T.O.P.'s Tuesday: Know Your Genre

So here is the deal, if you follow my website then you go I attended the Montrose Writers' Conference this past July. Instead of absorbing workshops and lectures on nonfiction, I attended ones focusing on fiction. I came home motivated to write my first fiction book.

I won't say this was wasted time because the new interest and desire to write sparked energy to create my writer's cottage, dedicate daily time to write, and taught my brain to think differently when it comes to writing. For my writing friends, do you dabble in other genres or do you stick to only one?

Last week I shared about a reader coming up to me after reading Where's Heidi? One Sister's Journey for the first time. She read it a couple weeks ago. One of her comments was, "I liked how you wrote from your perspective and how personal it was, it was as if you were writing specifically to me." I thanked her, and lifted a silent prayer to God. We visited a bit longer and she said she heard I'm writing fiction now. This conversation was interesting because my daughter was there and listening, and offered a quiet chuckle.

Let's just say my fiction writing is NOT very good. For this much, it might just be terrible. My daughter continues to encourage me to "stick to nonfiction", I think she is right. I've been working on my next nonfiction book and can't wait to share a snip it. I asked the ladies from my Bible study to pray for me as they felt led and I look forward to having something for them to read in the Spring.

​I enjoy the research and digging deep into the heart associated with nonfiction. Fiction is fun yet a challenge for me. I won't say I'll never write fiction but for now, I'll stick to nonfiction and touching people's hearts in a way God's gifted me. If He wants me to write fiction, He has a lot of work to do within me. My prayer, to write what God has for me to write that will touch and change lives, drawing them closer to Him.

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Is it okay to try a new genre?
Do you still respect me for abandoning fiction?