As I made my career as a nonfiction writer, I never gave up writing fiction. I used to laughingly call it my hobby. I finally began to publish, and have some short stories, a science fiction novel and its sequel, and a couple of dozen YA and children's novels.

I know from experience that it can be harder for a professional nonfiction writer to spend time on fiction than for a novice, because our writing time is "supposed" to be for writing paying work. How can we justify expending our energy on something that will likely never pay off?

Here are three reasons:

1. Writing fiction is fun.

2. It can help sharpen and freshen nonfiction that has perhaps become stale.

3. It might pay off. Claire Tristram's first novel, After-to be published this May by Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, one of the most prestigious literary houses in the business-was encouraged by an agent who had seen her work in small literary magazines.
Fine, I can hear you say. But I don't have time to write fiction. Sorry-no excuses. There are at least two ways to fit fiction into a busy writing life:

1. Take time and give yourself permission. My first novel was written just after I had just finished a very difficult book that required two solid years of research and writing. I was exhausted, and this story was nagging at me, so I took six weeks off from "real" writing, just for me, and wrote the rough draft.

Maybe because I had given myself permission, I was able to simply go with it and flow. I felt at times as if the book were being dictated to me from the beyond. I awoke each morning excited to get back to the typewriter to find out what would happen next. Getting published was much harder, of course. Altogether I spent six years and fourteen complete drafts before Pandora's Genes was finally published.

The genesis of Claire Tristram's novel was similar: "I had worked very hard the year before and found myself in the fortunate position of having 6 months' extra savings. I planned to take 4 months off to write a short novel. I'd deliberately chose a story I knew I'd be able to complete in that time--only 2 main characters, and a very short timeframe (1 day), and a completely understandable premise that I could explain to myself in a three-sentence synopsis. That kept me from attempting to write one of those three-generations-of-women things that would have taken years."

2. If you can't take time, make time. ASJA member Kelly James-Enger, author of the novel, Did you Get the Vibe? (Strapless, 2003), reports That she tries to work on fiction every single day, "even if it's just fifteen to thirty minutes. (Some days, That's all I can spare.) I'd do it either first thing in the morning, or in the evening after I've had a break so I feel fresh. I've tried shoe-horning it into the middle of my day but that doesn't seem to work."

I too try to write at least a little fiction ever day. I still think of it as taking time 'just for me" (self-nourishment, like getting a massage!). My practice has been to write a minimum of one paragraph each day (or, if I can't manage a paragraph, at least a sentence). I generally write these at night after I am already in bed. I realize that "one paragraph" or "one sentence" doesn't sound like much. But somehow my subconscious keeps track of what I am doing and finds those words for me, no matter how tired I am. The amazing thing is that when I read them days or even weeks later, those odd paragraphs and sentences often hang together. I wrote the entire first draft of my award-winning YA novel Going to See Grassy Ella in exactly this way.

What about you? Are you ready to start or continue with a fiction project? I'll be back every other month to encourage you and offer practical advice on fiction writing for the nonfiction author. Please email and let me know if there are any particular topics you'd like me to cover in the future.

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