by Tasnova Malek, MD

When you’re a writer, questions from friends and family run the gamut from worry to envy and everything in between.

How do you ignore distractions?

Aren't you worried you won't make enough money to survive?

Where will you get your story ideas?

My answers to the first two were cut and dried.

• I'll do my best not to.

• Yes, but not for a while since I've done my financial homework.

As for the third, it called for more explanation. When most people hear you're a writer, they assume you're working on the Great American Novel. And while obviously, it's true for many, as a primarily nonfiction writer, it wasn't, and still isn’t, true for me. And oddly, this matter of writing non-fiction, far from satisfying their curiosity, elicited a widely held assumption.

“But Wouldn't You Make More Money With Novels?”

Yes, if I wrote books that amass a huge following like J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books or Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series have. But when you look at the big picture, according to Forbes magazine, adult non-fiction books have been out-selling adult fiction since 2013.

“Isn't Writing Non-fiction Boring? Kind of Like Writing a Term Paper?”

Non-fiction calls for wide-ranging research and using the information you find to creatively craft an article in a way that will hold a reader's interest. If you’re successful in this, you can pique someone’s curiosity so much that they’ll seek to find out more about the topic. It calls for being a wordsmith and putting a lot of thought into the words you choose. And after you select the right words, you’ll probably need to flip them around like an ’80s era Rubik’s Cube until they click perfectly into place. To me, that's anything but boring.

“But Wouldn't Writing Fiction Be Easier?”

I think that's a misconception, but it's a tribute to authors who make it seem so effortless — as if the words just flow out their fingers. In reality, writing fiction can be grueling. What you see on the page is probably at least the third iteration of the novel. It's the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

Before a writer finishes her first rough draft, she likely spends hours staring at the ceiling waiting for the story she had in mind to take some sort of shape. And when it does, she has to trust that it will take her to where it wants to go, if only she lets it. This is not the time for making sense of it. It's the time for trusting that this spark of creativity will grow bright enough for the second step — mapping out a credible story line. And since it's not yet built in stone, she may have to untangle the line and reweave it several times before she can even think about the characters who will live in it.

And that brings us to the third task, creating a world populated by characters that her readers will either love or hate. Creating the first type of persona is actually the easier of the two. But any story that readers can get their teeth into has to have an antagonist as well as a protagonist. It needs a white-hatted good guy to identify with and care about, but it’s the black-hatted villain that keeps the readers turning pages late into the night. Compared to these foundation steps, putting the words down on paper (which is what most people think of when they think of writing a story) — is practically effortless.

“Sure, Writing is Hard. But Writers Have All Day to Do It in the Comfort of Their Homes.”

First of all, not all writers work from their homes. And when they do, that comes with its own challenges. It’s far easier to get distracted when you’re surrounded by your favorite books, your family, your pets, and endless other diversions. 

And the idea of having all day to work on a project can lead to procrastination, especially when you’re up against a subject you’re not particularly interested in. So keeping to a schedule is key. Some writers do their best work later in the day, and so they tend to sleep in. This can put them out of sync with family and friends, and life can become pretty isolated if they let it.

Isolation can open up the door to taking a drink to relax and inspire. And as the creative juices loosen up and begin to flow, one drink can lead to two to keep them flowing. Authors like Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and John Steinbeck are well known for their propensities for writing while under the influence. But theirs was not an old boys club. Edna St. Vincent Millay, Carson McCullers, and Dorothy Parker also famously took a sip or two as they wrote. This is not to say that all writers overindulge in alcohol any more than all doctors, lawyers, or chefs do. It's just that the comfort of being home plus the ability to write at any hour can grant permission to turn to alcohol or drugs to stimulate creative juices.

And so writing is great work if you can get it, and you can get it if you try — and try, and try again. Success in writing — like in most fields, only comes with hard work and dedication to your craft. But if you love what you do, it often doesn’t feel like work at all.

Sources

investopedia.com - The Top Selling Book Series of All Time

newyorker.com - Man of Mystery

forbes.com - Traditional Publishers Are Selling Way More Non-fiction Than Fiction

yourdictionary.com - Wordsmith Meaning

Sunshinebehavioralhealth.com - Non-12-Step Treatment in Colorado Springs, CO

Tasnova Malek, MD, graduated from Bangladesh Medical College and practiced as a primary care physician for six years in Bangladesh. After moving to the USA, she worked at Emory University Hospital in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Hospital medicine research. During COVID-19, she worked as a crisis counselor in Florida Corona Virus Emergency Response Team. Currently, she is working in the National Suicidal Prevention Center. In addition, she has extensive research experience in medicine and psychiatry in the USA.