Naima B. Robert – Fiction or nonfiction How to choose
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Hey, guys. Salam, and good day. It's, wonderful
to be on here
just after having spoken to a lovely lady
who,
wants to write a book.
And
she was a young lady who booked a
call with me
about the usage part, which is
gender
inequality.
So she has some strong ideas about gender
inequality
and she
she really wants to talk about these and
share her opinion, her view on them,
in a book. And so we had a
conversation,
and in that conversation,
something really interesting happened.
I found out that this young lady wants
to write a novel
to share a message. Right?
So her idea is to put this message
out there,
but she wants to do it in a
novel.
So whenever I hear somebody who has
a story or a particular,
maybe a more controversial
message,
and they tell me that they want to
write fiction,
I always will take them to task. So
today,
what I will be talking about is,
should you be writing fiction or non fiction?
Alright.
We want to know, should I be writing
fiction or non fiction? And I'm gonna make
it really, really easy for you. Okay? Just
by clarifying a few things.
My name is Naima b Robert, in case
you didn't know. And I am the award
winning author of over 20 books for children,
teens and adults. Actually, my 25th book will
be published this year because I have a
few coming out this year. And so I
have experience with writing fiction and non fiction.
And so I'm here to explain
these 2 very different
web the genre
for your message and for your story. Right?
So
nonfiction,
obviously, is there's many different types of nonfiction
books. Okay? But nonfiction in essence
is based on facts, opinions,
you know, data. Alright? It's, it's it's real.
Alright? It's the truth. Okay? As far as
as far as you know it.
And that's basically nonfiction. Nonfiction books range from
being,
a memoir,
which is the true stories from your life.
We also have the transformational
book, which is like follow you know, sharing
habits and principles
usually with the goal of coaching the reader.
Then you have the expertise
based book,
which is more about
sharing your systems, your structures, your strategies
with the reader.
And then you have the anthology, which an
anthology could be, a collection of
different people's systems,
different people's principles,
different people's stories,
case studies,
you know, people's prose that they've written, poetry
that they've written, all of that could be
part of an anthology. Okay? But anthology, the
main thing is that it has several people
authoring the pieces that are in the anthology.
So I like to kind of break down
non fiction, especially the clients that I work
with.
Typically, their books will fall into one of
these categories. Okay? Because they have a message
to share. They are wanting to put something
out into the world.
So so it needs to come out in
the most effective way. Okay. Now fiction on
the other hand is imaginary. Okay?
It's it's it's the product of the author's
imagination.
Now this does not matter
whether
it's
based on a true story or inspired by
real events.
The
the the crux of what I really want
to get across to you is that,
regardless of whether
you are sharing your own personal story or
you these are real events or they're based
on some aspects of real people,
the hallmark of fiction is that it is
a world of its own. Okay?
And guess who gets to create that world?
You, the fiction author, the novelist.
Okay?
So the work of fiction is about building
a world that your reader can believe in.
Which means that there are lots of layers
to that world. There's the setting. There's the
characters. There's the plot. Okay. There's the pace.
There's the dialogue. There's the tension. There's the
plot arc. Lots of different layers in order
to make that
story believable.
So when I hear somebody with a message
or with, you know, their own personal story
telling me they want to write it as
a novel or as fiction,
I always
ask why.
I always ask them why. And typically,
this is the answer that I get.
Because
I'm afraid of what people will say
if they read my book and they wanna
take me to task on it.
I don't want to hurt certain people in
my life.
I want to maintain my privacy.
Okay?
Let me know if that sounds familiar.
Because if you've ever thought,
I really wanna talk about this topic, but
I think the safest way for me to
do that is hide it in a novel.
If you ever thought that, then I'm so
glad that you are watching this video right
now because I'm here to tell
you, fiction is not the place to hide.
You may think that it's the easier option,
but trust me, it is not.
The only person that I would encourage
to take this approach,
if it's their own personal story or it's
a message they want to get out into
the world and they choose fiction, the only
person that I would encourage with this is
someone who already wants to write fiction.
Okay?
I have written many novels based on, you
know, a a message that I have. Boy
Versus Girl was that. Okay. Far from home
was that. She wore red trainers was that.
I had a message. I had an opinion
about something. I had a viewpoint I wanted
to share.
But because I enjoy writing novels and because
I'm I'm I'm good at it, you know,
and I read novels,
I was able to write those novels as
novels,
not as a vehicle for my message, you
know, like thinly veiled attempt to get my
message across and hide it, you know, under
some novel stuff. Right? So what I'm saying
is,
if you think that a novel is the
easy way out of telling you truth,
it is not. Because writing a novel is
a completely different ballgame. It's a completely different
undertaking.
And if you're not,
like, really passionate about telling a story in
a novel, don't do it.
There are easier ways to protect your privacy.
There are easier ways to avoid confrontation. There
are easier ways to do that in nonfiction
than
deciding to say, okay. I'm gonna write you
write it as a novel.
And the reason I'm saying this is because
the novel, as I said, it's it's a
multilayered thing. And you need to put work
into every layer even if you're basing it
on your life experience because
those characters have to become independent characters of
their own. That setting has to have a
life of its own. So
long story short,
unless you've always dreamed of writing a novel
and unless you yourself are an avid reader
of novels,
please please please do not
like
what's the word I'm looking for? Don't not
it's not even about settling for a novel
because
novel is not settling. A novel is up
leveling. Right? But just don't
be under the false impression
that writing it in the in the putting
your story or your message in fiction
is going to make it easier for you
to tell your story.
Okay? Because it's not.
There are easier ways. And if you would
like to know what some of those easier
ways are, then just just
get in touch with me. Send me a
message. Comment below this video. Okay? And let's
have a chat and see how we can
help you to achieve your goal.
And those goals could be to share your
message as well
as protecting your privacy or protecting certain people
around you or whatever the case may be.
Right? There are easier ways. Okay? Don't go
in there saying I'm gonna write it as
fiction because I don't wanna deal with the
hassle of nonfiction. Trust me. You're gonna bite
off more than you can chew.
And so if you're not sure
what the best way of
telling a story or sharing a message is,
whether it's the
expert expertise based book or maybe even anthology
or maybe even poetry or a children's book.
Right?
If you're not sure which of these would
work best for you, please
comment committed below this message and let's have
a chat. Okay?
I I am so blessed to get to
work with authors.
Mainly, I'll be honest, I concentrate on working
with my non fiction authors while writing books
and my children's book authors. But I can
definitely help you
to get clarity on your idea.
And also what your options are in terms
of the kind of book you wanna write,
the structure of the book that you want
to write. And I'd love to work with
you. They didn't mind on the amazing progress.
You know, they're getting the words in 5000,
10000, 26,000
yesterday.
So it works. We work it. But you
need to know what you're doing, and I
can help you with that. So, like I
said, if you'd like to have a chat
about what your story is or what your
message is and the best type of book
to get it out into the world. Comment
committed below this message, and let's have a
chat. Okay? Thank you so much for watching,
and I will see you next time. Okay?
And bye.