Thread: Focus on your writing genre?

Hello there. I'm currently writing a novel which I consider a non-fiction young adult drama one. However, I stopped writing since the past two weeks or so due to the lack of inspiration and demotivation. I believe this demotivation appeared because when recently reading works such as for istance a Harry Potter book I realise my work is missing a kind of spark. I'm not trying to compare the novel I'm writing to other books, but putting it this way, I jumped from a non-fiction drama to a fiction novel that has nothing to do at all with my novel. Different genres even though they are aimed for the same age range.
I wonder if this ever happens to you? If so, what do you do to fight this?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean when you say you are writing a non-fiction novel. Are you fictionalizing a true event? Fiction and non-fiction are written very differently for very different audiences. Fiction readers want an emotion-ridden entertainment experience. Readers of non-fiction find learning satisfying in itself and find overly emotional writing to be a distraction.


If your YA novel lacks a certain spark, are you writing in a non-fiction style, using logic and facts instead of emotion? What do you read? We tend to write the same as what we read. If you read too much non-fiction, it will be extremely difficult to write fiction. I have recently made this discovery myself and am seriously considering giving up fiction in favor of writing non-fiction. There are books out there that promise to help writers write more emotional characters. You could give one or two a try.

There is no such thing as a non-fiction novel. Non-fiction means it is fact. A novel is fiction by definition. You can write creative non-fiction, which is a true event written as a story rather than a report or textbook.To answer your question, however, yes. I currently have 4 short stories and 3 novels in production, because I sometimes get tired or stuck in one of them and feel like doing something else. The trick to being a successful writer, however, is to always go back and finish each story you started.