio all the time and my piece was as good as anything they featured. Um, Great I think…
Heartened by his positive feedback, I began my writing journey. Boy, did I have a lot to learn. I didn’t know anything about story structure or the guidelines for writing a romance (like that it needed a happily ever after.) That stumped me because I love tragedy. Oh well. I had to learn to nix passive voice, repeating words = bad, and you’ve got to show, not tell. These are things we don’t worry about as much in non-fiction writing, though repetitive words probably suck no matter what you’re writing. But as a blogger you don’t have an editor red-lining all your favorite words because you overuse them.
Somehow I made it. Crossed over the bridge from non-fiction blogger to published fiction writer. It’s been an interesting journey, and I’m still learning. LOTS! I try to read a book on “the craft” of writing at least every quarter, if not every month. And I take online classes. (I love those.) I can tell you, the transition can be made.
If you write non-fiction – you already know how to write. You already have the basic writing skills you need. Just give it a try. The best thing you can do is actually write. Write some more, and then some more. Take classes. Read about writing, and have people you trust critique your work. You can’t help but learn from your mistakes and you get better all the time!
Leave me a comment and let me know about your journeys. I love to hear about other writers’ paths. Good luck!
You can find my debut novella, Venetian Love Knots here:
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