Marina Budhos on Writing Fiction vs. Non-Fiction

Tell Us We're Home author Marina Budhos is dropping by the blog today to discuss her writing process. Marina has written both non-fiction and fiction works, and she'll be discussing how her process differs depending on whether she's writing non-fiction or fiction. 

In many ways, nonfiction feeds my fiction.  For instance, for this novel, it actually began as a nonfiction idea, as I was fascinated with the relationship between mothers and nannies (especially since I had become a new mother)  I did a lot of interviews, mostly with nannies, and in the process, my attention was drawn to their children, or what I heard and read between the lines in our conversations.  This then became the springboard for “Tell Us We’re Home.”  Similarly, with “Ask Me No Questions,” I thought I would write a magazine piece about an undocumented teenager during the post 9/11 period.  But soon I felt a desire mounting within me to create aa whole world and family around this predicament, and the novel sprang forth. Thus, I often begin with a kind of research assignment—something that fascinates me, or I feel hasn’t been written about—and at some point, I know it’s time for the velocity of the imagination to take over, to really understand.
 
In terms of writing nonfiction and fiction, fiction takes so much longer!  It has to succeed on so many levels—character, plot--and the structure is all invented, molded, not simply given to you.  Something might be interesting for nonfiction, but it’s simply irrelevant to the dramatic thrust of a novel.  (In fact, I’m dealing with this now as I pare down a historical novel I am finishing—killing many fascinating bits in the interest of the story).
 
On the other hand, the challenge in nonfiction is to find the story that is inherent in the material. My husband and I recently published a nonfiction book, Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science, and our writing process reflected that tension.  Since he is trained as an historian and writes and edits nonfiction, I let him be the one to lay down the broad tracks of information.  I then came in and molded the narrative arc, adding the areas that I knew about and making sure that the book read as “well” as a novel, and yet was faithful to this large, epic story.
 
I’m right now at the point where I’ve been inside several novels for many years and I’m eager to return to a nonfiction project. I find the nonfiction breathes air into my work, gets me out into the world thinking and finding the stories that are out there.

Thanks to Marina for stopping by the blog today!