Hi all:
Although I’m busy at the moment with translations (mine and other authors’ as well. By the way, don’t forget my promotion), my brain has been focusing on writing too. I think I already mentioned that I’d finished the draft of the next story in the thriller series ‘Escaping Psychiatry’ (and if I don’t change my mind it’s going to be called ‘The Case of the Swapped Bodies’) and now I’m correcting it and translating it. I have ideas for several stories on the series, fairly detailed for the next one. I also have a romance that every so often pops up asking to be written but it hasn’t managed to get me writing yet. My mother keeps trying to convince me to write sequels of some of my stories (and I have some half-baked ideas for possible ones). We’ll see if she manages.
For some time now, I’ve been wondering about non-fiction. I’ve read quite a number of posts on writing about what you know that might be of interest to others, and more recently, one of the Webinars I attended asked about the unique area of expertise that one has that others need to know about or would find interesting and useful. And that got me thinking. I had an interesting conversation with Teagan Geneviene where we talked about expertise, careers, jobs, and noted that some of the skills one acquires might not be stuff easy to teach (I can’t teach anybody to become a doctor or a psychiatrist by writing a book, there are great books on literature and criminology and I don’t have a particular expertise born out of years of teaching or working on either subject, and with regards to writing or publishing books, other than suggest you don’t do things the way I have, I don’t have great wisdom to share).
I had a thought. I live alone and have done so for many years (sometimes I’ve shared accommodation in hospitals or colleges but that’s not the same as living with somebody) and have had people (women mostly) tell me they wouldn’t dare to live alone, or they wouldn’t do many other things by themselves, like go travelling, go to the cinema or to the theatre alone, go to a restaurant… Although I don’t think I have much of an expertise on the subject, at least I have some experience and came up with quite a few topics I could write about related to it. I checked, looking for books about it, and found some readers complaining that most of these books (not that many) seemed to focus on women who had to live alone after their relationship ended and much of their books was about how they tried to find a partner, rather than showing living alone as a voluntary choice and a happy one.
I’ve written a few notes and have some ideas on what I could write about, but wondered if you had any thoughts. Not only about that topic, but also: what’s the non-fiction book you’d like to read? Or what topic you could (or are planning to) write about?
If you’re avid readers of non-fiction: what characteristics do the books you’ve enjoyed most share? Where do you discover these books?
And if you’ve written some non-fiction books, did you find it a totally different experience? Any thoughts or tips (both on writing it and on what you did next)?
Oh, and another question: Would you be interested in reading some posts where I explore some of the topics I’m thinking about covering in the book?
Thanks so much for reading , and please, like, share and comment. And all suggestions will be very welcome.
