5 Tips for Writing a Non-Fiction Book
Sunday 15th March
Writing a non-fiction book is one of the most rewarding things you can do as a writer, but it comes with its own particular set of challenges. Unlike fiction, you're not building a world that you control. You're working with real events, real ideas and real people, which brings a different kind of responsibility to the page.
Whether you're writing a memoir, a personal essay collection or a book about a subject you know inside out, these five tips for writing a non-fiction book will help you approach the process with a little more clarity and a lot more confidence.
1. Be honest, not just accurate.
There's a world of difference between accuracy and truth, and it's one of the most important things to understand when writing a non-fiction book.
Accuracy is about getting the facts right, truth is something a little deeper. It's about being willing to write with genuine honesty about your perspective, your experience and your uncertainty, but also recognising how bias might shape how you interpret facts.
The non-fiction books that stay with readers long after they're finished are rarely ones that present a polished, tidy version of events. They tend to be the ones where the author was willing to sit with the difficult, complicated and uncomfortable parts of their subject and write about them without sugarcoating.
That doesn't mean you have to share everything. It just means you have to be truthful about what you do share, including the parts where you don't have all of the answers.
2. Research thoroughly, but know when it's time to stop researching.
The best non-fiction writing is well-informed, meaning that you need to do your research. When researching, you should know where your information comes from, keep track of your sources and make sure that everything you present as fact is something you can defend.
Readers of non-fiction books trust writers to have done this work, and that trust needs to be protected.
That said, research can become a bit of a comfort blanket. There's always another book to read, another source to consult, another angle to explore. For some writers, the act of researching can become a way of avoiding the act of writing, which is a web you don't want to fall into.
At some point, you have to decide that you know enough to begin, and that any gaps you encounter along the way can be filled in as you go. The words you put down will tell you what they still need to back them up.
3. Find the tone of voice that best suits you and your work.
One of the most common pitfalls when writing a non-fiction book for the first time is writers assumin that non-fiction demands a certain level of formality. That it has to sound authoritative, or academic or somehow more serious than the way you naturally write.
We're happy to tell you that it doesn't have to be that way.
Some of the most widely read non-fiction books out there are beloved because you can hear the author's voice when you read them. Your voice is often the part of the puzzle that makes a reader feel the writer behind the page, someone whose voice they want to spend time with.
4. Carve out a shape for your book.
Non-fiction books that simply present information are usually encyclopedias. The best pieces of creative non-fiction take a reader on a journey. They have a shape, a sense of movement, a feeling of having arrived somewhere by the end.
Before you get too deep into what you're writing, it's worth thinking about how your book is structured. What does your reader find out first? Where is the emotional or intellectual centre of the book? What do you want to convey to your reader and how will you make sure it doesn't feel like you're hammering a point home?
You don't have to know the answer to every question, but having a loose sense of the journey you want to take your reader on will save you a lot of time in the cutting room. If you'd like some support thinking through structure, it's an area we cover in our writing creative non-fiction course.
5. When is your book finished?
One thing some writers of creative non-fiction struggle with is knowing when their work is done. It often always feels like there's something more to add... another fact, another quote, another photo, another layer of nuance. While thoroughness is a positive when writing a non-fiction book, there is a point when adding more stops making the book better and starts making it harder to read.
Once you have your first draft done, sit with it a minute before deciding whether you want to add more. Read it through, see how it flows, and go from there. If you want to add more, always question how it benefits the reader's journey.
Ready to Start Writing a Creative Non-Fiction Book?
Writing a non-fiction book is a process, and like any process, it gets easier when you have the right support around you. If you're ready to take the first steps and need some guidance, our creative non-fiction course has been designed to take writers through the fundamentals so that they're ready to fly through the project they want to work on with ease.
If you have any questions for us, you can contact us and we'll help if we're able!
