Technical writing versus creative writing: Lessons learnt

SUMMARY: Churning out a fiction piece has been both a humbling and rewarding journey.  What have I learnt from my journey? A few things...

Writing (i.e., technical commentary and writing position papers) is a core part of my day job. That said, for long, I’ve intended to take a stab at creative writing. And this year, I’ve self-published a short novel (novella), a corporate thriller, ‘Black and White Smoke’, which has been in the works for several years.

The switch from technical to creative writing is pretty much like a sports person switching across broadly similar yet fundamentally different sports (e.g., tennis to squash; or MMA to boxing). One can’t simply carry over a skill set from one to the other.  There’s a whole corpus on the creative writing craft (including on YouTube and Master Classes), and I’ve faced a steep learning curve, including having to reorient myself from an exposition to an entertainment mindset. Reading the works of other fiction writers and general broad reading (non-fiction, including autobiographical books) was also an essential and very helpful part of building the creative writing muscles, and I’ve loved the learning process.

Suffice it to say that churning out a fiction piece has been both a humbling and rewarding journey.  What have I learnt from my journey? A few things. For both technical and creative writing,

• A powerful hook at the start is critical at the macro-level and micro-level. That is, a powerful start in fiction writing, an abstract and executive summary in non-fiction, and a gripping first sentence and first paragraph is vital to draw in readers. Thus, one has to invest heavily in the opening.

• There are artistic and subjective aspects. Like chefs preparing a dish, an author has discretion on the ingredients to use, and she/he has a distinct voice that should come through. Nonetheless, it is important to pay attention to accepted conventions/best practices, and to only breach these with good cause.

• Some degree of engineering and upfront design is required to ensure cogent flow and to avoid meandering narration.

• Planning is important but there is discovery in the journey.

• An alluring rhythm and cadence of prose and macro-content across the content boosts readability. This is the case across chapters and within chapters (i.e., at paragraph, chapter, scene, or sub-section). For instance, in technical writing, this can be achieved by mixing narrative with visuals. And, in fiction, by sequencing chapters of varied pace or nature. Variety in substance and form contributes to engaging content. Relatedly, prose can be enhanced by variety in the sentence structure and length.

More to follow on the above in the coming months. start.