A Writer's Biography, Volume III, Part 2: On nonfiction writing and abandoned projects

Photo by Nolan Issac on Unsplash

I was going to tell you a story, right? But, I got distracted by explaining some back story. Honestly, though, I probably needed to explain that back story to understand some of it myself. Apparently I've been writing a memoir for just over a year and I didn't realize it.

(OK, that's it for the hyperlinks. 🙂 EDIT: Sorry, lies. (see below))

I've had experience writing nonfiction as a journalist. I think that I'm doing well as a writer of fiction, and I'm a fan of writing book-length works.

However, when faced with the opportunity to write book-length nonfiction, I considered it for a while. At the time, it seemed like a great idea for a book.

In the end, though, I wound up walking away from the project for more than just one reason. Even though that project was not a story I eventually wanted to tell, the story behind that story might be worth a post.

It was 2012. I had finished my first full-time teaching position, hoping to work closer to home. I was tryin…