Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
One aspect of a nonfiction book that makes it salable is its structure. Sometimes I read a proposal or pick up a book, and a glance at the title, subtitle, and table of contents makes me salivate to read the whole thing in one gulp.
How can you create salivating-worthy structure in your nonfiction book?
Nonfiction Book Structure = More Than a String of Blog Posts
Realize you don’t create a book’s structure by cutting and pasting together blog posts and–voila!–proclaiming that a book. Oh, no. It takes much more creativity and work than that.
Nonfiction Book Structure = Each Chapter Builds on the One Before
A strong “bone” structure for a book shows careful thought and making sure each chapter builds on the one before. A reader can see the logic is how the book is ordered.
Nonfiction Book’s Chapters = Showcase the Structure
The very titles of the chapters suggest that strong structure. If the potential buyer picks up the books, looks at the table of contents, but can’t figure out how the order in which the premise is explored, the reader feels lost from the get-go. Suddenly it can seem like reading the book could be a lot of work.
You on a Diet is an example of a luscious structure. When you look at the table of contents, you see:
- the clear structure of the book (you know what you’re getting);
- clever section titles and clever chapter titles with clear subtitles (once again, you know what you’re getting, and you see that the book won’t be heavy reading);
- a clear picture of how diet-encompassing the book is.
For example, the second section is entitled “The Biology of Fat,” with the first chapter in that section called, “Can’t Get No Satisfaction: The Science of Appetite.” You know what you’re buying, but you also see the fun play on an old song, which is tied to exploring what science tells us about appetite. The titles set the tone of the book.
Take a look at the table of contents on Amazon, if you don’t own a copy. It’s a wealth of instruction.
Build Each Chapter = Examples & Exploration of the Theme
It’s all well and good to have a strong chapter-to-chapter structure, but you’ll want to develop muscular story-telling to draw the reader into the concept each chapter explores. (Only one concept per chapter, right? Right.)
Stories illustrate the concept and amplify the writer’s point. The reader should be drawn emotionally into the story, which can be sad, funny, or moving in some way. One publisher I worked for judged every piece of writing by asking, Does this writing make you laugh or cry? If the writing did neither, the piece wasn’t published.
Move the reader through the stories you tell, and the reader will want more of your writing–and remember the point you are making.
A writing instructor once told a group of new writers, “Think of each illustration you tell as a window.” An article, a book, a blog post without illustrations is like walking into a room with no windows, no source of light.
Of course, if you have wall-to-wall windows, that can be glaringly overwhelming. So too is story after story and means the author never gets around to putting up walls upon which to arrange furniture or hang home decor.
What’s your greatest challenge in structuring your nonfiction writing, be it an article, a blog post, or a book?
TWEETABLES
What elements make a book’s structure strong? Click to tweet.
How does a writer engage the reader? Click to tweet.
I was kind of lucky – the bulk of writing I did before ‘writing’ was in the form of reports and journal papers, and these had to be rigidly structured.
* That carried over into my nonfiction. I’ve written two ‘inspirational’ books, “Your Winning Season” and “Back to Back: Protecting Your Christian Marriage”. They’re both strongly structured (well, I think so!), but since I have no real qualifications, they haven’t been queried, and won’t be. They were interesting exercises, and perhaps they made me a better writer of fiction.
* My current blog series won’t see the light of day except as a modified series of blog posts. Barring a miracle, I’m out of energy to do more. One can only hope that there is a cohesive thread that makes it compelling reading.
Oh Andrew, it is compelling reading! I can see it as a book, not necessarily to be read in order. I can easily imagine a caregiver running her finger down the post titles, looking for wisdom to apply to her current crisis.
I love that image, Shirlee. That, in its purest essence, is what it’s for. A resource, and not a story.
* The world’s got enough stories about this stuff…I’m dying but I’m –
A) so brave
b) so broken
c) so concerned about legacy
d) so wrapped up in looking inward that I can’t tell whether it’s day or night
* The blog’s supposed to be practical. Philosophy’s for smart people. I’m a knuckle-dragger, and I get practical stuff done.
Thank you, Janet, for rolling out this topic. Chapter structure has cost me hours of thought (and rewriting!).
*Some of life’s stories can be told in ways that fit into different chapters–I can’t repeat myself, I have to find just one home for each story. And how to order my chapters? Which chapters build on the ones before, which lay groundwork for chapters that follow? What’s the best balance of tension and whimsy? I want a consistent framework to make my readers comfortable, and enough variety to keep them intrigued.
*I know of authors who outline with post-it notes on a wall until they get it just right. Unfortunately, I don’t have a big enough wall. I am grateful for cut-and-paste.
Shirlee, one thing I have found helpful is looking at how Norman Vincent Peale organized his books. He was a master of communication, and following his example, I do not think you will go wrong.
Thank you for the suggestion, Andrew. I read Peale’s work long ago, before I was writing my own. I’ll take a new look, searching for wisdom I missed the first round.
*Outlined, the book of Ephesians is perfectly balanced–two parts, parallel points. I wonder if the Apostle Paul worked from an outline. I want to write like Paul did (but with shorter sentences).
Like Andrew, I spent years—actually decades—writing technical, engineering reports before I ever tapped a key with the intent of writing creatively. I had a few engineering articles along the way, as well as conference papers. So I think non-fiction structure has come fairly easily to me. Possibly I should stick to my historical-political non-fiction series in the making, if only the fiction plots would stop invading my mind and pushing all else aside.
.
So my greatest challenge with non-fiction is simply finding a way to have it bubble up in my thought cauldron and spill out onto the page.
That’s sort of a nice problem to have.
I suppose. I feel a bit like Quasimodo, with the fiction bells clanging endlessly when I’d like to write some non-fiction.
Thank you! This information is just what I need.
Interesting to read this. A few years ago as a newbie, I was told to writer blogs and magazine articles and then put them together as a book. But now, reading what you wrote, I can definitely see the problem with doing that.
Thank you for setting the record straight.