Writing a thesis or fiction, which is more difficult?

[Eldoria]

Writing a thesis or fiction, which is more difficult?

The thesis or fiction? One requires rationality. The other requires creativity. I know it's difficult to compare difficulty levels because both have different writing styles.

But if you were asked to write either a thesis or fiction, which one would you probably avoid because you think it is difficult to write?

Critical note:

1. Don't think of fiction as a short story that ends in 10k words. A standard fiction book should have more than 100k words.
2. Think of writing a fiction as if you were trying to write a volume or a book of Harry Potter, LOTR series, or any other masterpiece.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Depends. ?

 

[Hoshino]

A thesis is difficult to write right, but fiction is difficult to write well, nya.

 

[Bald-san]

What in the fuck is this question? (Bald-san, 2025). Fiction is just any shit that comes to your mind (Bald-san, 2025), on the other hand, thesis is the way a demon will reach a student who's excited to finish their bachelor's degree (Bald-san, 2025). Seriously though, Thesis is harder because you need to consider reality, in fiction you xan 'its a fantasy, shut up ' your way

 

[ArchlordZero]

Fiction is just more enjoyable to write.
I'll use AI for 99% of my thesis

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

Brother.....

Someone wrote a fanfic thats longer than a bible. If there's a thesis that is comparable than that, we already solved all the world's problems through that same thesis.

 

[blackcrowcrowd]

Making a good thesis is WAY harder than writing stories, in terms of arduousness. Especially if you're going to be reading other people's works as reference in full, it's going to be quite stressful since people be making them really long with these huge chunks of paragraphs. For creating fiction, you can just chug a bottle of vodka and start typing, then fix the mistakes when you're sober.

 

[Our_Lady_in_Twilight]

Depends how much work you put in, but thesis has a much higher floor. You can put thousands of hours preparing intricate characters, themes and world building and create a Tolkeinian masterpiece, or you can create something fairly readable at this level shooting from the hip.

By contrast if you try to improvise a 30k word masters thesis on the Protestant Reformation in 16th century Germany without preparing research, the odds are pretty remote that what you'll end up with is worth anyone's time.

 

[Bald-san]

Making a good thesis is WAY harder than writing stories, in terms of arduousness. Especially if you're going to be reading other people's works as reference in full, it's going to be quite stressful since people be making them really long with these huge chunks of paragraphs. For creating fiction, you can just chug a bottle of vodka and start typing, then fix the mistakes when you're sober.

That's why Mrad format is heaven's blessing specially in RRL/RRS, I can copy the intro, slash the numbers, add one or two bullshit paragraphs and give them a nice (Cocuscuker, 2025) on them to look authentic and it's done

Depends how much work you put in, but thesis has a much higher floor. You can put thousands of hours preparing intricate characters, themes and world building and create a Tolkeinian masterpiece, or you can create something fairly readable at this level shooting from the hip.

By contrast if you try to improvise a 30k word masters thesis on the Protestant Reformation in 16th century Germany without preparing research, the odds are pretty remote that what you'll end up with is worth anyone's time.

Yes, even the more common research designs like Discreptive Comparative or Discreptive Correlational takes a lot of time to complete and then some bastard will slap you with some low grade

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Depends on how much you enjoy research and whether you work best with a self-imposed structure (creative writing) or an externally imposed structure (thesis writing - also copy writing and some forms of journalism as well). For some, writing fiction can be MUCH harder because they don't have an external structure to work from and don't enjoy the creative process.
And then you have guys like my brother who wrote their theses on fiction (specifically, in his case, Victorian Literature) so had either the best, or worst, of both worlds right there...

 

[Eldoria]

Fiction is just more enjoyable to write.
I'll use AI for 99% of my thesis

I hope your professor doesn't read your message. Lol

Depends on how much you enjoy research and whether you work best with a self-imposed structure (creative writing) or an externally imposed structure (thesis writing - also copy writing and some forms of journalism as well). For some, writing fiction can be MUCH harder because they don't have an external structure to work from and don't enjoy the creative process.
And then you have guys like my brother who wrote their theses on fiction (specifically, in his case, Victorian Literature) so had either the best, or worst, of both worlds right there...

I asked on ChatGPT and Grok, and both gave consistent answers: writing fiction (especially Masterpiece-level fiction) is more difficult than writing a thesis. And the reason is exactly as you explained: unlike a thesis, which has a standard structure and guidelines, fiction doesn't have a standard structure (it's creative). So, it's harder to write something without a guideline.

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

Yeah fiction wins for writing difficulty IMO, its all the research and citing references that makes the thesis difficult.

Hell I wrote my thesis while on a warship in 5 m seas going across the Atlantic. Worst part was trying make sure everything was cited correctly and I didnt accidentally add some extra characters when the ship was rolling.

 

[BearlyAlive]

In times of Chad GPT, writing coherent fiction is a lot harder than letting the AI spit out a viable thesis. I know a guy who got his whole master's degree using AI or ghostwriters... But I bet you he won't be able to write fiction.

 

[Alucard21]

People really overestimate the difficulty of writing a thesis. I'm a master's student, and let me tell you, I've seen dog water garbage get peer-reviewed and published all the time. In the end, the difficulty=quality. So take something like the theory of general relativity and put it up against something like the lord of the Rings. I'd say the relativity wins in difficulty. However, the lower the quality, the lower the gap in difficulty, until you get to the point where there is no difference in difficulty.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Look at everyone trying to COPE with believing that has to be good. The question was which, not if it was the most profound thing to come out a gecko's ass or that thing that even if you think about it, gives you a sour mood.

 

[Eldoria]

Look at everyone trying to COPE with believing that has to be good. The question was which not if it was the most profound thing to come out a gecko's ass or that thing that even if you think about it, gives you a sour mood.

?

 

[empalgepuk]

I'm self educated beyond college level, and my English skill is unreliable at most because I'm not a native speaker. If anything, my college-level English is perhaps less coherent than average high-school level English, that's how crappy the public education where I live. Couple that with my inability to access proper education beyond college (I might need to sell a kidney to afford that). Not to mention the research fund needed. I know the quality doesn't have to be good, but if my hands are tied from the get go, what can I do?

Meanwhile, I can just pull plot out of my ass with less daunting and pocket-burning research, and scrutiny. Failing to graduate costs money, no, perhaps my life; I'd be chewed on by my whole extended family. Failing to write a good fiction? Who cares

So if the question is to write thesis vs fiction in English, I'd choose fiction in a heartbeat.

If I have to write in my mother language though, writing a scientific journal might be easier. But again, this is my opinion as a college graduate.

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

I'm self educated beyond college level, and my English skill is unreliable at most because I'm not a native speaker. If anything, my college-level English is perhaps less coherent than average high-school level English, that's how crappy the public education where I live. Couple that with my inability to access proper education beyond college (I might need to sell a kidney to afford that). Not to mention the research fund needed. I know the quality doesn't have to be good, but if my hands are tied from the get go, what can I do?

Meanwhile, I can just pull plot out of my ass with less daunting and pocket-burning research, and scrutiny. Failing to graduate costs money, no, perhaps my life; I'd be chewed on by my whole extended family. Failing to write a good fiction? Who cares

So if the question is to write thesis vs fiction in English, I'd choose fiction in a heartbeat.

If I have to write in my mother language though, writing a scientific journal might be easier. But again, this is my opinion as a college graduate.

I understand your reasoning.

I will state that unless you are aiming to be at the top of your class, you might be overthinking your thesis a bit.

As the old saying goes, what do you call the guy who graduates medical school at the bottom of his class?

Doctor.

Or the simpler version;

C's earn degrees.

 

[Eldoria]

I understand your reasoning.

I will state that unless you are aiming to be at the top of your class, you might be overthinking your thesis a bit.

As the old saying goes, what do you call the guy who graduates medical school at the bottom of his class?

Doctor.

Or the simpler version;

C's earn degrees.

It's true, my professor always said a good thesis is a finished thesis. No matter how perfect a thesis is, if it's not finished, it's a useless thesis.

 

[MajorKerina]

Theses are harder. There is actually a right and wrong way to do them with writing you can do whatever the hell you want and if you can justify it it works with the thesis maybe you can believe it works but you gotta convince your professor of that