When Authors Make the Transition | Writing and Publishing News

I finished another novel?my second this year. What fun. This one is also what I call a light-mystery. I think they are now termed ?cozy mysteries.? It was fun, yet frustrating to present all of the clues in logical order. I found that if I changed the order of an event, I sometimes had to go back and double check to make sure I didn?t also move the discovery of a clue to a place where it comes in too soon or too late.

Those of you who write this type of story know exactly what I?m talking about. Those who read mysteries may take the placement of clues and the flow of a story for granted. Or you marvel at how the writer makes the story work and keeps track of all of the events and activities that move the story along.

I am a newbie when it comes to this type of writing. But I wonder if my years of experience with nonfiction writing?where organization is key?may help some. I?m sure it can?t hurt. Where a lifetime of nonfiction writing may create a problem for someone who wants to suddenly dabble in fiction is when it comes to storytelling. Can a ?give-me-the-facts-ma?am? writer turn into a storyteller?

I know of a few who have made the transition beautifully and a few others who, while selling thousands of copies of their nonfiction niche books, have produced novels with multitudes of elementary problems.

As a nonfiction writer turned novelist, what have been your greatest challenges? As a fiction writer turned article writer, what has been the most difficult tests?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2012 at 5:43 am and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog/?p=2440

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