Fact and Fiction are two polar opposite genres. Fact involves stating the real incidents as they happen whereas fiction means letting the imagination wander. Last weekend at Blogchatter Writing Festival we discussed writing fact vs fiction with our community members.

We started with discussing the favorite non-fiction book and we had wide range of books to choose from right from ‘How to win friends and influence people’ by Dale Carnegie to ‘Quiet’ by Susan Caine.
Yes.. and the thing about non fiction that i really like is, i can open any random page and still enjoy reading it without bothering what was said before.
With Quiet i usually do that. Also with I am Malala.
I have reread only non fictions till date. 😀 #BlogchatterWritFest
— Pratikshya Mishra (@pratikshyam) April 20, 2018
Then, we talked about how should one approach writing a fact-based story. Most of us agreed that too much information is not required and thorough research should be done before sharing the facts.
A2: Even if it’s fact based, it shouldn’t be too informative. Information should be shared in a subtle manner. Anecdotes work. Writing style (conversational) matters.#BlogChatterWritFest #amwriting
— Tarang Sinha✍ (@TarangSinha) April 20, 2018
Research. Fact check. And do your edits thoroughly. It’s an intense process
— Sreemoyee Piu Kundu (@sreemoyeekundu) April 20, 2018
A2. By sticking true to the truth and by not letting opinions/ agenda mess up the facts. Not saying that creatibe liberties should not be taken, but a line must be drawn on what is fact and what becomes fiction. #BlogchatterWritFest
— Shadows Galore (@ShadowsGalore) April 20, 2018
Next question up was what role does interviewing real people play in writing a non-fiction book. As Tarang (@TarangSinha) mentions ,interviewing people makes the non-fiction more authentic.
A3. I think it’s the soul of the book itself. Real life accounts add credibility to the theories and facts.
It offers perspectives, viewpoints and different angles to the same topic or theme. #BlogchatterWritFest
— Pratikshya Mishra (@pratikshyam) April 20, 2018
Totally agree … talking with people is essential to understanding a culture, history, or any subject matter. Oral history contains valuable information. #BlogchatterWritFest
— Seema Misra (@Seema_Misra) April 20, 2018
As required for any genre,we talked about the key elements of writing non-fiction. Pooja (@SoulVersified) points out that personal opinions should be kept away. You could also use fictionalized narrative approach to present historical facts.
Absolutely lots of what @MargaretAtwood writes is fictionalised non-fiction so it’s quite intriguing #BlogchatterWritFest
— Pooja Priyamvada (@SoulVersified) April 20, 2018
True. Even Amitav Ghosh puts in a lot of research into his books – the setting, historical facts etc. Its like two layers – history and a fictionalized narrative to make the history approachable. Arundhati Roys latest book also does that. #BlogchatterWritFest
— Seema Misra (@Seema_Misra) April 20, 2018
A4 “The Story” – facts are available for all to see and read in public domain, it is how the author has put them together to sketch a story – correlate, is important. #BlogchatterWritFest
— richa singh (@richa_singh) April 20, 2018
A4 1/ Facts 2/ Perspectives 3/ Narrative 3/ Canvas/ Plot 4/ Human element 5/ Language #BlogchatterWritFest
— Shadows Galore (@ShadowsGalore) April 20, 2018
To conclude our conversation we talked if there is scope of non-fiction and how to market it.
As a matter of fact, more non-fiction books are published per year than fiction. It has lot of scopes.
As far as marketing is concerned, it’d be same for fiction or non-fiction. If you know how to market then you can market anything.#BlogchatterWritFest
— Ravish Mani (@ravishmani) April 20, 2018
A5: Yes, it’s doing well, I think. Honestly, it’s not for everyone. Authors are mostly popular if it’s autobiographical. Or it deals with certain topics where people seek help like writing, parenting, weight loss etc. So, it works for that set of people. #BlogChatterWritFest
— Tarang Sinha✍ (@TarangSinha) April 20, 2018
In the end, Pratikshya makes a valid point that there is a scope for all genres nowadays and can be marketed well.
A5. A lot of scope. Gone are the days when non fiction meant self help and autobiographies. Today every topic can be marketed for entertainment with knowledge- socio economical, politics, parenting, success stories, history, and so much more…#BlogchatterWritFest
— Pratikshya Mishra (@pratikshyam) April 20, 2018
Good summary, Disha! Thanks. I missed this and you made me feel like I was there. I read the top Tweets but missed out on some key points you made.