creative writing - technical subjects - non-fiction vs fiction

This is a question I tried to ask in Novelizing non-fiction, is it worth it? But was un-clear and maybe too generic.

Let’s say I am a scuba diving expert and I could write a non-fiction book about advanced diving techniques, some of them are unique and stem from my personal experience.

Is it better to write that as a non-fiction book or develop a novel on the subject?

A non-fiction book on the subject may not interest many readers. However, If it is a novel, i am afraid that the tech info which is shown rather than told would be lost on the reader. It would seem just like the writer did some basic research on the subject, and my own personal contributions to the field would be lost in a general novel rather than a specialized book.

Here are some thoughts:

NON-FICTION

• Smaller but dedicated audience


• Most bought manuals are 101 introductory types


• Even an advanced book would usually need to include 101 background



• Theorethical dry explanatory text

FICTION

• Potential broad audience, but low interest in the subject


• Technical secondary to the story needs


• Advanced notions may be lost in the background


• Empirical rather than theoretical

Please don’t comment on successful diving books/movies like The Big Blue. Although I do hold proffessional diver qualifications, I mean this question to be broad and applicable to various lifestyle non-fiction subjects

Any opinion or fact showing the way to go?

Answer

Instead of "fiction" (made up) and "non-fiction" (facts) I'll use the terms "novel" and "textbook".

We expect a novel, both fiction and non-fiction, to be about experience and possibly ideas, and textbooks to be about detailed information.

But there are countless counter examples. For example the scholarly field of ethnology often employs first person narration to report observations and reflect and theorize. Many ethnological reports read like autobiographical novels or travel journals.

There are also examples of narrative works that attempt to teach methods and techniques, most notably in the area of spirituality.

The question to me would be how detailed you want to go, and how big your ideas are. If you basically have one or a handful of world shattering ideas, a narrative approach is better, because a novel can become a cult classic. But if you have a lot of detail and no interesting story to tell, a good handbook can become a standard in a field.

There are mixed forms, where a novel has a technical appendix, or a textbook is spiced up with short stretches of narrative. Wether you perceive these as neither fish nor fowl, or possibilities along a continuum of types, is a question of taste. The extremes are certainly most striking.