What to Write About

What to Write About

Paul Theroux is an interesting example of what to write about. He writes A) fiction and B) non-fiction.

His non-fiction is about traveling and writers, mostly. He goes places and reports on them, finds what is unique around the world. He is extremely gifted at reading about writers who do that, too.

In non-fiction he is somewhat of a know-it-all and in fiction he explores some ideas and characters. Both are informative in many ways. As far as fiction, does it match the greats? Probably not, but it helps inform the overall nature of the writer, which I have become susceptible to.

He writes mostly 1) realistic fiction, while a couple of his stories have some elements of the supernatural.

2) Science-fiction and 3) fantasy both have large places in literature. Some books and stories combine both. 

I have enjoyed Arthur C. Clarke and others' science fiction throughout my life, very much as a younger reader. I have encouraged others to read him. He does his non-fiction conjecture as well, which borderlines physics and science.

Orson Scott Card has interesting science fiction, plus a good amount of fantasy and some 4) historical fiction. He writes about Biblical characters, which could be considered historical and 5) religious.

6) Crime novels take up another genre, which can be both A) fiction or B) non-fiction. Truman Capote's In Cold Blood is of the latter, while Michael Connelly and Lee Child tend to be more fiction, with Child's Jack Reacher having an element of the above-human aspect. 

Stephen Ambrose focuses on the real aspects of war and their  stories, while Jeff Shaara does this and embellishes where he thinks that this works realistically. Both are incredible researchers and story tellers.

Vonnegut has his own way, and Salinger yet another.

Hemingway and Steinbeck are master story tellers, I am less thrilled about Fitzgerald and Faulkner.

We all mix fiction and non-fiction.