Finding the Balance between Writing Fiction and Non Fiction

Assalamualaikum and greetings dear Bits and Pieces readers,

I have already started my PhD studies which is in research and course (subject) mode. I'm taking the courses next semester insyALLAH (God willing) so as for now, I'm going to concentrate on my thesis writing.

Thesis writing means non fiction writing. It's where you write based on evidence and literature that you reviewed: journals, conference papers, books etc and it must be straight to the point. As opposed to fiction writing, there's no such thing as creating meaningful characters, determining which writing point of view is the best or developing interesting story line etc.

Right there lies the problem I had before during my Masters Degree. When I first handed the Chapter 1 of my thesis to my supervisor, she told me that my style of writing is novel like. You see, it's hard for me to make the transition from a novel writing style to a thesis style writing. However, she did say that I'm gifted in writing :D So, I went back and redo the whole of Chapter 1 but in order to do that, I became like a robot. Meaning, I forbid my emotions from getting involved in thesis writing and refrain myself from writing poetic words. Regardless, with a bit of effort the transition became easy for me.

I deduced that the transition to thesis writing was easy for me before because my novel The Last Will had already been completed. Now however, along with writing my second novel, I can sense that it will be hard.

But no worries. I have a plan. Actually, it's a timetable. A revised time table to be precise. I decided that I'm going to be rational in the day, and I'll let my emotions and juices of imagination flow at night. Today is my first day to test this timetable so we will see later whether I can stay discipline or not.