If you’re writing non-fiction, you should know that there’s more than one type of writer. Depending on the genre you choose, you may need to be classified as either a technical or creative writer. A technical writer focuses on the facts, methodology, and figures while a creative writer focuses on more of the story and personality. Before answering the question, let’s define some more terms:
Fiction
Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, when you reach the end of a project, you typically have a stack of paper, or an electronic file, that you need to go through and edit. Fiction is pretty self-explanatory; it’s the type of writing you might find in a novel or a short story. When you’re writing fiction, you have the freedom to make it up as you go along. You don’t have to stick to the facts, nor do you need to follow a particular order. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that when readers finish your work, they’ll want to know what happened next.
Non-Fiction
Non-fiction is probably the most commonly assigned genre in schools. This is because non-fiction writing requires a lot more organization and preparation. In non-fiction, you’re often given a topic to research and write about. You’ll need to gather as much information as possible before you start writing, and you’ll also need to follow a particular formatting guide, or style sheet, so that your work can look as professional as possible. The biggest difference between technical writing and creative writing in non-fiction is that while the former focuses on the facts, the latter focuses more on the story and making it easy to understand by the reader.
Narrative
A narrative is a type of non-fiction that takes the form of a story. In a narrative, you’ll typically have a protagonist, who is either a person, place, thing, or event, that the audience is meant to identify with. For example, if you are writing about the Great Barrier Reef, your protagonist may be a child studying marine biology. Your protagonist’s journey will be the focus of the story, and throughout the writing process, you’ll switch back and forth between showing (or telling) the events that led up to the main situation, as well as describing the events themselves. The Great British Bake Off, for instance, is a narrative about a person who bakes various types of cakes, trying to become the best baker in Great Britain. During the season, we learn that Mel and Sue are sisters, who grew up together in a small mill town in England, where they both share an aptitude for baking.
Technical Information
If you’re writing technical information such as a how-to guide or a how-to movie, you’ll need to decide at the outset how much of the technical details you want to include. If you decide to go for it all, you may end up with a lengthy tome that nobody will read. It’s better to write a shorter, more concise version of the technical details, and leave out anything that isn’t necessary. The last thing you want to do is to write a thousand word essay on how to fix your car, when a five-word guide will do.
Instructional
An instructional is a type of non-fiction that is designed to teach someone something. You’ll typically need to decide how much of the instruction you want to include, and you’ll need to write it in such a way that the most experienced person in the field can easily understand it. For example, if you are writing an instructional guide for plumbers, you might want to include details such as which tools to use and the proper way to use them. You want to write in a way that it can be easily referenced by others, especially other plumbers. Including too many details can make your work hard to follow, and, at the very least, it’ll make it easier for someone else to write a more in-depth guide on the same subject.
Creative Writing
If you’re writing creative non-fiction, you’ll have to decide at the outset what type of story you want to tell. You may decide to write about a subject matter that you’re passionate about, or you may want to write about a matter that you’ve never really thought about before. Regardless, you’ll have to decide what type of story you want to tell, and then craft the material so that it fits the narrative. When it comes to creative non-fiction, you have the freedom to make it up as you go along, so long as you stay true to the original concept. In creative non-fiction, you don’t necessarily need to have a protagonist, but you should have a main character who plays a role in the story. Your main character should be someone who the reader can relate to, or who they might even want to become like in some way (referred to as a ‘role model’). For example, in The Art of War, Sun Tzu wrote about the importance of having a clear-cut goal, which is to ‘win’. While he was extremely strategic and practical in the way he went about attaining that goal, most people can still relate to his desire to ‘win’.
Why Are There Different Types of Writers?
So, why are there different types of writers? It’s a common question, and the answer is that there are different types of writers for a reason. While writing a guidebook might sound like a straightforward task, it actually requires a lot of preparation, research, and practice. As a result, there are a variety of specialties that one might follow, such as legal for fiction, or non-fiction, narrative non-fiction, or educational. If you’re passionate about a certain topic and you want to tell the world about it, you might consider a career in journalism, or even better, freelancing as a sports journalist, because there are plenty of opportunities to write about your favorite subject matter. On the other hand, if you’d like to write creatively and don’t mind experimenting with different genres, you could consider a career in fiction, as long as you have the talent and are willing to put the practice in.