It’s been a few days since the novel went into time-out, and I’m good with that decision. It doesn’t take a novel to make an author. It takes writing to make an author. I might return to it at some point, but it wasn’t its time to be written. Or I may need to rethink the male protagonist. Whatever the reason, I know putting it aside was the right thing to do. Besides, I’m happy with my nonfiction projects.
I’m still working on my passion project, but more about that later. I picked up a biography I started a while ago and have done more research for it. And I did a big brain dump for a few more nonfiction projects, mostly biographies of historical figures. I seem to have a thing for them.
Now, back to the passion project.
It’s about a fire that occurred in 1913. The original plan was to write a young-adult/adult novel. That’s still part of the project road map—kind of. It’s now going to be nonfiction. I’ve found only one book about it. Written by family members of the company’s owners, it concentrates on finding the fire’s cause, focusing on a person of interest but who was never charged. Well, not for that fire anyway. Fortunately, there are several newspaper reports, and I’ve accessed some agency reports.
I’ve added a middle-grade historical fiction version. I considered middle-grade nonfiction but decided to add an afterword to the historical fiction version explaining the real-life fire.
As an ancillary project, I’ve been writing discussion questions and project ideas for the middle-grade book. This is a throwback to the days I wrote series books for that audience. We always included a bibliography and sites for more information. In some, we added projects and discussion questions. I don’t know if I’ll include those in my submission or mention them in the query, but the questions help me to keep focused on what I include in the text.
I’ve decided, however, that my first completion goal is a short story, though it will probably be more like an article. This accomplishes two things. First, I’ll quickly find out if I have enough material for a nonfiction project. And second, through the sub process, it will help me gauge interest in the project. After all, it’s my passion, but that’s not enough unless I want to publish it myself.
Rather than begin with an outline—after the brain dump, of course—I wrote an overview of the project, what I plan to include, why I’m including what I’m including, and a brief synopsis of what I’m putting in the short story/article. (Maybe I’ll write both—a short historical fiction piece and an article.) My next step is to do an outline for the short story. It won’t be as detailed as the one for the novel, but it will point me onto and keep me on the path to achieving my goal.
For the first time, I’m thinking about finding a CP (critique partner) at least for the young-adult/adult nonfiction work. I’ve not looked for one before, so any ideas will be appreciated.
I’ll keep you posted. And don’t forget to live your passion.