Eight preparatory steps necessary to successfully write a
nonfiction book.
1. Choose
your topic.
The first thing you want to do as you prepare to write a
nonfiction book is choose a topic for your project carefully. This may seem
like a no-brainer, but it really isn’t.
2. Create a
Content Plan
Create an outline or a table of contents for you book. This
ends up looking like a table of contents—actually a rather detailed table of
contents with chapter titles and subheading titles. You might prefer to just
create a simple outline or a bulleted list.
Whatever your method of choice, create something that looks
like the structure of a book—a table of contents. And know what content will
fill that structure as you create your manuscript. That’s your map.
Then, when you sit down to write each day, you know exactly
what to write. In fact, the more detailed you make this plan, the more quickly
and easily you will write your book. You will spend little time staring at your
computer screen wondering what to write or what comes next. You will know. It
will be right there in your writing plan. You’ll just follow the map—your table
of contents—to your destination.
3. Determine
What Research You Need
You might think you can write your book “off the top of your
head” because you are the expert on the topic. Inevitably, though, you will
discover a need to search for something—a URL, a quote, the title of a book.
These things can slow down your process. This is where preparation can help
keep your fingers on the keyboard typing rather than perusing the Internet.
For each item in your plan—or your detailed table of
contents, brainstorm the possible research you need and make note of it.
As you write, if you discover you need more research or
interviews, don’t stop writing. Instead, create brackets in your manuscript
that say [research here] and highlight them in yellow. Later, do a search for
the term “research,” and fill in the gaps.
4. Create a
To-Do List
Look over your content plan. Take all the research items you
listed and put them on a to-do list.
Make a list of URLs, books and articles to find. Look for
anything you need to do. For instance, does your research require that you
visit a certain location? If so, put “Visit XX” on the to do list.
Don’t forget to put interviews on this list. You want to
conduct your interviews now.
5. Gather
and Organize Your Materials
Gather as much of your research and other necessary material
as you can prior to the end of October. Purchase the books, copy the articles
into Evernote.com,
copy and past the URLs into a Word doc, or drag them into Scrivener’s research
folder, for instance. Get your interviews transcribed as well—and read through
them with a highlighter, marking the quotes you think you want to use.
If you are writing memoir, you might want to gather photos,
journals and other memorabilia. If you are repurposing blog posts, or reusing
any other previously published or written material, you want to put all of this
in one place—an online folder, a Scrivener file or a Word file.
Generally, get as much of what you need to write your book
in an easily accessible format and location so you aren’t searching for it when
you should be writing. Use piles, boxes, hanging folders, computer folders,
cloud storage…whatever works best for you.
6. Determine
How Much Time You Need
Each nonfiction book is different and requires a different
amount of time to write. A research based book takes longer to write, for
example, because you have to study, evaluate and determine your opinion of the
studies. You have to read the interviews you conducted, choose appropriate
quotes and then work those quotes into your manuscript.
If, on the other hand, you write from your own experiences,
this take less time. With the exception of drawing on anecdotes, an occasional
quote or bit of information from a book, the material all comes from your head.
You need only sit down and write about a process you created, your own life
story or your area of expertise.
7. Create a
Writing Schedule
Last, create a writing schedule. You now know how much time
you need to write your book. Now find those hours in your calendar and block
them off. Make those hours sacred.
8. Put a
Back-Up System in Place.
Yes…this is my last tip, because you just never know what
happens. Your computer crashes or dies. You accidentally delete your whole
manuscript. Your child dumps milk all over your keyboard.
You want a back up of your project. Always save it to your
computer’s drive and onto a thumb drive or, better yet, into the cloud,
for safe keeping! Make these plans in advance as well. You can use Evernote.com,
Dropbox.com
or Google Drive, for example.
