I’ve had quite a long break from creative writing and finally catching up this weekend. Not actually writing but typing up notes and finally released my first short story collection to Smashwords. The last time I wrote creatively was my failed attempt at the NaNoWriMo. Since then I’ve mostly done technical and discursive writing. This post covers my thoughts on the differences in motivation and thought processes between technical and creative writing.
(note: Long read. Actually ended up longer than intended.)
Technical – work
On the creative side of things I haven’t to write anything fresh since Nanowrimo (Nov 2013), although I managed to type up some short stories earlier this year that I’ve had on paper for the last year or two. Nanowrimo was unfortunate but life got in the way and I had to abandon much of my free time. It all worked out in the end so no complaints.
Since January I’ve been engaged in mostly technical writing for work, this is only part of my job but it is a necessary part of the role. The documents should be concise and easy to read, include pictures / tables / diagrams as necessary, such that someone can pick it up read it (mostly) independent of other documents. Obviously there is always some minimum level of required knowledge but I need to be clear where I’ve assumed something and be sure that I’ve defined everything.
I’m reluctant to share the details of those documents so the above is slightly contextless. However, one thing that I can do which I’m not sure that others in my workplace can is to compare the technical writing process with that of the creative writing process.
I’m not saying that technical writing is completely devoid of creativity but rather it is much more constrained and often well defined that the outcome (the final document) in advance of starting the document. In some ways this makes writing such a document easier, and can be a case of just sitting down and writing it.
The process benefits from the fact that I’m writing about something I know a lot about, and in all cases this year the details have not been complicated. Naturally, I didn’t write any document without flaw in the first attempt but rather each document underwent numerous revisions. Feedback (from coworkers) is a necessary part of the process and part of the “formal” procedure which makes it easier to revise something when it has been agreed what needs to change: no need to second guess your own decisions.
All of the above points are why I find technical writing easier, admittedly it hasn’t been the hardest technical writing, but it also helps to get paid. The document gets finished because it’s part of my job hence I’m paid to do it.
Technical – PhD
An example of hard(er) technical writing was my PhD. While I was an (or became) expert in the area of research my thesis didn’t have a known structure before I started it. Nor was the outcome of my research known at the point I started.
As such a document takes a long time to write I figured it was best to start it well in advance. I actually started my thesis before some older people (who were due to graduate a couple of years before me) actually started theirs. What can I say? I was keen to get writing it and put my ideas on to paper.
While the research was tricky and vacillated between fun / interesting and “damn it this doesn’t work”, writing the thesis was mostly fun. Removed from the research I actually enjoyed talking and writing about my subject. The main motivation was graduating with an advanced degree as well as getting it done so I could move on with life.
Discursive – blogging
Despite creating my website back in 2009 and that most of the content is “blogging”, I still loathe the word. For me, the word has connotations of (melo)drama: people open up on their blog and provide a stream of consciousness about their daily routines. My desire to text-dump my daily routine isn’t anywhere on my priority list. Sure I’ve made the odd rant status on Facebook but I’ve mostly weaned myself off of that. My modestly contrarian views on life and the universe are often met with hostility. ^_^
While I try to avoid outright contention I can’t help but write with an overly cynical or critical tone when it comes to discursive writing. That is my perspective of my own writing, I’m not sure how it sounds to readers. That said, I’ve tried to be less contentious or confrontational. I’ve found that avoiding forums and not participating in the comments section of newspapers (etc) helps to stay calm (and sleep well at night 😉 ).
On discursive writing itself, as a process, I do find it easier. The reasons for this are corroborative with my comments above on technical writing. I’m not paid but generally the outcome is well known before I start; I already have an idea of what I want to say and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel before I start. All of my discursive writing pieces are sub-5000 words (iirc) which also helps for staying focused.
Creative
… and finally on to creative writing, and for clarity: writing fiction. Of all the types of writing mentioned here this is the most fun but also the hardest. Creating a universe isn’t the hard part, but writing believable characters that exist in that universe is. Keeping the momentum going to write a full length story in a universe that you create with little or no structure has been tough.
The motivation for creative writing isn’t there in the same way either: if I complete my work and get it published then I might make make some money. A huge if with much uncertainty. Unlike writing technical documents at work where the writing is a part of my job, the structure is clear and I’m paid to do it.
Creative writing was something I did at school in English classes, I always avoided discursive but I didn’t know how to tackle that. Most (all?) of what I wrote at school was either sci-fi or fantasy (no surprise!) but all of the pieces were short (a couple of pages of A4 at most).
Outside of school I eventually started to create various SF&F universes as games. In some cases I created games around well-known universes such as StarTrek and StarWars. I created ships, planets and species and wrote a brief backstory of how they would fit together and also consistently with a universe that already existed. This part of writing is always the most fun but in many ways also the most distracting. As I’ve got older I always promised myself that I would eventually get something published. In order to focus on writing I had to work with a universe that I had already created and try to cut down the distractions.
As I probably discussed in a previous blogpost it wasn’t until I left high school that I actually tried to write a full length SF&F novel. In those days I disdained short stories as an “improper” use of time; how could something be exciting and also grand in scale if it was sub-10,000 words? That was roughly my line of thinking but the counter-side to that is that writing a full length novel is a lot of work.
The fantasy novel that I started circa 2002 (can’t quite recall) was first written and basically complete (structurally) and circa 50k words. Quite far short of what I thought a real novel should have. Not long after I started to write my sci-fi novel which eventually stalled at 30-40k words with about half of the plot written. That sci-fi novel is based upon notes that I created at high school and is the same universe in my newly completed collection of short stories.
The fantasy book was eventually re-written in 2009 / 2010 and is now at 100k words with approximately 95% of the structure complete. It has dangled there at the end point since. I’ve lack the motivation to finish it. Partly because I couldn’t figure out how to make it end and partly because I couldn’t figure out what I’d do with it was it was finished. My initial goal was to write and then publish it to lulu (I’ve also considered going the traditional route, that can be another post). I didn’t quite get there.
Motivation is tough, pay is currently non-existent, the structure is chaotic and inevitably the writing stalled. However, I did eventually get something published. Next post coming up!