By Dennis Mellersh
Now that you are in the process of acquiring knowledge on how to write a book and are becoming a writer of books, you must assume the mind and methods of a writer.
Doing research for your book(s) is an example.
You need to figure out a timetable or time-related method of how to do the research required for the books you are planning, whether they are fiction or non-fiction.
One approach is to simply pick a time each day, or on as many days as you can, and devote a specific amount of time, say one-and-a-half hours, for example, to do the formal research for your book.
A second method is to organize the reading time you would normally spend on unfocussed (pleasure) reading and instead take that time to read materials specifically as research sources on the topic of your book.
A third way is to utilize your every-day reading by asking yourself, “Is there some way this information could be useful in the books I would like to write?”
An example: If you are writing a book of fiction, such as a novel, and you are reading your local newspaper, watching TV, or reviewing news sites on the Internet, ask yourself if any of what you are reading or watching, such as interesting stories involving people’s behaviour, could be useful information on which to build a character in your book, or add something to the plot of your book.
Alternatively, if you are writing a non-fiction book, make an effort to examine all your regular sources of reading, such as newspapers, TV, and online news sites, and specifically watch for topic-oriented background material that might be useful for your book.
Most general news media divide their coverage by topic such as, business, finance, sports travel, and entertainment, so this can simplify your sorting of source materials.
Showing posts with label Organizing your book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Organizing your book. Show all posts
Monday, May 13, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Using index cards to outline your book
By Dennis Mellersh
Sometimes the use of traditional tactile writing materials can help your book writing efforts in the outline and draft stages.
Let’s look specifically at the book outline process, for example.
Although you can write the outline of your book on a computer, it’s not always easy to quickly scan the various thoughts you have written down and see them as a cohesive whole.
And it can be difficult, on the computer, to alter the sequence of your thoughts, to re-arrange your ideas.
What can simplify the process, and/or give you the feeling of more direct control of the book outlining process is to use old fashioned (tactile) writing materials such as pens, pencils, paper, and index cards.
As you do your research and are making notes on from the research material, you will start to get creative ideas for the content of your planned book.
Try writing down each of your emerging ideas such as for chapter headings, characters, plot ideas, or subjects to be included in your book, on 3x5-inch lined or unlined index cards. You can get index cards at most places that sell office supplies.
When you have completed the research, you will likely have a good number of ideas for how your book’s content should be organized written on the cards.
You can then sift through and review these cards, categorize them, sequence them, and in general organize them with an excellent overview of the whole picture of your book right in front of you in one visual field.
It can be difficult to get the same type of cohesion if you have to constantly scroll up and down screen after screen on your computer, constantly cutting and pasting.
Sometimes the old technologies for writing a book, such as pen, or pencil and paper (and index cards) can help improve the effectiveness of our use of new technologies, such as computers and tablets.
Sometimes the use of traditional tactile writing materials can help your book writing efforts in the outline and draft stages.
Let’s look specifically at the book outline process, for example.
Although you can write the outline of your book on a computer, it’s not always easy to quickly scan the various thoughts you have written down and see them as a cohesive whole.
And it can be difficult, on the computer, to alter the sequence of your thoughts, to re-arrange your ideas.
What can simplify the process, and/or give you the feeling of more direct control of the book outlining process is to use old fashioned (tactile) writing materials such as pens, pencils, paper, and index cards.
As you do your research and are making notes on from the research material, you will start to get creative ideas for the content of your planned book.
Try writing down each of your emerging ideas such as for chapter headings, characters, plot ideas, or subjects to be included in your book, on 3x5-inch lined or unlined index cards. You can get index cards at most places that sell office supplies.
When you have completed the research, you will likely have a good number of ideas for how your book’s content should be organized written on the cards.
You can then sift through and review these cards, categorize them, sequence them, and in general organize them with an excellent overview of the whole picture of your book right in front of you in one visual field.
It can be difficult to get the same type of cohesion if you have to constantly scroll up and down screen after screen on your computer, constantly cutting and pasting.
Sometimes the old technologies for writing a book, such as pen, or pencil and paper (and index cards) can help improve the effectiveness of our use of new technologies, such as computers and tablets.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Writing your book: An opportunity assessment
By Dennis Mellersh
In his book Opportunities: A Handbook of Business Opportunity Search*, cognitive/thinking expert Edward de Bono discusses the concept of ‘opportunity space.’
And, although de Bono is not discussing the writing of books within his ideas on opportunity, but rather is focussed on business and industry, nevertheless his ideas can be applied to writing and publishing the book you want to produce.
De Bono sums up ‘opportunity space’ and our ability to seize opportunity as follows:
“If an opportunity is within our opportunity space, then we can act upon it.”
Further, “The opportunity space includes all the changes, decisions, and choices that we can make. It includes all the assets we are using and the actions we can take.”
Let’s make the reasonable assumption that (a) you are capable of writing a book; (b) that there is a market for the book you decide to write and; (c) you have access to tools or assets that can be applied to your writing and to the potential market for your book.
Granting these assumptions, and to use de Bono’s criteria, you (as someone who wants to write a book) have both the opportunity and you have the ‘opportunity space.’
The particular opportunity for you lies in determining where you have some control with your individual ‘opportunity space’ elements.
You actually will have significant control.
In his book Opportunities: A Handbook of Business Opportunity Search*, cognitive/thinking expert Edward de Bono discusses the concept of ‘opportunity space.’
And, although de Bono is not discussing the writing of books within his ideas on opportunity, but rather is focussed on business and industry, nevertheless his ideas can be applied to writing and publishing the book you want to produce.
De Bono sums up ‘opportunity space’ and our ability to seize opportunity as follows:
“If an opportunity is within our opportunity space, then we can act upon it.”
Further, “The opportunity space includes all the changes, decisions, and choices that we can make. It includes all the assets we are using and the actions we can take.”
Let’s make the reasonable assumption that (a) you are capable of writing a book; (b) that there is a market for the book you decide to write and; (c) you have access to tools or assets that can be applied to your writing and to the potential market for your book.
Granting these assumptions, and to use de Bono’s criteria, you (as someone who wants to write a book) have both the opportunity and you have the ‘opportunity space.’
The particular opportunity for you lies in determining where you have some control with your individual ‘opportunity space’ elements.
You actually will have significant control.
Your particular areas of ‘opportunity space’ control are yours alone, but here are a few general examples I can suggest:
- You decide the type of book you want to write, whether it is fiction, or non-fiction and you decide the specific writing format your book will take; a traditional approach or something experimental. You can control/decide the way your book is written and presented to a given reading audience.
- You make the decision on what your book will be about: the subject matter, theme, and the ideas that will be presented in your writing efforts.
- You control whether your book will be traditionally published in a print format or whether it will be an e-book. You decide how it will be designed, marketed, promoted and sold, if you make the decision to self-publish your writing.
- You decide when you will do your writing in terms of scheduling, and you decide where you will write your book – home office, library, coffee shop. You decide when you can afford to take some time off from writing to recharge your creative batteries. You also decide on the way you will write and the materials you will use: pen or pencil on paper, dictating, computer or tablet.
- You have the choice and the ability to let your individual personality and the originality of your personal ideas come through strongly in your book.
There are many additional areas of control in the ‘opportunity space’ of writing and publishing your book that I could list here.
But now it’s up to you to analyze your particular circumstances and desires and see where you and your book fit in to this picture of opportunity and ‘opportunity space.’
* Edward de Bono, Opportunities: A Handbook of Business Opportunity Search, Penguin Books
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Why you should write an outline for your non-fiction book
By Dennis Mellersh
Writing an outline for a non-fiction book differs considerably from doing an outline for book of fiction, such as a novel.
Simply put, in a non-fiction book, such as a how-to-do-it book, the basic purpose of your outline is to provide you, as the writer, with a detailed roadmap or blueprint of exactly what you are going to write about.
If you don’t have an outline for your non-fiction, you can end up floundering about in a “loss for words”; you can’t “make-up” the content, because it has to be factual.
In a novel by contrast (aside from a simplified, basic outline) you need to be able to create spontaneously from your imagination as you progress with your manuscript. Because you are creating “on-the-go” you will not know ahead of time exactly what you are going to write for each page. A highly detailed and organized outline could get in the way of this creative process.
In non-fiction, because the content varies infinitely from book to book there really is no instant template or formula that you can use to develop the outline for your particular book.
However, what you can “template” to a degree is the organizational plan for your book. For the basics on writing the organizational plan for a non-fiction book, see my article at dcmellersh.blogspot.com/.../writing-outline-for-your-non-fiction.html
Your outline-for-writing is not a summary or guide to your book that you publish for the reader at the beginning of your book; rather, it is plan for you to follow in your writing to make sure you cover all of the information you want to convey to your potential readers.
You have to be very clear in your outline about all of the topics and sub topics (by subject matter) that you want to discuss in your book.
Writing an outline for a non-fiction book differs considerably from doing an outline for book of fiction, such as a novel.
Simply put, in a non-fiction book, such as a how-to-do-it book, the basic purpose of your outline is to provide you, as the writer, with a detailed roadmap or blueprint of exactly what you are going to write about.
If you don’t have an outline for your non-fiction, you can end up floundering about in a “loss for words”; you can’t “make-up” the content, because it has to be factual.
In a novel by contrast (aside from a simplified, basic outline) you need to be able to create spontaneously from your imagination as you progress with your manuscript. Because you are creating “on-the-go” you will not know ahead of time exactly what you are going to write for each page. A highly detailed and organized outline could get in the way of this creative process.
In non-fiction, because the content varies infinitely from book to book there really is no instant template or formula that you can use to develop the outline for your particular book.
However, what you can “template” to a degree is the organizational plan for your book. For the basics on writing the organizational plan for a non-fiction book, see my article at dcmellersh.blogspot.com/.../writing-outline-for-your-non-fiction.html
Your outline-for-writing is not a summary or guide to your book that you publish for the reader at the beginning of your book; rather, it is plan for you to follow in your writing to make sure you cover all of the information you want to convey to your potential readers.
You have to be very clear in your outline about all of the topics and sub topics (by subject matter) that you want to discuss in your book.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Writing the introduction to your non-fiction book
By Dennis Mellersh
You have done the research for your proposed non-fiction book; you have made an outline; and you have written all of the chapters.
Now you need to write the introduction and you are wondering how to proceed.
At this point, you need to remind yourself that by doing all the preparatory work for your book and then writing it, you have gained some expert status on the subject your non-fiction book is about. It may also be the case that you were already an expert on the topic of your book.
This is important because readers generally buy non-fiction books because they are seeking expert information on a particular subject – in this case the topic your book is about. Often readers may be looking for the answer to specific problems, especially when they buy how-to books.
You might want to start writing your introduction by commenting on why, you as an expert, wrote the book – perhaps outline the particular problems you wanted to help readers with.
Or, if the book provides a handy single-source for information that was previously scattered through various media such as other books and websites on the topic, you could comment on that aspect.
If there is a particular way your book should be used, you could speak about that in your introduction. Should the book be read from front to back? Or is it the type of book that readers would read in no particular order, perhaps reading individual chapters on different specific types information they might be seeking.
Overall, there is no cookie-cutter approach your introduction should follow.
As a guiding principle however, your introduction should be your personal opinion on how and why you think your book will be useful to the reader.
You have done the research for your proposed non-fiction book; you have made an outline; and you have written all of the chapters.
Now you need to write the introduction and you are wondering how to proceed.
At this point, you need to remind yourself that by doing all the preparatory work for your book and then writing it, you have gained some expert status on the subject your non-fiction book is about. It may also be the case that you were already an expert on the topic of your book.
This is important because readers generally buy non-fiction books because they are seeking expert information on a particular subject – in this case the topic your book is about. Often readers may be looking for the answer to specific problems, especially when they buy how-to books.
You might want to start writing your introduction by commenting on why, you as an expert, wrote the book – perhaps outline the particular problems you wanted to help readers with.
Or, if the book provides a handy single-source for information that was previously scattered through various media such as other books and websites on the topic, you could comment on that aspect.
If there is a particular way your book should be used, you could speak about that in your introduction. Should the book be read from front to back? Or is it the type of book that readers would read in no particular order, perhaps reading individual chapters on different specific types information they might be seeking.
Overall, there is no cookie-cutter approach your introduction should follow.
As a guiding principle however, your introduction should be your personal opinion on how and why you think your book will be useful to the reader.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
How long does it take to write a book?
By Dennis Mellersh
There are no hard and fast rules or formulas that you can use in figuring out how much time it takes to write a book.
Rather, time requirements vary considerably.
One writer of mystery novels, Georges Simenon, for example, wrote his detective novels in three weeks, whereas some novelists may take years to complete their manuscripts. Similarly, a well-researched biography or history can often take years to research and write.
The reason that “time-to-write” is difficult to pin down precisely is because, in terms of time requirements, writing a book is governed more by personal choice variables than by external time-driven pre-established criteria.
The first thing you should do is determine whether you want to write a non-fiction book, or a book of fiction, such as a novel.
A non-fiction book, such as a how-to guide will require considerable research unless you are planning a book on a topic in which you already have a lot of experience and knowedge.
A novel on the other hand, will primarily be a product of your imagination. The exception is if you want to write a ``period`` piece such as a western, or a you want to write about a particular historical period. In that case you will need to do research; otherwise your writing will lack authority, authenticity, and credibility.
Writing experience level
If you have some experience in writing, from your job requirements, for example, it will take you less time to write your book, than it would if you have to learn the craft of writing as you progress with your book project.
The market you are aiming for will also be a factor as there is a learning curve in gaining experience in writing for very young children, teenage children, young adults, and adults. This is true for both fiction and non-fiction.
Length of your proposed book
Generally the average novel length, for example, is considered to be in the range of 100,000 to 175,000 words. On the basis of 250 words per page (double spacing) on a word-processing program, this would amount to 400 to 700 pages of manuscript.
For a non-fiction book you might want to look at this type of book in your local library or bookstore to get an idea of book lengths. Remember that the number of pages in a published book will be fewer as compared with your manuscript because line spacing is generally closer in the published version. This also applies to the published version of novels.
The reason the proposed length is important is simply that generally speaking, the longer the length of your planned book, the longer it will take to write.
Amount of research required
The amount of research you may need to do for your book can vary considerably. If you are an expert on a given topic, such as a long-time hobby, you will already have the knowledge to write a non-fiction book on the topic, and will only need to refresh yourself on the latest information available that you will need to include in your book.
Obviously, the reverse is true if you have an interest in writing a book on a topic on which you have little knowledge. Your interest in the topic will make your research more enjoyable but you will still need to put in the time to gain enough solid information to be knowledgeable enough to write a book about your topic of interest.
How much time can you spend each day?
In order to make progress in writing your book, you should set aside enough time each day to work effectively on your manuscript. This time segment should be long enough to “settle-in” each day to the writing task at hand.
The amount of time you plan should be realistic. If you are busy with a family and a day-job, and then set aside too much time, you are likely to find it not do-able and then give up out of frustration.
The key with successful writing is to do some each day. It’s not something that you can skip for three days, for example, with the thought of doing four times as much work on the fourth day to make up for the three days you missed. Better to set aside say an hour each weekday for writing with 1 ½ or two hours on Saturday and Sunday.
In writing a book, a steady amount of research and/or writing each day will eventually add up to a completed manuscript sooner than you might think.
E-Book or traditional paper-based printed book?
With the relatively recent advent of e-books, and particularly with the arrival of e-book self-publishing on interfaces such as Amazon.com, book lengths, and therefore the time required to write, themhave been shortened.
With e-books, and this is primarily because of the generally lower price of self-published e-books, a “book” can be much shorter than a paper-based printed book. People will still consider a 30-page non-fiction e-book at a low price as a book, whereas a printed version of the same thing would be regarded more likely as a “report.”
There are no hard and fast rules or formulas that you can use in figuring out how much time it takes to write a book.
Rather, time requirements vary considerably.
One writer of mystery novels, Georges Simenon, for example, wrote his detective novels in three weeks, whereas some novelists may take years to complete their manuscripts. Similarly, a well-researched biography or history can often take years to research and write.
The reason that “time-to-write” is difficult to pin down precisely is because, in terms of time requirements, writing a book is governed more by personal choice variables than by external time-driven pre-established criteria.
Here are six basic considerations on variables (and there are many more) that can influence book-writing time requirements:
- The type of book you are considering writing
- How much experience you have in writing
- The anticipated length or word-count of your proposed book
- The amount of research required for your book
- The amount of time you can devote each day to writing you book
- Will it be an E-book only, or a traditionally printed paper-based book?
The first thing you should do is determine whether you want to write a non-fiction book, or a book of fiction, such as a novel.
A non-fiction book, such as a how-to guide will require considerable research unless you are planning a book on a topic in which you already have a lot of experience and knowedge.
A novel on the other hand, will primarily be a product of your imagination. The exception is if you want to write a ``period`` piece such as a western, or a you want to write about a particular historical period. In that case you will need to do research; otherwise your writing will lack authority, authenticity, and credibility.
Writing experience level
If you have some experience in writing, from your job requirements, for example, it will take you less time to write your book, than it would if you have to learn the craft of writing as you progress with your book project.
The market you are aiming for will also be a factor as there is a learning curve in gaining experience in writing for very young children, teenage children, young adults, and adults. This is true for both fiction and non-fiction.
Length of your proposed book
Generally the average novel length, for example, is considered to be in the range of 100,000 to 175,000 words. On the basis of 250 words per page (double spacing) on a word-processing program, this would amount to 400 to 700 pages of manuscript.
For a non-fiction book you might want to look at this type of book in your local library or bookstore to get an idea of book lengths. Remember that the number of pages in a published book will be fewer as compared with your manuscript because line spacing is generally closer in the published version. This also applies to the published version of novels.
The reason the proposed length is important is simply that generally speaking, the longer the length of your planned book, the longer it will take to write.
Amount of research required
The amount of research you may need to do for your book can vary considerably. If you are an expert on a given topic, such as a long-time hobby, you will already have the knowledge to write a non-fiction book on the topic, and will only need to refresh yourself on the latest information available that you will need to include in your book.
Obviously, the reverse is true if you have an interest in writing a book on a topic on which you have little knowledge. Your interest in the topic will make your research more enjoyable but you will still need to put in the time to gain enough solid information to be knowledgeable enough to write a book about your topic of interest.
How much time can you spend each day?
In order to make progress in writing your book, you should set aside enough time each day to work effectively on your manuscript. This time segment should be long enough to “settle-in” each day to the writing task at hand.
The amount of time you plan should be realistic. If you are busy with a family and a day-job, and then set aside too much time, you are likely to find it not do-able and then give up out of frustration.
The key with successful writing is to do some each day. It’s not something that you can skip for three days, for example, with the thought of doing four times as much work on the fourth day to make up for the three days you missed. Better to set aside say an hour each weekday for writing with 1 ½ or two hours on Saturday and Sunday.
In writing a book, a steady amount of research and/or writing each day will eventually add up to a completed manuscript sooner than you might think.
E-Book or traditional paper-based printed book?
With the relatively recent advent of e-books, and particularly with the arrival of e-book self-publishing on interfaces such as Amazon.com, book lengths, and therefore the time required to write, themhave been shortened.
With e-books, and this is primarily because of the generally lower price of self-published e-books, a “book” can be much shorter than a paper-based printed book. People will still consider a 30-page non-fiction e-book at a low price as a book, whereas a printed version of the same thing would be regarded more likely as a “report.”
Monday, January 14, 2013
Writing the outline for your non-fiction book
By Dennis Mellersh
Developing an outline for your non-fiction book is a particularly important process because the outline is the underpinning or foundational framework to support the content of your book.
A book outline is essentially a point form description or blueprint or plan of the structure of the book you are planning to write. It is your plan for your book's content.
How you develop and write the outline for the book you’re planning partially depends on whether or not you already know a lot about the subject matter and are an expert, or whether you are starting from scratch. If you are already knowledgeable about the subject matter, you have a head start and will be able to write a basic outline before you consult further research sources.
Also, keep in mind that writing an outline for a book of fiction, such as a novel, is different from constructing an outline for a non-fiction book. Methods you may be familiar with for writing a fiction outline will not necessarily work for constructing an outline for a non-fiction book.
As a word of encouragement before you start on your project, remember that as long as you have a strong interest in the topic of your book, you can produce effective content for it, even if you don’t have a lot of knowledge about the topic beforehand. Professional non-fiction writers, for example, are often not familiar with the topics they write about until they do considerable research.
Doing your research will help identify themes
Unless you are already an expert, you will need to do research in order to have enough material for your book. At this point, let’s assume that you have done the research for your book. How to do the research is a detailed topic for further discussion in an upcoming article.
While doing your research, you may have noticed that certain themes or major subjects started to become prominent, or kept coming up in different source materials. These topics or subjects can be the basis of starting to categorize the topics that you will write about in your book.
In turn, these major topics can be chapters in your book, and the topics requiring less detailed information can be subsets of your book’s chapters. At this point, the basic outline for your book will start to emerge or be apparent to you.
Helping your readers to understand your material
To write the chapter outline for your book, you will need to decide in what order to present your information in the best manner that will help the reader fully understand the subject you are writing about.
This might mean an historical or chronological sequencing of the content, or it might require an outline in one of the early chapters, of the basic principles involved in the subject. The outline section involving your chapters should ideally include the subtopics, with subtitles, thereby dividing each chapter into subsections.
Decide on the reader knowledge level you will write for
You will also need to decide, and this should be before you do your research, at what expertise level of your reading audience you will be directing the book to. Are your prospective readers novices, people with an intermediate level of knowledge, or are they more advanced?
The knowledge or skill level of your prospective readers will determine to some extent the format of your outline. If you are writing the book for novices, for example, your methodology will involve step-by-step explanations of the subject matter.
The introduction and possible index
You may want to include an introduction or preface to your book and this should be included in your outline. The Oxford Writers’ Dictionary defines preface as follows: “The introductory address of the author to the reader, in which he [she] explains the purpose and scope of the book.”
Likewise, it can be useful, depending on the subject matter, to include an index at the back of the book so readers can find out quickly and on which pages there are references to particular subjects that interest them. An index can be helpful to readers when the book is of significant length and complexity, with a wide variety of sub-topics covered.
Table of contents
This a section of the final published book which serves to tell the readers what is the book by section with corresponding page numbers. Some authors like to give a mini-summary of the content of each chapter or section in their table of contents.
Other important elements of an outline
Although this article is primarily concerned with the creation of an outline for the main body of the text of your book, your outline should also include a note to yourself that you will need artwork and typography for the four covers of your book (outside front, inside front, inside back, and outside back) as well as a title page, and perhaps an acknowledgements page and a bibliography of books, articles and other materials you have sourced in the research for your book. You will also need a publication data page, noting copyright and other publishing information.
So far, your outline could be shaping up something like this:
Front Cover(s)
Publication data page
Title page
Acknowledgements
Preface or Introduction
Chapters by subject title of each chapter
Chapter subsections
Table of contents
Bibliography of research sources
Index
Back cover(s)
Keep a flexible attitude towards your outline
The outline for your book should be thought of as a work in progress rather than being cast in stone. It is like a battle plan – something to serve as a guide — not as a plan to be rigidly adhered to at all costs. During the formative stages of developing your non-fiction book your ongoing research will continually reveal new aspects of material that you should include as part of the content.
As you develop your book you will likely find that you will need to modify your plan. Writing a book is a fluid process and an art, not a mechanical process. The development of your outline is similar: it may change considerably before you start the actual writing process.
Review of the purpose of the various non-fiction book content or outline elements
The acknowledgement page: This page is generally where you, as the author of the book would offer thanks for anyone who helped you in the writing and editing, and possibly research stages of the book. This page can also be an opportunity to acknowledge particular research source materials that you found particularly helpful in either the content or key ideas for your book.
Preface or introduction: This section can be used to explain why you feel there is a need for your book -- in other words, explain why you wrote the book. You can also offer suggestions to the reader as to how they can use the book to best advantage. The introduction can also serve as a brief explanation of the main ideas you are trying to get across to the reader and why you consider these ideas to be important.
Chapters: The chapters or basic sections of your book provide an organization framework for the content and help your reader to navigate and prioritize how they will read and study your book. Chapters also allow the reader to tackle the reading of your book in bite-size pieces in a logical sequence.
Index: For readers, it can be frustrating to be looking for something very specific in a non-fiction book, only to find that there is no index. This particularly true for larger non-fiction books with some complexity. Do your readers a favour and help them better utilize your book by providing an index. It will take some extra time, but your readers will appreciate it.
Bibliography: This is a list of the research sources you consulted in the research stages of developing your book. You can do it in one list, or by chapters if your book will be lengthy. As an it can also serve as a "further reading" list for those of your readers who want to pursue any of your research findings in greater depth with the original sources. You might also want to actually include a "further reading" list of books and other source materials that you want to recommend.
Final Tip
Before you get along too far in creating your book's outline, go to your local library or bookstore and check out how other writers of published non-fiction books structured or organized the content of their books. This may give you some good ideas that you can use in developing the outline for the book you are planning.
Developing an outline for your non-fiction book is a particularly important process because the outline is the underpinning or foundational framework to support the content of your book.
A book outline is essentially a point form description or blueprint or plan of the structure of the book you are planning to write. It is your plan for your book's content.
How you develop and write the outline for the book you’re planning partially depends on whether or not you already know a lot about the subject matter and are an expert, or whether you are starting from scratch. If you are already knowledgeable about the subject matter, you have a head start and will be able to write a basic outline before you consult further research sources.
Also, keep in mind that writing an outline for a book of fiction, such as a novel, is different from constructing an outline for a non-fiction book. Methods you may be familiar with for writing a fiction outline will not necessarily work for constructing an outline for a non-fiction book.
As a word of encouragement before you start on your project, remember that as long as you have a strong interest in the topic of your book, you can produce effective content for it, even if you don’t have a lot of knowledge about the topic beforehand. Professional non-fiction writers, for example, are often not familiar with the topics they write about until they do considerable research.
Doing your research will help identify themes
Unless you are already an expert, you will need to do research in order to have enough material for your book. At this point, let’s assume that you have done the research for your book. How to do the research is a detailed topic for further discussion in an upcoming article.
While doing your research, you may have noticed that certain themes or major subjects started to become prominent, or kept coming up in different source materials. These topics or subjects can be the basis of starting to categorize the topics that you will write about in your book.
In turn, these major topics can be chapters in your book, and the topics requiring less detailed information can be subsets of your book’s chapters. At this point, the basic outline for your book will start to emerge or be apparent to you.
Helping your readers to understand your material
To write the chapter outline for your book, you will need to decide in what order to present your information in the best manner that will help the reader fully understand the subject you are writing about.
This might mean an historical or chronological sequencing of the content, or it might require an outline in one of the early chapters, of the basic principles involved in the subject. The outline section involving your chapters should ideally include the subtopics, with subtitles, thereby dividing each chapter into subsections.
Decide on the reader knowledge level you will write for
You will also need to decide, and this should be before you do your research, at what expertise level of your reading audience you will be directing the book to. Are your prospective readers novices, people with an intermediate level of knowledge, or are they more advanced?
The knowledge or skill level of your prospective readers will determine to some extent the format of your outline. If you are writing the book for novices, for example, your methodology will involve step-by-step explanations of the subject matter.
The introduction and possible index
You may want to include an introduction or preface to your book and this should be included in your outline. The Oxford Writers’ Dictionary defines preface as follows: “The introductory address of the author to the reader, in which he [she] explains the purpose and scope of the book.”
Likewise, it can be useful, depending on the subject matter, to include an index at the back of the book so readers can find out quickly and on which pages there are references to particular subjects that interest them. An index can be helpful to readers when the book is of significant length and complexity, with a wide variety of sub-topics covered.
Table of contents
This a section of the final published book which serves to tell the readers what is the book by section with corresponding page numbers. Some authors like to give a mini-summary of the content of each chapter or section in their table of contents.
Other important elements of an outline
Although this article is primarily concerned with the creation of an outline for the main body of the text of your book, your outline should also include a note to yourself that you will need artwork and typography for the four covers of your book (outside front, inside front, inside back, and outside back) as well as a title page, and perhaps an acknowledgements page and a bibliography of books, articles and other materials you have sourced in the research for your book. You will also need a publication data page, noting copyright and other publishing information.
So far, your outline could be shaping up something like this:
Front Cover(s)
Publication data page
Title page
Acknowledgements
Preface or Introduction
Chapters by subject title of each chapter
Chapter subsections
Table of contents
Bibliography of research sources
Index
Back cover(s)
Keep a flexible attitude towards your outline
The outline for your book should be thought of as a work in progress rather than being cast in stone. It is like a battle plan – something to serve as a guide — not as a plan to be rigidly adhered to at all costs. During the formative stages of developing your non-fiction book your ongoing research will continually reveal new aspects of material that you should include as part of the content.
As you develop your book you will likely find that you will need to modify your plan. Writing a book is a fluid process and an art, not a mechanical process. The development of your outline is similar: it may change considerably before you start the actual writing process.
Review of the purpose of the various non-fiction book content or outline elements
The acknowledgement page: This page is generally where you, as the author of the book would offer thanks for anyone who helped you in the writing and editing, and possibly research stages of the book. This page can also be an opportunity to acknowledge particular research source materials that you found particularly helpful in either the content or key ideas for your book.
Preface or introduction: This section can be used to explain why you feel there is a need for your book -- in other words, explain why you wrote the book. You can also offer suggestions to the reader as to how they can use the book to best advantage. The introduction can also serve as a brief explanation of the main ideas you are trying to get across to the reader and why you consider these ideas to be important.
Chapters: The chapters or basic sections of your book provide an organization framework for the content and help your reader to navigate and prioritize how they will read and study your book. Chapters also allow the reader to tackle the reading of your book in bite-size pieces in a logical sequence.
Index: For readers, it can be frustrating to be looking for something very specific in a non-fiction book, only to find that there is no index. This particularly true for larger non-fiction books with some complexity. Do your readers a favour and help them better utilize your book by providing an index. It will take some extra time, but your readers will appreciate it.
Bibliography: This is a list of the research sources you consulted in the research stages of developing your book. You can do it in one list, or by chapters if your book will be lengthy. As an it can also serve as a "further reading" list for those of your readers who want to pursue any of your research findings in greater depth with the original sources. You might also want to actually include a "further reading" list of books and other source materials that you want to recommend.
Final Tip
Before you get along too far in creating your book's outline, go to your local library or bookstore and check out how other writers of published non-fiction books structured or organized the content of their books. This may give you some good ideas that you can use in developing the outline for the book you are planning.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
When should you start to actually write your book?
By Dennis Mellersh
You have spent a lot of time learning about how to write a book, and now you are deep into the research or information preparation stage.
Planning and research, or information gathering, for your book are essential if you are to write with authority.
This holds true whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction.
As writers, however, we have to be careful that we do not spend so much time in preparation and research that we end up putting off for too long the process of actual writing
.
But, how do you know when you have done enough research or information gathering for your book?
I have found that when I have done a considerable amount of research involving multiple sources for a writing project, that at some point the basic themes of the information I am researching start to repeat themselves fairly consistently.
In other words I start seeing the same ideas and/or facts coming up again and again as I continue in the researching process.
At this point I know that I have enough material to start the writing process.
I could spend even more time on research but that time would not yield much new in terms of insights, ideas, or facts, and my efforts would be better spent on actually writing.
You have spent a lot of time learning about how to write a book, and now you are deep into the research or information preparation stage.
Planning and research, or information gathering, for your book are essential if you are to write with authority.
This holds true whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction.
As writers, however, we have to be careful that we do not spend so much time in preparation and research that we end up putting off for too long the process of actual writing
.
But, how do you know when you have done enough research or information gathering for your book?
I have found that when I have done a considerable amount of research involving multiple sources for a writing project, that at some point the basic themes of the information I am researching start to repeat themselves fairly consistently.
In other words I start seeing the same ideas and/or facts coming up again and again as I continue in the researching process.
At this point I know that I have enough material to start the writing process.
I could spend even more time on research but that time would not yield much new in terms of insights, ideas, or facts, and my efforts would be better spent on actually writing.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Generating book ideas through research – A brief introduction
By Dennis Mellersh
One of the key aspects of answering the question “How am I going to begin to write this book that I have been thinking about?” is to start with an effective approach or technique for generating ideas.
You may have a vague concept in your mind about what your book will be about, but at this point you may be struggling with find a way to come up with concrete ideas for specific practical content (if it is a non-fiction book) or ideas for characters, a plot, setting for the action and other factors if you are thinking about writing a novel.
Few of us, unless we have had an extraordinarily eventful life, such as being a gold prospector in the jungles of South America, could write a book based solely on our life experiences, or a book related to knowledge we have built up based on our career.
The novelist Charles Dickens, author of A Christmas Carol, had vast experience with an extensive number of different types of people, businesses, infrastructure, and social trends in England, and in particular London, so he could develop ideas based on this knowledge and thereby write his novels chiefly from his life experience.
But for you and me, we would likely need to augment our life experiences with some solid research, even on subjects we are already familiar with.
And fortunately, for the book author of today, the Internet and contemporary e-materials make the job of research somewhat easier than it was for writers of books in throughout history.
This does not mean that the Internet alone can likely be a sole source of researched information for your planned book, but it can furnish a lot of material, including being an excellent source of guidance on books and other materials that you can research through your local library, and other traditional sources.
In doing our book research, we also have to organize it. As Rudolf Flesch, however, observes in his book, The Art of Clear Thinking*, “…reading books, magazines and newspapers is only half the job. The other half is using all this material in place of that wretched memory of ours. This means note-taking, and filing. How you do it is up to you; pick your own system. But note-taking and filing there has to be; practically all the world’s ideas have come out of notes and files.”
*Rudolf Flesch, The Art of Clear Thinking, Collier Books, New York, 1962, 1966.
One of the key aspects of answering the question “How am I going to begin to write this book that I have been thinking about?” is to start with an effective approach or technique for generating ideas.
You may have a vague concept in your mind about what your book will be about, but at this point you may be struggling with find a way to come up with concrete ideas for specific practical content (if it is a non-fiction book) or ideas for characters, a plot, setting for the action and other factors if you are thinking about writing a novel.
Few of us, unless we have had an extraordinarily eventful life, such as being a gold prospector in the jungles of South America, could write a book based solely on our life experiences, or a book related to knowledge we have built up based on our career.
The novelist Charles Dickens, author of A Christmas Carol, had vast experience with an extensive number of different types of people, businesses, infrastructure, and social trends in England, and in particular London, so he could develop ideas based on this knowledge and thereby write his novels chiefly from his life experience.
But for you and me, we would likely need to augment our life experiences with some solid research, even on subjects we are already familiar with.
And fortunately, for the book author of today, the Internet and contemporary e-materials make the job of research somewhat easier than it was for writers of books in throughout history.
This does not mean that the Internet alone can likely be a sole source of researched information for your planned book, but it can furnish a lot of material, including being an excellent source of guidance on books and other materials that you can research through your local library, and other traditional sources.
In doing our book research, we also have to organize it. As Rudolf Flesch, however, observes in his book, The Art of Clear Thinking*, “…reading books, magazines and newspapers is only half the job. The other half is using all this material in place of that wretched memory of ours. This means note-taking, and filing. How you do it is up to you; pick your own system. But note-taking and filing there has to be; practically all the world’s ideas have come out of notes and files.”
*Rudolf Flesch, The Art of Clear Thinking, Collier Books, New York, 1962, 1966.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
There are many roads leading to writing a successful book
By Dennis Mellersh
In your desire to learn how to write a book, you might want to expand your thinking beyond the traditional process of slaving away at a single manuscript with a completed book as your destination.
Particularly with the advent of self-publishing through electronic media book publishing platforms such as offered by Amazon, you can create a book as a collection of articles with one theme.
With the strong emergence of highly targeted markets in electronic self-publishing today, a whole new group of potential readers has opened up for topics you can write that could appeal to people who share your interests. And, you can not only write your special interest book, you can publish it yourself.
Moreover, these days, with emergence of electronic book self-publishing, books no longer are restricted to a certain length, or page-count, or word-count. You can write a very short book and price it accordingly, or write a much longer one and charge according to the additional time a longer work will entail.
One concept you could look at for creating your book using this approach is to start a blog on one of the free blogging platforms, such as blogger.com or wordpress.com on a subject you want to write about. In addition to writing copy for regular or hierarchical/static websites, I also have blogs utilizing wordpress.org with paid hosting, and on both the free platforms offered by blogger and WordPress.
Except for the amount of time available to you for your writing, you will never be limited in the number of books you can write, so for the topic or theme of your blog, pick one of the subjects that you would like to write a book about, starting today.
You can even run your writing parallel with blogs on a number of topics that you would like to publish books about.
A key point to keep in mind in this blog-to-book approach is that the chances of success will be much better if you write the blog with the purpose of turning some or all of your blog posts into a book.
Otherwise, if you write your blog on an ad hoc basis with no overall connecting theme and jump around from reporting news to writing “timeless” pieces, it will be difficult to turn it into a book that you are happy with. And if you aren’t happy, it is not likely that the book would have appeal to the reading public, even if they are interested in the subject you are writing about.
You should start thinking now about how long your planned book will be and give some thought to the various chapters or topics you will cover, all relating to your central theme.
And yes, people will buy such books, even though they could search through all the posts of your blog and read them online. However, readers today will pay for the convenience of you doing the work of a book publisher and presenting them with a fully-formed book on subjects that interest them.
So, why not give this a try right now by going to blogger.com or wordpress.com and starting your blog-to-be-a book. Don’t announce your book-writing intention on the blog however.
Instead you might want to start a blog as a journal of your day-to day experiences of your journey as an aspiring book writer. It might surprise you to see how your efforts interest people.
In your desire to learn how to write a book, you might want to expand your thinking beyond the traditional process of slaving away at a single manuscript with a completed book as your destination.
Particularly with the advent of self-publishing through electronic media book publishing platforms such as offered by Amazon, you can create a book as a collection of articles with one theme.
With the strong emergence of highly targeted markets in electronic self-publishing today, a whole new group of potential readers has opened up for topics you can write that could appeal to people who share your interests. And, you can not only write your special interest book, you can publish it yourself.
Moreover, these days, with emergence of electronic book self-publishing, books no longer are restricted to a certain length, or page-count, or word-count. You can write a very short book and price it accordingly, or write a much longer one and charge according to the additional time a longer work will entail.
One concept you could look at for creating your book using this approach is to start a blog on one of the free blogging platforms, such as blogger.com or wordpress.com on a subject you want to write about. In addition to writing copy for regular or hierarchical/static websites, I also have blogs utilizing wordpress.org with paid hosting, and on both the free platforms offered by blogger and WordPress.
Except for the amount of time available to you for your writing, you will never be limited in the number of books you can write, so for the topic or theme of your blog, pick one of the subjects that you would like to write a book about, starting today.
You can even run your writing parallel with blogs on a number of topics that you would like to publish books about.
A key point to keep in mind in this blog-to-book approach is that the chances of success will be much better if you write the blog with the purpose of turning some or all of your blog posts into a book.
Otherwise, if you write your blog on an ad hoc basis with no overall connecting theme and jump around from reporting news to writing “timeless” pieces, it will be difficult to turn it into a book that you are happy with. And if you aren’t happy, it is not likely that the book would have appeal to the reading public, even if they are interested in the subject you are writing about.
You should start thinking now about how long your planned book will be and give some thought to the various chapters or topics you will cover, all relating to your central theme.
And yes, people will buy such books, even though they could search through all the posts of your blog and read them online. However, readers today will pay for the convenience of you doing the work of a book publisher and presenting them with a fully-formed book on subjects that interest them.
So, why not give this a try right now by going to blogger.com or wordpress.com and starting your blog-to-be-a book. Don’t announce your book-writing intention on the blog however.
Instead you might want to start a blog as a journal of your day-to day experiences of your journey as an aspiring book writer. It might surprise you to see how your efforts interest people.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
The importance of editing in creating a professional quality book manuscript
By Dennis Mellersh
In the art of writing a book it is difficult to overemphasize the importance of editing your manuscript as part of the overall creative writing process.
As writers, we are often too close to our work to see its shortcomings during the initial phase of the writing process.
This is particularly the case in writing a fictional work such as a novel where the size and complexity of the manuscript makes it hard for the creator to see repetitions, unnecessary or overblown passages, or inconsistencies, or problems with the plotting.
Ideally the services of a professional book editor should be sought whose experience can quickly identify shortcomings, which go beyond spelling, factual inaccuracies and grammatical errors.
As a start, before you seek the help of a third party, you may find it helpful to put your completed book manuscript aside for a time, say several weeks, and then revisit it with new perspective.
You may be surprised at how many problems you will discover which were not apparent during the excitement of the early creative process.
A book manuscript, particularly the initial iteration, should always be viewed as a work in progress, with a view to spending a lot of time and effort in the refining process.
In the art of writing a book it is difficult to overemphasize the importance of editing your manuscript as part of the overall creative writing process.
As writers, we are often too close to our work to see its shortcomings during the initial phase of the writing process.
This is particularly the case in writing a fictional work such as a novel where the size and complexity of the manuscript makes it hard for the creator to see repetitions, unnecessary or overblown passages, or inconsistencies, or problems with the plotting.
Ideally the services of a professional book editor should be sought whose experience can quickly identify shortcomings, which go beyond spelling, factual inaccuracies and grammatical errors.
As a start, before you seek the help of a third party, you may find it helpful to put your completed book manuscript aside for a time, say several weeks, and then revisit it with new perspective.
You may be surprised at how many problems you will discover which were not apparent during the excitement of the early creative process.
A book manuscript, particularly the initial iteration, should always be viewed as a work in progress, with a view to spending a lot of time and effort in the refining process.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Composing the outline for your book
By Dennis Mellersh
Writing an outline for your book can make the writing process easier.
But if you overdo the amount of detail you put in the outline, and the time you spend on it, particularly if you are writing fiction, you can lose a lot of creative energy that might be better used in the actual book writing process.
The writer Georges Simenon wrote the outlines for his detective stories on a large-size envelope, thus limiting the amount of time, space, and detail, he devoted to the outline process.
Once the book’s outline was complete Simenon virtually locked himself in his study, or writing room, for two to three weeks, writing extensively every day, until the book was completed.
Writing an outline for your book can make the writing process easier.
But if you overdo the amount of detail you put in the outline, and the time you spend on it, particularly if you are writing fiction, you can lose a lot of creative energy that might be better used in the actual book writing process.
The writer Georges Simenon wrote the outlines for his detective stories on a large-size envelope, thus limiting the amount of time, space, and detail, he devoted to the outline process.
Once the book’s outline was complete Simenon virtually locked himself in his study, or writing room, for two to three weeks, writing extensively every day, until the book was completed.
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