Balancing Act -- Juggling Fiction and Nonfiction

By Charity Tahmaseb

Recently, a contest coordinator called to let me know I'd won a writing contest. She asked about my background, and I told her I worked as a contract technical writer.

"I can see that," she said. "Your sentences have a precision to them. But doesn't that make it hard to write fiction?"

Did it? For a moment, I couldn't think of an answer. I mumbled something incoherent-so much for precision-and assured her that, no, it wasn't as hard as all that.

Or was it?

The question forced me to think about juggling fiction with nonfiction and took me back to when I first made the switch to contract technical writing. It was in the wake of a layoff, one that came five weeks into my maternity leave.

My son was a "grazer," the type of baby who thrived on nursing every two hours. I survived, surprisingly enough, by reading. During one of those two a.m. sessions, I drew inspiration along with comfort from the words. I knew I wanted to write. I wanted to write for a living and pursue my long-buried dream of trying my hand at fiction.

A new baby, a new job, all combined with learning the craft of fiction. Some days, it didn't seem possible. Some days, it still doesn't.

But in eight years, I've written four novels and I'm working on a fifth. I may not be the fastest writer on the planet, but I manage. I write where I can. No "room of one's own" for me. I'll find a quiet corner during a lunch break, or eke out a few sentences while the kids and the puppy play tag around my desk.

What has surprised me most about technical writing is it often takes a great deal of creativity. A solution to a documentation problem might demand some outside-the-box thinking. If I'm writing a software manual from scratch, I can forget doing any other kind of writing until the project is complete. Sometimes, my fiction ends up on the back burner, or completely off the stove.

And yet I wouldn't trade this balancing act for anything.

Oh, sure, I dream of the day when my fiction is in such demand that it's all I need to write to keep my son in Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and my daughter in Hello Kitty shoes. Over the years, I've learned I'm a compost writer. My fiction ideas develop slowly. They need to ferment in the back of my mind. I need to think about the story long before I write it. I also need time when I'm not consciously thinking about what I'd like to write.

Switching between creative projects doesn't work for me. Stewing about a problem with my novel in progress might drive me crazy. However, technical writing has come to the rescue time and time again. After a week immersed in work, I'll wake up on Saturday morning with the answer to a troublesome scene or a key insight into character motivation.

It's still a balancing act. I have days when characters tempt me to the page. I visualize scenes during my commute, peck quick notes into my handheld computer during lunch, and perhaps add a few paragraphs after work. Amazingly, the busier I am, the more I get done.

I'm also well aware of the realities of publishing. Most authors need to supplement their writing income in some manner (unless their names start with Nora and end with Roberts). I count myself lucky that I can use words in my day job. Even better, more often than not, the balancing act works.

To read last month's Writer's Life article, click here

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