Writing Non-fiction: Session 7 - Final Points

You are almost ready to start writing your non-fiction book. Once you have finished your outline by dividing each topic into sub-topics and sub, subs... and sub, sub subs...etc., you'll need to complete the research for each of them. Don't forget to keep track of three things as you proceed with the remainder of your research. They are:

1. Keep track of the people who help you research the topic for your non-fiction book. You'll want to mention them in the Acknowledgements section of your book.

2. Write down pertinent information about the references you use, including the pages numbers for specific quotes.

3. Keep track of topics to be included in the index.

You'll be glad you paid some attention to these things. It's so much harder at the end of writing your book if you have to go back and try to determine where you found your information. And, don't ever underetimate the importance of keeping a good record of the people you'll mention in the Acknowledgements list. Woe be it if you forget someone.

Okay, so your research is completed or nearly completed - there's always a bit more to do once you start writing. Now, it's time for me to say, "Ready, set, go....."

The way you write your book is up to you. You can either write it from start to finish or you can write a topic at a time. Within your outline, you can skip around from topic to topic as the mood strikes you. Just remember to go back through it carefully to smooth out and blend together the topics and chapters.

Writing Non-fiction: Session 6 - Making the Most of Your Outline

In session 5, we developed the major sections of the non-fiction book and the chapter topics within the sections in preparation for writing a non-fiction book. Now it’s time to start working on sub-topics and content.

Outline #4: Break down the outline for your book to the next level. The previous outline is your list of sections and chapters. This next level then will list the main topics for each chapter. So, for each chapter title, make a list of topics that will be covered in that chapter. Here’s how I broke down my outline:

Outline #4

Book Title: A Manual for Adult Children of Aging Parents

Part I: How to get started

Chapter 1: Care-giving then and now
1. Overview of care-giving
2. Care-giving years ago
3. Care-giving now
4. Care-giving long distance

Chapter 2: Transition to dependence
1. Sudden onset of dependence
2. Gradual onset of dependence
3. How to assess your parent’s independence

Part II: Assessing what’s needed

Chapter 3: Can your parent live alone again?
1. Identifying potential problems
2. Determining how much to intervene

Chapter 4: Assessing your parent’s skills
1. Household skills
2. Community skills
3. Communication skills
4. Financial skills
5. Leisure skills
6. Emotions

Chapter 5: Assessing living environments
1. In-home options
2. Modifying the home

Part III: Setting the stage for care-giving

Chapter 6: Health care professionals and what they do
1. Neurologist
2. Ophthalmologist
3. Occupational therapist
4. Speech/language pathologist
5. Audiologist
6. Physical therapist
7. Nutritionist
8. CNA
9. Nurse
10. Geriatric manager

Chapter 7: Finding help
1. Finding help (full-time, in home)
2. Finding respite help

Chapter 8: Out-of-home options
1. Retirement home
2. Group home
3. Assisted living
4. Nursing care

Part IV: Day-to-day care-giving

Chapter 9: Establishing a daily routine
1. Bathroom/dressing routines
2. Mealtime routines
3. Leisure routines
4. Medication routines

Chapter 10: Scheduling appointments and assistance
1. Medical/rehab appointments
2. Beauty/Barber appointments
3. Adult daycare
4. Leisure/social appointments

Chapter 11: Resources
1. Out-patient services through a rehab center
2. Transportation assistance
3. Financial assistance

Chapter 12: Socialization *
1. Importance of social contacts
2. Assessing interests
3. Developing/implementing a plan to keep up interests

Chapter 13: Taking care of the caregiver
1. Importance of health, nutrition and rest
2. Time to recharge.
3. Emotional well-being.

Turning the outline for your non-fiction book into text: Continue to break down the most recent level of topics into sub-topics then into sub-sub-topics and on and on until it is broken down into as minute and detailed an outline as you need. When you reach a level where you feel you are ready to write, start writing the text under each topic and sub-topic in your outline.

Example outline

The outline above is very simple and very symmetrical. Yours may be messier. That’s okay. You don’t have to feel compelled to break all the topics into an equal number of smaller parts. For some of them, the topics will have no sub-topics. For others, you may go to sub-headings then sub-sub-headings under those. For example, in “Chapter 12: Socialization” we have three topics. Not all of them need to be broken down in the book I’m writing.

*Chapter 12: Socialization
1. Importance of social contacts: This topic is divided about as far as I need it to be. I’ll just start off this chapter with how important socialization is to combating depression and to rehabilitation, etc.

2. Assessing interests: This is a bigger topic, and before I write it, I’ll need to break it into smaller topics, such as,

a. Active interests

b. Cognitive interests

c. Solo v. group interests

d. Entertaining routines

e. Feelings of worth

3. Developing/implementing a plan to keep up interests: This one is also a bigger topic and needs to be divided into smaller topics, such as,

a. Setting aside time for leisure activities (reading, TV, sewing, cards, etc.)
b. Acquiring assistive devices needed to implement leisure activities (e.g., magnification: large print books, large print cards, adaptive sewing supplies, etc.)

c. Providing instruction
d. Providing encouragement by working together
e. Celebrating accomplishments.

Writing Non-fiction: Session 5 - Outline Development

A good outline can help you “grow” your non-fiction book. When writing non-fiction, you can write your whole book without ever leaving the comfort of your outline document. Once developed, you can jump around in the outline and write a topic or sub-topic or sub-sub-topic one at a time; later you’ll work through the book from front to back to smooth out the transitions between outline sections.

Here’s a way to conceptualize your book outline. As an example, I’ll share an outline for a book I'm writing about eldercare.


Outline#1
1. Start with the broadest thought that specifically describes your book. Let’s call that Outline #1. My broad thought about my book is…

A manual for adult children of aging parents

That’s it. That’s the whole outline for my non-fiction book for now. Put it aside. Let the idea ferment then come back and work on it as described in #2.

Outline #2

2. The one topic (A manual for adult children of aging parents) from Outline #1 becomes the working title for your book when you move on to Outline #2. Your next task is to begin to break that topic down.

Many authors divide non-fiction books into parts. Others start out with chapters. In this example we’ll divide the topic in Outline #1 into four parts. (There’s an example of this outline without “parts” later in the sessions.) So, Outline #2 would look something like this:

Book Working Title: A Manual for Adult Children of Aging Parents
1. How to get started
2. Assessing what’s needed
3. Setting the stage for care-giving
4. Day-to-day care-giving


Outline#3
3. Break down each topic from Outline #2 to the next level. For example, I've selected How to get started as the title for one of the four parts of my book. Next, I break it down into logical topics. These would be the chapter topics. For this, don’t be concerned about coming up with snappy wording for your topics. You can develop the real “chapter titles” later. Right now, these are working titles. Keep them simple and descriptive.

Book Title: A Manual for Adult Children of Aging Parents

Part I: How to get started
1. Care-giving then and now
2. Transition to dependence

Part II: Assessing what’s needed
1. Can your parent live alone again?
2. Assessing your parent’s skills
3. Assessing living environments

Part III: Setting the stage for care-giving
1. Health care professionals and what they do
2. Finding help
3. Out-of-home options

Part IV: Day-to-day care-giving
1. Establishing a daily routine
2. Scheduling appointments and assistance
3. Resources
4. Socialization
5. Taking care of the caregiver

Once you've reached this stage in writing the outline for your non-fiction book, you not only have the broad outline for your book, but the outline at this point can be used as the table of contents for your book. Next, we will talk about how to take the outline into topics, subtopics, and beyond until you get to the point of writing the book within the outline.

Writing Non-fiction: Session 1 - Choosing a Non-fiction Topic

Writing Non-fiction:

Session 1 - Choosing a non-fiction topic

The first step in writing a non-fiction book is choosing the right topic. You may already have a topic for your book. If so, take the day off and we’ll join you back here next Monday. If you haven’t chosen your topic, read on. There's more to it than just deciding that you want to write about this or that. Asking yourself some questions might help you nail down the perfect topic for you.

Useful questions when choosing a non-fiction topic might be:

.... Are you writing the book for money?
.... Are you writing the book to get the word out?
.... Are you writing to satisfy others?
.... Are you writing to help others?
.... Are you writing just for fun? If so, have at it.

The answer to each of these questions will help you choose a topic for your non-fiction book. For example, if you are writing the book for money, you will want to carefully research the book market and see what non-fiction books are selling and what aren't. If you're writing it to satisfy others, such as a memoir to record the history of your life for your family, answering that question will help you choose your angle on the topic.

When choosing a topic, don't choose one that is too small or too large. For a non-fiction book to be effective, you'll want to cover the topic in enough detail to satisfy your audience and not put them to sleep. If your topic is too large (for example, The History of the World), you’ll be either writing forever, or you'll have to skim over the topic in generalities. If your topic is too small (for example, My Life on February 18, 2008), your book will be either too short to be considered a book or it'll be full of snoozer repetitions. Like Goldilocks, you want your porridge to be “just right.”

Once you choose a possible topic for your non-fiction book, test it out. Surf the net or visit the library. How easy or hard is it to find information about your topic? Also, it might be beneficial to visit book stores or libraries to see how many books are already out there on your topic. Then you’ll be ready to choose wisely.