One of the wonderful things about writing non-fiction is the pleasure of completing pre-determined sections and getting that little adrenaline kick as you tick off one task closer to completion.
Because this book is based on my notes and already organized into an outline, I can see what I have left to accomplish and I know that every section I write takes me closer to the completion goal. As someone who is motivated by ticking off boxes and accomplishing stuff, that gives me a little moment of joy each time.
But I wonder if that’s where my fiction might have gone wrong before. I think I tried too hard to put my fantasy novel into the same kind of boxes and stick too rigidly to them. I do like outlining and, since my writing time is never as long as I would like, I like that it gives me the hints I need to get into the writing faster when I start a session. But let’s face it, at this point in my career, I do not know what the story needs or where it is going to go when I start out, so trying to block out every scene and interaction in advance probably wasn’t a good idea.
I won’t get that tick the box kick out of writing fiction, but hopefully the scenes I write will themselves be more exciting and enjoyable to write. In my latest craft reading (Still 2k to 10k), I have been reading about how important it is to be excited about your writing in order to hit efficiency targets. And, of course, I want to be excited about what I’m writing!
So, this next time, I’m going to try to keep the outline looser for my fiction. Non-fiction can give me that outline and completion kick.