Non-Fiction is Writing, Too!

So here's the deal. After my last blog post, which was a somewhat distraught rendition of a writer in distress (read it here), I've decided I wasn't altogether incorrect in that my dream was wrong. But I wasn't altogether correct, either.

The thing is that yes, I'm a writer. And I remember a couple of years ago that I decided I was just going to be a non-fiction writer. Because that's what I liked and that's what I was good at.

But then, you know, you see your friends writing fiction. And you read lots of awesome fiction novels. And you're in awe, and want to create worlds like that. And you start to think, this is where the art is. This is where the cool stuff is. This is where I want to be.

And so what do you do? You make it your dream to be a novelist even though you'd already decided a while back that it wasn't your forte. And here, my friends, is where I went wrong.

The truth is that me, Elizabeth Haynes, the writer, really likes writing non-fiction. And I was perhaps a little ashamed of that inclination, feeling like it was a step down from the "real" writers of the world. Because as I bemoaned in my last post, the "real" writers are often said to be the ones who create mystical worlds of living characters who have never breathed real air and yet somehow come alive.

Well, I've decided that I'm silly. Non-fiction is "real" writing, too.

Yesterday I got two see two new magazine clips of mine, both of them cover stories that I'd written and that were just published. And both were, well, journalism. Which is non-fiction. Which is telling stories - just like fiction - except that the people are real. And I was really proud of my work.

So I scratch my chin and say to myself, I think that maybe I like journalism. I was talking to my husband about it last night and I suddenly realized that telling real stories is just as valid as telling fake ones. What's wrong with that? Who made me the authority on what is art and what isn't? Why does art always have to be fake? Isn't photography real?

And to be honest, if I want to dissect everything a bit more (I do), I tell stories all the time in my writing. I tell businesses' stories, I tell success stories, I tell product stories, I tell biographical stories. I write people's resumes to tell their career stories. I do tell stories, just not in the fiction sense.

So yes, I will keep writing. And yes, I still want to be a writer. I think I just got a little off track for a bit. Derailed. Runaway train sort of thing. Because that's what happens when I derail - everything snow balls and I lay on the floor in ball of wadded up emotion. Ok well it wasn't that dramatic, but it did cause me to lose a bit of sleep.

And now that I've gotten this all out of my brain, I'll go exercise a little bit. And get back to work. My freelance work! Which I absolutely love. Every non-fiction bit of it.