Four Critical Factors in Writing a Nonfiction Book

A warm welcome to guest blogger, Joan Hoffman, EdD, author of Ready, Set, Counsel A Practical Guide to Being a School Counselor In the Real World. Here are Joan's recommendations for what it takes to produce a finished manuscript for a nonfiction book.

As I thought about writing a book, I realized there are four critical factors that need to come together in order to get to a finished product. Missing any piece will make your writing more challenging and may keep you from completing your book. The first is passion—your strong emotional tie to your topic, the belief in your knowledge base and ability to write on the topic.

The second is vision, which lets you refine and focus your topic to give you a clearer picture of exactly what you want to write. Through refining and focusing, you will be able to develop your elevator sentence—a short statement about your book, the clear picture of what you want your book to be. As people ask you what your book is about, you only have a short time before they glaze over or start yawning because you are going on too long. Just because you find your topic fascinating doesn’t mean others necessarily agree. If people want to know more, they will ask.

The third factor is tenacity. You need the energy and determination to complete your project. I found I had to cope with frustration and even stopped writing for a while. My passion reasserted itself and brought me back to continue on my book-writing journey. Without this piece I might never have completed my book.

Of course, you need to dedicate yourself to the book; it won’t write itself. I found it helpful to write down short-term goals. When you write the goal, it becomes a commitment, unlike thinking about a time line. I also found it helpful to give myself small rewards along the way. It might have been a manicure, a special night out, or even a warm bath. Do whatever works for you as a motivator.

Since I had passion, a clearly defined vision, and tenacity, all I needed was a plan. I thought I had a plan by outlining, re-outlining, and writing my chapters. However, as I took Bobbi’s class, I discovered that I had much left to do and, in fact, had made this harder than it needed to be.

There was the necessary research to see if there was even a market for my book. How disappointing it would have been if I had spent all that time writing only to find out there was already a glut on the market. Thankfully, there was not. Chapter summaries would have clearly defined my walk through my book, instead of writing, rewriting, and merging topics. I encourage you to follow the path defined by Bobbi’s book. It will certainly shorten your time to get to completion.

I can’t begin to tell you how rewarding it is to complete the query letter, proposal, and book. It’s so wonderful to actually see the finished product and know that it happened because of your dedication, blood, sweat, and tears. No one else could write your book. It is uniquely you! Success!!

Life's Little Disappointments

There are many wonderful quotes about plans that don’t work out. My favorite is "The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley" by Robert Burns. (It was written in Scottish.) But I also like my mother’s bit of homespun wisdom: “Man plans; God laughs.” That about sums it up.

I’m waxing philosophical because, once again, due to forces way beyond my humble control, my class in “Writing, Publishing, & Promoting Your Nonfiction Book” has been cancelled, just days before it was scheduled to begin. Apparently, the community college has spent the last couple of days informing eager teachers that too few students registered to make the classes worthwhile.

On one hand, that’s probably good news because it’s hard to adequately prepare for a class with no confirmation that it’s going to be held. Thus, I wasn’t as ready as I would have been under different circumstances.

On the other hand, it’s bad news because I have to tell the wonderful speakers I had booked that I don’t need them. My lineup was the best ever and I’m really disappointed.

I guess it’s both good and bad news because, when I counted up the number of remaining copies of my book, which I planned to give to every student, my stock was running dangerously low. So now, I am several hundred dollars poorer but fifty books richer because I had to order more from the printer.

I could continue to go back and forth with why it’s good news—I’m swamped and this will free up time for my projects, or bad news—teaching is the highlight of each season and I will truly miss it. But why give myself a headache over the vicissitudes of life?

This is merely further proof that everything in life is interconnected. Something happens somewhere (the economy tanks, for example), and many months later, the community college has to cancel classes. People who might have wanted to take those classes are disappointed; speakers who had probably begun to prepare are told to stop; class plans already in the works are shelved; teachers who had new things to say turn their attention to other things; and the community college, which is certainly in need of money, loses out on anticipated revenue.

But it is what it is, a saying I hear frequently and have really come to dislike. Somehow, it just lacks the poetry of "the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley.”

They just don’t write lines like that anymore.