Making Your Way

Once again tonight( or is it morning now?) I am reminded that each writer travels their own path. While some are singularly fiction minded others snub their nose at that market and concentrate on 'what sells'. It frustrates me to no end that others' opinions might keep a new writer from pursuing their goals. For me I can say that nonfiction is something I write for money. Not that I don't enjoy it, but still.... Fiction I write for love. There's no other way to describe the process and differences between the two. I guess I find nonfiction easy, so I don't think about it terms of what it can do because in my mind it is a short lived piece of work. But fiction, on the other hand is very subjective. I find it immensely intriguing for that reason. How do you move one person, or a whole nation for that matter, to feel exactly what you feel as you type the words on the page? What is it that instinctively connects the writer with the reader? How can someone read mere words on a page and allow it to effect their whole life ...And their children's lives?

I can tell you it doesn't really happen like that in nonfiction. You are reporting or helping, but you aren't impacting the way that person sees their universe. I was told a while back that fiction is for fools, I should write what sells. I can only laugh at the shortsightedness of this person. How many people remember the works of nonfiction from the 19th century? Anyone?? I'll bet very few even from the 20th century. But how many of you read Uncle Tom's Cabin? The Scarlet Letter? Gone with the Wind? Shakespeare? What great quotes do you remember?

"Romeo, Romeo where for art thou?" Romeo & Juliet
"You had the power in you all the time." Glenda the Goodwitch-Wizard of Oz
"Frankly Scarlett, I don't give a damn!" Gone with the Wind

"Non Fiction may pay the bills, but fiction will change the world. " Dee Burks

And you can quote me on that one.