Non-fiction Writing is Creative

People want to believe that technical writing is a rote and mechanical task and that, therefore, it should be quick and easy.  Of course, the people who think that clearly have not done much technical or non-fiction writing.

It's a mistake to think that there is no creativity involved in non-fiction work.  To the contrary, it can be very creative, and there are times when the creativity is just not flowing. You hear fiction writers talk about writer's block or the inability to "get into the flow," and people just accept it as part of the creative process for them.

But when a grant writer or technical writer gets blocked or says "it's just not coming together," people tend to blame the writer's organizational skills or overall writing ability.

I do a lot of non-fiction and technical writing, including grant writing (and I really do mean a lot). Here's a news flash - there is nothing mechanical or rote about it. Each piece is different and has different demands. There's a learning curve involved with every single piece that does not burden fiction writers (for the most part), and it cannot be accomplished alone.  I simply must have data or other information of some kind from someone else in order to do my work.  If they are behind, then I am behind. I can't just make it up (even though I have been known to be very creative sometimes).

Still, just like a fiction writer, I get to enjoy an amazing sense of accomplishment when each piece is finished.  If it's a grant proposal that gets funded, I will get to see a real program or set of services come to life where before there was nothing. Wow! It's really an incredible feeling.

So, if you are a non-fiction or technical writer, stop feeling like a second class citizen right this minute! You are a writer. Celebrate that...and go create something that wasn't in existence before.

The Creative Power in Writing .....Alone

For all that is said about collaboration, writing is, ultimately, a very solitary act. It's also very personal.  The transference of ideas from my own thoughts to the written page is creative, and threatening, and exhilarating - all at once. And it's really hard to do when there is noise and activity all around.  Of course, some people are really good at shutting out the world and being alone in a crowded room when necessary (and I am definitely one of those people), but there is something magical about being alone when writing.

My favorite time to write is in the late afternoon when all of my staff have gone for the day, or in the early morning before they get in, or on a weekend when they are gone.  This is not because I don't enjoy (and need!) their company.  To the contrary, they are creative, and talented, and they help me see the world and the projects I work on from a perspective I might never see on my own.

Still, I can hear my thoughts better when they are not drowned out by telephone calls, other conversations outside my office, the ping of the microwave oven alerting someone that her snack is ready, and the laughter from the other room as someone tells someone else a funny story.  It's not that I mind the activity outside my office.  It's just that I want to be part of it, and focus is difficult. In that setting, I have to work very hard to get my thoughts to come together.

When I'm alone, my thoughts are free to dance onto the page without distraction. After a few hours, the misshapen, colored shards of ideas in bits and pieces come together like a beautiful stained glass window.

There was a time in my life when I feared the silence of being alone.  I would try to fill it with talk, music, activity - anything to avoid learning what my mind say if I stopped to listen.

Now I welcome it. It's in that stillness where I can tap into the Creator - in prayer, or meditation, or any type of reflection or thought, and I get to glimpse a bit of the creative power.

I have heard people say that grant writing isn't creative, and I can imagine that some of you may be wondering how I could possibly see grant writing or any type of technical writing as the creative, spiritual act I just described.  I can because I choose to see it that way.  I choose to experience it that way.  I choose to make it part of the way I allow God to create something amazing through me. 

Aldous Huxley wrote, "Silence is as full of the potential wisdom and wit as the unhewn marble of a great sculpture."

I wholeheartedly agree.