Writing Fiction: Session 3 - Choosing a Genre

Choosing a Genre

Before you begin writing fiction, you should determine which genre best fits your story idea. The quickest way to determine this is to check the upper, left-hand corner of the back cover of one of your favorite books. The genre is usually listed there.

In your study of your favorite books, you may have determined the parameters for writing a book of that specific genre. If not, you can obtain submission guidelines and genre specifics by contacting the publishers of your favorite books. Also, many writers for particular genres have formed organizations or associations to help them beat the publishing odds. Choose a local writing group or a national one as a source of valuable writing infomation.

There are sub-genres within many of the fiction genres. It's a good idea before you begin to write your novel, to determine the genre (and subgenre, if appropriate) because many of the publishers of genre fiction have specific guidelines for the books they will publish. For example, many have a limitation on the number of pages or number of words that make up the book. Others have specifications about what the plot can contain. For example, some will not consider a book with too much violence or too much sex; whereas others require a certain amount of violence or sex. It's best to do your homework on these issues to save you time and heartache later.

Here is a list of many of the popular genres and some of the writers' organizations you might find helpful. Where no link is listed, it'd be a good idea to contact the publisher for writers' guidelines before you begin writing.

Possible Genres:

Romance: This is one of the most popular genres. It may or may not surprise you that books in the romance genre make up most of the fiction market. When you think about it, this is not surprising since there is so much diversity within the genre and the writers in this genre are very well organized.


For example, the following are a few of the sub-genres of romance fiction:

• historical romance
• contemporary romance
• Regency romance
• Christian romance
• inspriational romance
• young adult romantic fiction
• contemporary series or single
• paranormal romantic fiction
• romantic suspense

For more information about romance writing, send for the guidelines put out by your favorite publisher or check out information provided by the Romance Writers of America -- the organization of romance writers.

Horror fiction: When you write horror, you conjure up fear in your reader. For that reason, horror can occur in any genre or it can be a genre of its own. The Horror Writers Association will give you a start in understanding this genre.

Science fiction and fantasy: These two genres of fiction are closely related and their organization is combined. It is the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.

Mystery fiction: This could include cozies, police procedurals, who-done-its, etc. There are two major organizations for this genre. One is Mystery Writers of America and the other is Sisters in Crime.

Children's fiction and young adult fiction: This category includes everything from picture books to fiction for young adults. The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators is a large national organization for writers in this area. There are many local and regional chapters of this as well.

Christian fiction: The American Christian Fiction Writers is an organization that can provide you with information about writing in this genre.

Westerns: Western Writers of America is an organization of writers of Western fiction.

Historical fiction

Mainstream fiction: This is fiction that doesn't fit into any particular category.

Adventure fiction:

Drama

Comedy/humor

Thriller

New Age fiction

There may be many more genres. If I've missed one, please let me know. The important point here is to realize that before you start writing your novel it's important to first study the books like the one you want to write and then study the genre. With careful attention to these two things, you'll make the best use of your writing time by being on target from the beginning.

Writing Fiction: Session 2 - Novel Ideas

Before you begin to write your novel, you must dream up a winning story idea. Once in a while, writers pull ideas for their novels out of thin air. Rather than waiting for the fiction-writing muse to strike, give her a nudge.

To start the brainstorming process, think about the types of novels you enjoy the most. When you go to the bookstore, do you gravitate to the mystery section, the sci-fi section, adventure, romance, historical saga, horror, westerns, fantasy, or general fiction? Most often fiction writers have the easiest time writing in the genre they read and enjoy.

Once you narrow down a category or two, pick three or four novels by your favorite fiction authors of that genre. Take the time to read them slowly -- cover-to-cover. As you read, dissect them ... feel the rhythm of the story, note the balance of narration and dialogue, internalize the pacing. Can you find some commonalities among the novels in your genre? If so, make note of them for future use.

Reading several novels in this analytical way should clear a path for your book idea. Keep a notepad handy and jot down all the ideas (no mater how foolish) that come to mind. Put the list aside and keep reading. If you let those ideas for ferment for a while, one or more will eventually rise up to claim your interest to an extent that you won't be able to leave it alone.

That's your start. Fiction writers tell me, and I know from personal experience, that once an idea takes hold, it'll start to grow on its own. Don't rush this process in preparing to write your novel. Waiting for the right idea will make the writing process so much easier.

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 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 4: Organizing your book

Writing Non-fiction:
Session 4 - Organizing your book
Now that you’ve chosen the topic for your non-fiction book and an approach for writing about your topic, it’s time to organize your book by writing a working outline. It’s possible and advantageous to write your entire book from within an outline. It keeps you on track and gives you a starting point. So don’t skip this step. We will cover how to use the outline for your non-fiction book in the next couple of sessions. Before that, it’s time to decide what parts you will put in the outline and eventually into your book. This session is about making a list of them in the order in which they will appear in the book.
Parts of the book:

I. Book half title: This is the page at the front of the book that contains only the title

II. Title page: This page contains the title, subtitle; author or editor; and the name and location of the publisher

III. Copyright page: The information and the format for this page are too detailed for this publication, but they will be included in my upcoming book Before You Write. If you don’t want to wait, check in the Chicago Manual of Style or some similar book on publishing.


IV. Dedication: (optional) If you desire to put a dedication in the book, give it the respect it deserves by putting it on a page of its own.

V. Table of contents: Most word processing programs have an automatic feature for creating the table of contents. Familiarize yourself with this feature.

VI. Illustration list (optional)

VII. List of tables (optional)

VIII. Foreword: (optional) This is a statement by someone else, telling potential readers how good your book is. The foreword is usually what buyers look at first and may sell the book for you. Find someone who has impressive credentials or star-power, who by saying something nice about your book in the foreword will carry some weight with your readers. It may take you a while to find someone to write the foreword, so start early to send out query letters about this.

IX. Preface: (optional) Include the reasons for writing the book and methods of research (if any) in this section. Also, if you have been granted permission to use any published work within your book, it would good to mention it here.

X. Acknowledgements: (optional) Thanking those who have helped you with the book is important. To ensure you don’t miss anyone, begin keeping a list of those who helped you and what they did for you in this section from day one. That way, when you finish the book, you’ll merely have to re-write this section rather than having to scrounge for all those misplaced names and titles.

XI. Introduction: This is the beginning of the text section of your book. In the introduction, it’s good to give the reader a brief overview of the topics that will be covered.

XII. Chapters: In the next sessions, we will discuss outlining the chapters. Just put the word “chapters” in as a marker for now.

XIII. Appendices: (optional) An appendix can include any information that may be helpful to the reader but is too cumbersome to put within chapters. It can be a chart, a list, or a table.

XIV. Glossary: (optional) If your book will have a glossary, it will save you work if you will add the words to the glossary as you go along. Generally, a glossary will include the word and a working definition of the word.

XV. Bibliography or references: (optional, although I advise against leaving it out) In most non-fiction books, you will find a list of references. This not only legitimatizes the book, but it gives the reader other sources of information about the topic.

XVI. Index: (optional, although I advise against leaving it out) Most readers use the index throughout a book. Don’t skimp and leave this out. Most word processing programs have an index feature within them. It’d be good to familiarize yourself with this feature, so you can keep up with the index as you go along.

XVII. About the author: this should be a short bio about you and perhaps a picture.
You don't have to use all of these parts. Choose the ones that are the most appropriate for your book and set them up in a word processing file so you can insert the information that will go into each one as you go along.

Writing Non-fiction: Session 3 - Research

Writing Non-fiction:
Session 3 - Setting up a system for stashing the research notes for your non-fiction book
Now that you’ve chosen a topic for your non-fiction book and the approach you’re going to take in writing about your topic, you are probably itching to start writing. Not so fast. Before you write your book, it’s important to thoroughly research your topic. For your non-fiction book to be credible, it needs to be well-researched and well-documented.

Depending on the topic you've chosen for your non-fiction book, you may have more or less research to do. Whether you only have to straighten out a few dates and names for your memoir or if you have weeks or months of in-depth research ahead of you for a less familiar topic, organization is the key to keeping your book on track.

To start, set up a good recordkeeping system. Here are some suggestions.

Note cards. One way to organize the information for your non-fiction book is to write your notes on note cards and file them alphabetically by topic in a card file. On each card be sure to put the topic, the information, any quotes you may find useful in the future, and the bibliographic information you’ll need for footnotes or the reference section of your book.

Notebook. Take a three-ring binder and put your notes in it. You can organize them in alphabetical order as you did with the note cards or by topics and subtopics in each section. Be sure to keep careful records on the books, magazine articles, journal articles, web articles, etc., you use when researching your non-fiction book, so you will have all the information you need when the time comes to write the bibliography and reference section.

Computer notes. If you want to keep your research notes for your non-fiction book on the computer, set up a file folder for your notes and file folders within that file folder for large topics within the book. In each folder, you can file the notes you take. After you take your notesfor your topic, be sure to give the document an appropriate file name so you can find it easily within the folder. As with the other two recordkeeping systems, it’s important to write down the sources of the information.

All of these record systems are about equal. It’s your choice which one you use, or you may want to invent another that will better meet your needs. Personally, I prefer to keep notes on the computer. That way, when I’m ready to write, I can just lift quotes from my notes and paste them into the book document without having to retype. And, if you write out your reference documentation in the proper format from the start, it’s easy to copy that into your book as well. There’s nothing more tedious than writing out a bibliography. It’s your choice, however.
If you do choose to invent your own system for keeping track of the notes for your non-fiction book.


Be sure to establish a procedure within your system for keeping track of illustrations, pictures, and tables that you’ll use to illustrate your book. Document the sources for these as well and obtain the appropriate permissions to use them in your book.

Once you have a good system set up for organizing and keeping the information for your non-fiction book, get busy. It’s time to dig into your topic and find all the information libraries, the internet, book stores, people you interview, and journals have to offer.

Writing Non-fiction: Session 2 - Approach to Writing Non-fiction

Writing Non-fiction:
Session 2 - Choosing an approach to writing your non-fiction book

Now that you’ve chosen the topic for your non-fiction book, the next step is to choose how you will approach writing about your topic. I’m not talking about determining the category your book will fall into in the book store. I’m talking about choosing a way to write about your topic that will fit what you want to communicate to your readers. You see, the whole point of writing a non-fiction book is to communicate to others. You choose a topic you are passionate about, and then you choose the approach you will take to writing about it.

Possible approaches to writing your non-fiction book

Procedural or instructional approach to non-fiction writing: Falling within this category are instruction manuals, self-help books, cookbooks, how-to manuals, etc. The approach is to instruct your readers by giving them the procedures or steps to follow to do something.

Descriptive approach to non-fiction writing: The word “descriptive” gives you a clue here. In this instance, your approach to writing your non-fiction book is to describe your topic for the audience. A travelogue would fall into this category. Or, your topic might be Queen Anne architecture. In the book you describe with words and perhaps pictures the architecture of that era.

Narrative approach to non-fiction writing: In narrative non-fiction writing, you are telling a story. It’s similar to writing a novel only in a non-fiction narrative, you tell the truth. An autobiography, a memoir, and a biography are good examples of this. History of your home town is another, etc.

Report approach to non-fiction writing: This includes reporting how things are at present or how they were. This is generally a straight-forward approach without trying to persuade the reader to agree with your point of view.

Discussion approach to non-fiction writing: You would choose this approach to non-fiction writing if you want to show different viewpoints in one book. Also, with this approach, you would not try to persuade the reader to agree with your point of view or with one of the points of view. Instead, you are merely informing them that there are several viewpoints (including the pros and cons of each if you want), so the reader can make an informed decision.

Persuasive approach to non-fiction writing: You would choose this approach if you want to convince your readers of something. Many of the political books definitely take this approach.
There are probably more approaches, but these are the major ones. The point is to choose the approach that works for what you want to do with your topic.

Different non-fiction writers will take different approaches to writing about the same topic. For example, the topic might be tabby cats. Your approach depends on what you intend your reader to know about tabby cats. Here are some examples how different approaches to the topic can result in very different books.

Instructional approach: How to Take Care of a Tabby Cat
Descriptive approach: Habits of North American Tabby Cats
Narrative approach: My Life with a Tabby Cat, etc.

The approach to writing about your non-fiction topic is up to you. Determining your approach to writing your book will determine how you research your topic and what you ultimately say about it.

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.

Welcome to Writer's Creative Studio

I'm Lou Belcher. I am a freelance photographer, writer, and editor. Yes, that's what I do for a living. In the Writer's Creative Studio, my goal is to share the best of the visual and written images that excite me.

As a photographer, I can sit on a bench for hours, photographing the same dandelion - waiting for a bee to be attracted to it. That's my life as a photographer. I have a passion for nature photography and for images of landscapes, seascapes and the sky. I love the play of light and reflections on surfaces. And, I love talking and writing about those images as well. Here's an image to start us off. Let me know if it speaks to you.