Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A How to write a non-fiction book?

It seems to me you need to answer some more basic questions first. What do you want to write about? Why do you want to write about it? Who is your audience, and why will they read your book? The ...

posted 5y ago by sesquipedalias‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-22T08:51:08Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47605
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:49:27Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47605
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T12:49:27Z (about 5 years ago)
It seems to me you need to answer some more basic questions first. What do you want to write about? Why do you want to write about it? Who is your audience, and why will they read your book?

The next step is: how will the book I want to write work? How will it be organised, in order to convey information, keep the reader's attention, etc? What material do I need?

And then, you can start collecting and organising the material--at which point, you may well start taking notes rather than immediately writing a first draft. The notes will be answers to questions such as the above: they will outline the material you will include in the book, record ideas about how to structure this material, plan how to keep the reader engaged, etc.

Sometimes, hurrying on and just writing something can be a useful exercise, and you should definitely do so if you feel like it. However, don't expect a great book to result from this exercise, and be prepared to analyse your initial work honestly in order to learn how to improve on it.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-08-27T15:47:40Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 2