When Your Passion Changes

I always pictured myself as a fiction writer. For most of my life, I only read fiction. Chapter books, middle grade, YA, even the books I read for school–all fiction. I was never able to sit through a nonfiction book, they all just seemed to drag and drag.

There was also a part of me that always wanted to share my story, which is very much nonfiction. Especially after my anxiety diagnosis and going to therapy for the first time, I was learning so much about myself and I wanted to share my story with people so that no one felt like they were alone.

Which I'm doing right now, so mission accomplished, I guess.

Over the last year or so, I've been reading a lot of nonfiction books. I follow a lot of really interesting and brilliant people online, and many of them happened to have nonfiction books coming out when I found them. I think the first book that helped me dip my toe in the water was John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed (which I have recommended several times here and I will continue to, it's so good). I related to John’s writing, specifically around his mental health, and that book had an immense affect on my and my outlook on writing.

Then, I started following a more diverse group of people who either work within a church or study religion and Christianity, and many of them have written incredible books! I was beginning my religious deconstruction–which I am still working through but will eventually write something about it–and reading books from diverse perspectives about how the church works or should work, the harm the culture has caused, and so much more, was eye opening for me. I'm still on the look out for more books like those, so if you know of any, I'm all ears!

As I started working harder on this blog, I realized that my passion for fiction writing was fading. I still write and read fanfiction, but the last time I was able to focus on a fiction novel was quite a long time ago. Maybe I haven't been reading the right novels, maybe I hadn't found the right nonfiction books up until now.

So what's my point with all this? I wanted to talk about this because it can be kind of scary when something you think you wanted to spend the rest of your life doing changes. It's hard to come to terms with these changes. I think there may be an age component to this, but it's probably more personal preference and perspective more than anything else.

I hope you take some time to look into a topic or activity that you've always been curious about but were never able to get into. Maybe you’ll be surprised, maybe you'll realize it's not for you. Either way, great!

Stay safe, y'all.

–Abbie