When talking about writing nonfiction articles, we want to talk about where you can have these articles placed, the length of the articles, the research required, the structure, and the best places to put your articles.
Jill, heard the phone rang. She ran and answered it. She heard from an editor of a magazine that she had been hoping to write for. Then she woke up.
Wouldn’t it be good if you were to have a magazine editor call you and offer you an opportunity to write an article? Not only to write one article, but to write many short nonfiction articles, on any topics that you are passionate about, as many articles as you wish, with no chance of rejection! Well, that would be an even greater dream for Jill, and for us.
Where Can I Publish My Articles?
Let’s talk about where we can put articles. It can be in magazines, on websites, and they can some sections of newspapers.
How Long Should I Make My Articles?
What about the length of your articles? If you do some research on this, you will find one site says anywhere from 800 to 1000 words, while another site says 500 to 1500 words, and another one says 300 to 1000 plus So let’s just take the outside parameters of that and say 300 to 2000 words.
Considerations for Research
We also need to think about the research that’s involved. What kind of information do you need, and then how much information do you need? That will depend on how many words you’re shooting for. Where is the best possible place to get it? Well, think about what you’ve ever read on this topic. Think about what you’ve ever thought about this topic – you have your own research. Think about what you have written. Then turn to outside sources.
Now, the internet has provided us a wonderful thing in being able to do a search on many different topics. So you can go do some online research. But whenever you do this, need to be a little more careful maybe then in the past on checking some of the sources for online articles or information. You may find three different places that say about the same thing, and you discover that they got all their information from the same place. So just be careful in checking out where you get your information when you’re verifying it.
Then you can talk to interesting people. If you know somebody who is an expert in the field or somebody that has experience in the area, you can interview them. Now you can even do that from a distance. You could do it over the phone or Skype or Zoom or some other online platform. Of course you could meet with them in person too.
Next, you’ll want to add some interest factors. These could be interesting facts that are related to your topic; maybe not directly related to what you’re writing about but you can throw in an interesting fact or two. You can start throw in some humorous items, that are related to your topic in general. Also, as I mentioned in the last post, you could add some stories that would illustrate your point.
So, we talked about where, and the length, and the research. Then you want to structure your article. It would have a beginning, a middle and an end.
The beginning you want to try to hook your reader, tell them why they need to read your article, and state the main point your article. In the middle, you will have more paragraphs that give more detail. Then at the end you tie it all together.
Where is the best place to put your articles? I mentioned magazines at the beginning. Those are still good, maybe harder, may not be as good as it used to be. Also newspaper. You could pitch an article to newspapers. Or, you could place them on a website. Probably the best website would be your own website, where you would have your own website and your own articles.
By placing these articles on your own website, you will be building a platform. Then when you get ready to write your book, you can pitch the idea to an agent who would contact a traditional publisher for you. One of the things they will be interested in is your platform. Do you have a platform and a following? One of the best places to build that is on your own website or own blog.
One of the reasons for having your own site or blog, building a platform of course. But think about it: You are in complete control of your writing; you own all of that content. You get to write on topics of your choice. You have no boss to answer to except yourself, you set your own hours, you can take off whenever you want, and you can write from anywhere.
I hope that you will consider writing nonfiction articles.I hope this has been helpful to you. If it has, and you’re reading this on my blog, and if you’d like more tips like these, then just go to the top of the page and click on the word “writing”, and you will find many articles about writing there. You can find the blog at www.randysblogs.com Please also check out my YouTube channel and subscribe for more great content.
“Writers Panel – How Successful Authors Wrote Their Books” is an excerpt from the class on “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less.” This panel discussion was one of the most popular sections of the class. Here is the transcription of the video that was lightly edited to change spoken speech into written speech. If you would like to know the stories of these successful authors, read on.
Our Panel
Randy: We are glad to have you with us tonight. Please introduce yourselves.
Kelsey Browning: My name is Kelsey Browning. I live in West Frankfort, Illinois. I have lived there since I was two and Johnston City before that, so Southern Illinois the whole time. I am married to a farmer, Kendall Browning. We live on this little family farm with my three rotten but adorable kids.
Shelley Wilburn: I’m Shelly Wilburn. I’m also from West Frankfort. I’m married to D. A. Wilburn. He is a carpenter, and we have three grown children, and almost four grandchildren.
Idella: Almost?
Shelley: Almost. We have one on the way.
Idella Edwards: My name is Idella Edwards. I was born and raised in Aurora, Illinois, and my husband and I have lived in eight different states.
We retired from Oklahoma, and looked at Oklahoma and said, “Do we want to stay here for retirement, and we said, ‘No.'”
So I got on the Internet and picked Marion, Illinois, for our retirement. We have five children and 12 grandchildren.
Their Books
Randy: Okay, so tell us about some of your books. We’ll go in reverse order,. So, Idella, you can start.
Idella: Well I have four Christian devotionals, and then I have four children’s books. I have a poetry book, and then I have another one I call my grandchildren book, Parenting 101.
I’m really jealous of these two, starting so young, because I didn’t start writing until I was retired. In fact, I started writing because I came to Marion, Illinois to join Aldersgate United Methodist church. After we got there, Susie Rice started teaching a class. I started writing encouragement emails to the group as a whole, and then after a while, I thought I needed to collect those and put them in a book, you know, so that’s kind of how I accidentally got started.
Shelley: I currently have two published books. The titles are Walking Healed. They’re both titled the
same thing. One is just the Walking
Healed book. It’s a journey of forgiveness grace and hope.
The second book is the Walking Healed companion study, which is the Bible study guide.
I got into writing when I was 12 years old but not full time until about five years ago, when God healed me of over 40 years of depression and mental and emotional abuse, and that’s what my book is about — overcoming. It’s about overcoming your obstacles and things in your life. I’m currently working on my third book, which is another Bible study, and it’s titled, Warrior Princess. It is about discovering your identity in Christ.
Randy: And I would say that Shelley was in the first version of this class.
Shelley: I was.
Kelsey: My book is called, Here I Am. It’s part of a series. It’s young adult fiction.
It starts out as the story about two teenagers, and friends. Then it spreads from there to things that are going on in their lives.
I’ve had a lot of readers that are a lot older than teenagers where I originally geared it. I actually have found that, to my knowledge, one teenager has read my book. Therefore, I hesitate to call it teen fiction.
For me, writing a book was an accidental beginning as well. My friend growing up, always, always wrote short stories. Any opportunity she had, she was writing. I was looking for hobbies, and then I just sat down, and God kind of just gave it to me. I never, never, planned on being a writer, but that, that’s how I got started, so it was just kind of an accidental thing.
Questions and Answers
Randy: OK, Now we will open it up to you class members to ask questions.
Lynn Masters: Did all of you do this in 28 days, or was this kind of like you had the basics but kind of extended past that?
Shelley: Once I got started, it went really fast. Now, when I wrote the companion study to Walking Healed, I already had a basic outline. It wasn’t really a blueprint, but I was supposed to teach a class on my Walking Healed book, so I had written out notes. I took those notes and wrote the Bible study in about 5 weeks.
Kelsey: It’s hard to give a timeline, because I have 3 little ones. Some days, there was no working on a book. I’m a stay-at-home mom, so some days It depended on the kids. But as far as the fiction process goes, when I was making it up in my head, sometimes I had to stop and walk away for a while. I’d have to let what I had written marinate and build, and see where the character was going.
Sometimes I’d go a week where I would write all night long, for hours on end. Then I might go 2 or 3 weeks and not touch it because nothing was coming. So that’s how I had to write. When it is there, get it out, but it may not come back for a little while. So my timeline is all kinds of messed up.
Randy: That’s a good transition to what I’m going to talk about next week. Abandoning the basic technique. That will work, it can work, and can even work for fiction. The best thing is to find out what works for you and then correlate with other techniques, like the ones presented earlier in the course. I am going to encourage you to come up with sort of a blueprint because it’s a good thing to fall back on if you need it. Another thing about producing a blueprint is that the process helps clarify in your mind what you’re doing.
Their Unique Writing Processes
Debbie Neal Crawford : I’m interested in the process of the writers. Are you a morning person,? Do you write it it out? Do you type it? Are you disciplined in your daily schedule?
Shelley: When I sit down to write, I am. However, I could be driving down the road and get inspired. I do a lot of talking in my car on my phone and then I transcribe.
As far as when I wrote Walking Healed the companion guide, I had notes, not really an outline, and I would sit down every morning for 3 hours and write.
When I wrote this one, it was just whenever I was inspired, I would sit down and write. Some days it would be 8 hours, and some days it would be 3-4.
Randy: Did you have a regular schedule for when or how often
you would blog?
Shelley: I’m not very faithful right now. But in the beginning, I would make sure I posted at least 2-3 times a week.
Kelsey: I was a night owl. Once everyone was asleep–when everyone was in bed–it was quiet time. I could never concentrate in the mornings. In the afternoon and the middle of the night was my best writing time. I listen to the radio in the car and that’s when it would hit me. Music at other times helped too. Tons of stuff in this book came from listening to music.
Randy: Did you do any voice recording and transcribe it? Of course your transcription doesn’t have to be word for word like what you said originally. You are the author, so you can change it up however you want.
Kelsey: I would record on my phone and listen to it later. It helps to listen to it later and see if it makes sense. Sometimes hearing it back helps.
Randy: So, Kelsey, you are a night owl. I can identify. Shelley, what about you?
Shelley: I’m a night owl.
Randy: And Idella?
Idella: I’m a morning person. I don’t know if my books would fit into that 28-day time frame. With devotionals, you have to write the ideas down when they come to you, you can’t wait.
Don’t tell the preacher, but some have been written on the back of the church bulletin.
Shelly: I’ve written a lot of blog posts during
sermons. I even told my pastor, “I just
want you to know that your sermon prompted a blog post.” He said, “Any way I
can help.” At least he’s a good sport.
Kelsey: Even with fiction, I get that too. Sometimes, it would even be the answer to some little conversation that needed to happen, and I was having trouble finding a way to put it. Sometimes, I would hear it in a sermon. He would put it a certain way and make me think of it in a different way. It sometimes would help fill out little pieces – that’s where I would always get stuck – just little pieces of conversation that didn’t sound right. There were several times, through sermons, that I pieced the conversation together.
Dan Masters: Are you on the best seller list yet?
Kelsey: I’m barely on the sellers list yet.
Idella: My purpose for writing, at my age, is more to leave
a legacy than to make a million. I know
I’m not going to hit that million.
Debbie: Are your books from Create Space or…
Idella: I used Lightening Source.
Shelly: I went through Ingram Spark, which is a division of
Lightening Source
Kelsey: WestBow Press.
Hybrid Publishing
Randy: I told Kelsey that I was excited to hear from her because I am familiar with WestBow press. If you remember we talked earlier about self-publishing, traditional publishing, and what I would call hybrid publishing. That’s how I would classify WestBow. I would say it is a hybrid publisher.
Idella: What is hybrid publishing?
Randy: Hybrid publishing is sort of a cross between self publishing and traditional publishing. When you use a hybrid publisher, you don’t completely self-publish; they do things for you. In their case, they have several different packages. The more they do for you, the more you pay for the service.
Kelsey: They’ll even help you with marketing, but you’re looking at lots of money there. That’s where I had to bow out. I just had to figure it out on my own. They designed the cover (holds up book). They asked me for ideas, and gave me a web site to look at some standard art. You fill out their questions, and they would email you a first draft. I loved my first draft, but you can send it back. Now if you tell them, “No, let’s try something else” more than twice, then they’ll charge you for another round of it. I understand that, because I’m sure they get people who are never going to be happy. They did that, and they took care of all the copyrighting, and the ISBN number. They have part of a package where you can get what is called a book-seller’s return, so, in theory, (I haven’t done this yet) it’s easier to get book stores to take them because the company will buy them back if they don’t sell. So it kind of gives them a free out instead of wasting their money if it doesn’t sell.
Hybrid is what they pretty much call it, too. It’s kind of an in between.
Randy: I didn’t know if I’d coined that term or not.
My first book was through a printer called 48 Hour Books, and they will print your book very quickly for you. Their cost per copy is a little higher, but my wife and I were doing a marriage seminar, and I wanted the books to be available for that. I happened to be in Mexico on a mission trip. We spent the nights on the Texas side. I remember the night I took the plunge, and I pushed the button on the 48 Hour Books. When I got home, I did get the books. I don’t recall if they got there in time for the seminar, but it was just a couple of days. I was pretty happy with them.
Then I did Create Space, which is similar to Lightening Source or Ingram Spark for the second book.
For the third book, I used a hybrid publisher, and it’s called FWB Publications. (FWB stands for “For Worthy Books”). I’ve been very happy with them. There is a whole lot of responsibility back on me with them, as far as proofreading and that.
Now WestBow, I think, goes over the final copy more in-depth than what mine did. I had to be sure what I presented to them was absolutely what I wanted
Kelsey: They’re extremely helpful (WestBow Press). I’m a stay-at-home mom and my husband is a farmer, so we don’t have a lot of extra money. They would tell me the amount, and I’d tell them, “I don’t have that right now, I’ll have to save it up.” They would call me back, but only about once a month. They didn’t just call and hound, and hound, and hound while I got the money saved up. The package I got, which is pretty inclusive, was about $3000. But they pretty well lined out everything.
Copies, ISBNs, and Covers
Debbie: How many copies of the book did you receive?
Kelsey: Around 50. There were some hard-backs. They set the pricing because of the pricing company that they go through. The paperbacks were reasonable; they were $17.95, which I think is reasonable. But the hardbacks were $30 and nobody is going to by a $30 hardback book from an unknown author. I don’t try to push those too much. I would say, “Don’t pay for extra hard back books in the package.” It came with business cards, bookmarks for promotion, post cards for promotion. What i received was more than just the books.
Idella: Lightening Source is much, much cheaper, but I don’t pay any extra for marketing, other than $12 a year to be on Amazon.com. I buy my own ISBN numbers; if you buy 10 it’s cheaper than one. I think one is $125 and 10 is about $250.
Shelly: I just bought the 10.
Idella: I’m on 20 now. I design my own covers, but I’m not smart enough to get my cover on the Lightening Source form, so I hire a former employee that does that for me for $100. Other than that, I just send in my PDF.
Kelsey: The cover design was included in the package, too. I forgot to mention that.
Shelly: I designed my cover, too. It’s my daughter-in-law walking down my driveway, and I hired a photographer I go to church with. All in all, I got a pretty good deal. I went through Ingram Spark. You order your cover template, and you send it to a cover person, which is what I did, and he charged me $50 per cover, which I didn’t think was bad at all.
I do have pictures in my Bible study, too. We had them done. My pictures tell stories, too.
Idella: (Holds up book) This is the premium color, but for my devotionals I used the standard color, which is cheaper.
But the one nice thing I like about Lightening Source is that I can buy one copy or 100. I’m not obligated to buy a certain number.
Shelly: They’re a print on demand, or POD company, which means you don’t have to order a set amount, They don’t send unneeded books to you, and they don’t have a bunch of your books sitting in a warehouse, either. When anybody orders your book, they print it right then, and they mail it out. I do have one box of each of my books that I carry with me to have on hand.
Lynn: How many books are in a box?
Shelly: It depends on how big your book is. But you don’t have to buy a box, you can buy however many you want. You set the price for your books at retail and then you buy at below wholesale, which is $4-$5 a book. (Idella nods agreement.)
Kelsey: That’s pretty well the same for WestBow Press too.
Dan: So you set the price?
Getting on the Amazon Bestseller’s List
Shelly: Yes. I will also say that when this book (holds up book) came out, I decided to do it in e-book form, so this is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million, CoBo, and Apple iTunes for $2.99 as an e-book and $13.99 retail. I like the idea that they can get either/or and I’ve had a lot of success with that. The day that this one came out, it hit the Amazon top 50 in the first hour.
Randy: Was that on the digital version or on the paper version?
Shelly: It was on the digital version.
Randy: The fastest way to bestseller status . . . .
Shelley: It came out before the paperback. Yes, It’s the fastest way.
Lynn: What made it go so fast? Did you post it on Facebook? I’ve seen posts like that.
Shelly: We did a lot of “Coming Soon”, and it was up for
pre-order as well, and I posted that on Facebook. I have a lot of Facebook friends, and my
editor, who is also my friend, posted on hers, and authors help authors. I’m all about helping other authors. That’s one thing they taught me. So we were branching out, so when it did come
out, people were buying it up. Amazon
updates every hour, so I at least got an hour in the top 50.
Promotion
Lynn: Do you have author pages, or do you have your own?
Shelly: I have both. I have a personal Facebook, and I have a Facebook author page. I also have my blog, and I’m on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. All those things help. I don’t use all those things all the time. Right now, my biggest thing is Instagram. When I post on Instagram, it will go to Facebook, so I’m hitting 2 or 3 with one post.
Randy: Do you have an Amazon page, an Author Central page?
Shelly: I have an Amazon author page, too. That’s important.
Wrapping Up
Randy: Our time is going. If you have questions, ask quickly.
Lynn:: (To Idella) On your devotional, is it daily or is it chapters?
Idella: It’s a two-page devotion, and I have discussion questions at the end if they want to use it for a group study. I don’t know how many are in there – they’re different sizes.
Randy: So, they’re not dated, like “January 1st”?
Idella: No, I don’t have them dated.
Randy: Rhonda, do you want to make a comment about the
returns at the book stores, since you’ve worked at a book store?
Rhonda: Generally, the print on demand books are not returnable. I don’t know about in your (Kelsey’s) case–if that’s different.
Idella: You can set it up however you want it. I’ve found the returnable option is not worth it. I got a whole box back one time.
Randy: The book stores are used to being able to return books. So, depending on what kind of marketing you’re doing, and what your reach is, you have to figure out if that would be something for you.
Lynn: Do the book stores allow you to come in and do book signings? Will the book store publicize it, too?
All: Yes
Idella: This particular book is at Handfuls on Purpose (Christian Bookstore) right now as a free giveaway. That gives them advertising, and it gives me advertising.
Randy: OK. You were here to help us, and you told us how you did it. What is one (or more) main tip or tips you would like to give aspiring authors?
Idella: I would say pray and listen, because God will lead
you in the direction you need to go.
Shelly: Do your research.
Check out all your options before you jump in to one certain thing; in
addition to praying.
Lynn: You’re referring to getting your book published?
Shelly: Yes. Do all your research and then decide what will
work best for you.
Kelsey: Write it. Just write it out. You can always edit, you can always change it, but if you have an idea, just get it down on paper, on the computer, get it somewhere. Even if it’s one you wind up throwing away, it may take you down a path you didn’t even think was where it was supposed to go. Just write it out. If I get too far out in the future in my head, my subconscious would just shut it down; but if I just get it out there, it works a lot better.
Randy: How can people get your books?
Idella: Amazon.com under Idella Pearl Edwards
Shelly: Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com. You’ll find me under Shelly Wilburn or
Walking Healed.
Kelsey: Also, at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and WestBow press.com.
That was the end of that section of the class. I hope you found it helpful. If you would like more tips like these, you can can click on the writing tab at the top of the page.
If you would like a self-study course that contains what was in the live course, and a whole lot more, you can invest in 6 Figure Writing by clicking here.
How to write nonfiction – Turn your knowledge into words that can be shared in books and articles. Your life has given you a lot of experiences. From those experiences, you have gained knowledge. That knowledge can help people, and that’s what you want your book to do. But how do you go about putting that knowledge into words?
Writing From Mountains to Molehills
Several years ago, I wrote a book called From Mountains to Molehills: Overcoming and Celebrating Your Differences in Marriage.
The process of writing this book was easier than it was for some of the others That was because I already had some chapters written from a previous book that was divided into six parts.
I later decided to revise the original book, but then I decided instead to write a series of six books. Each new book corresponded to one of the parts in the original book. So, I had several chapters that related to that content that was about “Overcoming.” I think there were probably about 40 or 50 pages that came from those chapters. To come up with the new book, I thought more about the topic. How could I expand it from about five chapters to anywhere from 12 to 20 chapters? The final product ended up being 14 chapters after I got it all put together.
Then I thought more about what I had covered in the chapters that were in the “overcoming” part of the original book. As I thought about that, I looked for the gaps. What else did I need to talk about on that topic? Then I did research.
Part of that research involved putting out a survey, and surveying other books that related to this topic. Then I went back and filled in the gaps, and outlined those other chapters. Having completed that research, I was able to finish the book.
After that, I was able to go in and put in some of my own personal touches. I added some personal stories out of our own lives. Then, as I recall, I made up some fictional stories in that particular book and put those in at the beginnings of the new chapters. They were stories of Ralph and Elizabeth. Of course, Ralph and Elizabeth were not people that I really knew, rather they were composites of people who were experiencing the things that I was talking about.
Brainstorm What You Know
First of all, brainstorm what you already know. Just get a piece of paper, and start writing down ideas on that piece of paper. Set a timer for 15 minutes and write as quickly as you can. After the timer goes off, set it again if the ideas are still flowing. Keep doing this until things slow down and you run out of ideas. At this point, things will not necessarily be in order. After that, one of the ways that you can handle that brainstorming and reorganizing would be to put little symbols beside the topics. For instance, sometimes I put a little box beside sentences or phrases that are similar. Next, I find another group of similar phrases or sentences, and I put a circle beside those to differentiate between them and those with the boxes. You can think of other symbols for that purpose. I remember using a triangle one time when I did that. I also remember using a 5-pointed star, and an asterisk. I was able to group those ideas together. So you use a process like that to brainstorm what you already know.
Look for the Gaps
Then, you try to find the gaps. Ask yourself, “Will this cover the topic? Will this give my audience the help that they really need?” Once you answer those questions, you can do further research.
Research for Info to Fill the Gaps
When you find the areas where the information is lacking, it’s time to research your topic. With that added information, you can come up with chapters to fill in the gaps.
Get the Rough Draft Done
The next step is the most important: Get the rough draft down, just get a draft down. In most cases, that will help.
Some people are really good at writing and editing the same day. If you do that, then you just need to have a word count for each day. Others do really well by just rough drafting each day until they’ve got the whole book done. Sometimes those people use a timer, and write those sections until the timer goes off. They have a time goal for the day instead of a word-count goal. Then they go back and do the editing and refining. Either way though, get the rough draft down.
In some of the coaching that I do, I help people with writing rough drafts of books. I have two different methods of fast writing that can be used. I also have two different methods of how they can “talk” their content out. They can utilize their phone, even do a live video like my “Walking with Randy” videos. They have an outline, and speak the book. There are two different methods for doing that, but going into more detail goes beyond the scope of this blog post.
So, you brainstorm, fill in the gaps, research, and get the rough draft down. After that, you make it even more interesting.
Add Your Personal Touches and Stories
Go in and add your own personal touches and stories. Now the stories don’t all have to be yours, they can be stories of other people (with their permission to tell their stories). But, tell your stories where you can. That adds the personal touch. You can also make up stories that are actually composites of people you know. That’s what I did in the case of Ralph and Elizabeth.
You have knowledge, and you have knowledge that will be helpful to other people. I hope that this blog post will help you to be able to turn your knowledge into written words.
So, how to write nonfiction-turn your knowledge into the words. Again, I hope this has been helpful to you.
I will remind you that you can go to Randy’s blogs.com to get more writing tips like these. If you are already on the blog, you can click on the “Writing” tab on this page.
You can also get videos like this on YouTube. I would even recommend that you subscribe to my YouTube channel to get a sample of more videos like these. if you are a subscriber, on a rainy day, you can binge watch the whole set!
Today, I’m offering more tips that have to do with writing. So, writing nonfiction articles: the fastest way to the cash. These are some tips that will help you write nonfiction articles.
First of all, you want to do this because it is one of the fastest ways to get to the cash and it’s also one of the fastest ways to become prolific in what you do. There is a variety of topics that you can talk about with nonfiction. Of course with fiction, there are all kinds of stories that you can do too, but it seems to be a little bit harder. to come up with different variations of stories. However, with nonfiction, you can talk about all kinds of things, so you can come up with many, many more nonfiction articles.
The reason why I’m writing about this here is because it is possible to both be able to speed your way to being prolific and have many topics on which to write.
Think About Your Audience
Here is something that you should think about when you’re getting ready to write your nonfiction article: Think about your audience. Who is your audience? Who, most likely, would be interested in it? Is your audience male or female? Young or old?
You may not know the answer to all of those questions but sometimes you can get a pretty good handle on it if you go to the groups that are discussing the topics that you’re talking about. Also, if it’s something that you know a lot about, without having to do a lot of extra research, you are probably in your target market. You would know yourself some of the things your audience would need to know. So, first of all, think about your audience.
Think About a Problem
Second, think about a problem. What is the biggest pain that is associated with the topic that you’re discussing and the problem you’re trying to solve? What is it that would keep people awake at night? What would they have to overcome?
Think About the Solution
Next, think about a solution. What is the biggest benefit? What will they care about the most? What will bring them the most joy as a result of getting this solution? Will they be happy because of being able to do things more easily or more quickly? Will getting that solution help them make more money? Will getting that solution help them to be able to help other people? Will arriving at the solution give them a sense of fulfillment?
Think About the Steps to the Solution
Finally, think about the steps to the solution. Imagine that you’re standing on one side of a stream and the solution is on the other side. There are a bunch of stepping stones in the middle. Figure out what steps are involved in arriving at the solution. Do the steps have to be performed in a certain order? Do some of the steps build upon previous steps, or can they be placed anywhere between the problem and the final solution?
So there it is: writing nonfiction articles is the fastest way to the cash.
✅Think about your audience. ✅Think about a problem. ✅Think about a solution. ✅Think about steps to the solution
Nonfiction articles are the fastest way to become prolific. Yes, you become an expert when you write a book, but it takes so much longer to write a book than it does to write a short article. Some people get double mileage by writing articles for their blogs or for websites, and when they are ready to write their books, they can pull the articles from their blogs and then edit them to become chapters or parts of chapters for their books.
You can find places to put your articles by submitting them to article directory sites, like Ezine Articles.
Another way of using your articles is to put them on your own blog, or your own website. I have already mention how you could get double-mileage out of those articles. Search engines like to see websites that are updated frequently. You do that by continually adding articles that will bring value to your readers.
Would you like to know how to get more people to read your helpful information?
John and Bill were mentioned in my last blog, Bill was having a problem with his Internet business. John saw a way that he could help his friend. He had very helpful information that he knew could help many people. But he could not get many to read it. Whenever he would go to his analytics, there were not nearly as many views of the articles as he would have wished. Then he tried some different things.
First of all, he started off telling, at the beginning his article, why the reader should read it.
Then he went to his analytics. He found that the number of views jumped up a little bit.
Then, whenever he told about why someone should read the article, he presented the problem. Then he agitated that problem a little bit before he gave the solution.
After he did that, he went to the analytics, and he was very hopeful. He clicked the button to look, but he was disappointed. Still, though, that result was better than what it was previously.
Then his friend John came along and gave him just one helpful suggestion. After implementing the one change, he kept clicking on his analytics report throughout the rest of the month. By the end of that time, he found his views had risen dramatically.
There was just one simple suggestion that caused that great result to come about. What was that suggestion? Here is the answer: John simply told Bill to add some stories.
We’re talking about writing nonfiction narrative Of course the word “narrative” is where the story-telling comes in.
What is A Narrative?
Let’s look at the definition of nonfiction narrative: It would be similar to historical fiction. Maybe in its truest sense, it would be one narrative that would go throughout the whole article, story, or book. There is another definition, though. That is, facts, told as a story, or facts that are illustrated by a story. That’s the one I’m focusing on. That’s the one that helped Bill’s views to jump dramatically.
You’ve probably discerned by now that Bill and John are composites of many different people, and yet these ideas are very true.
The Three Types of Narratives
In storytelling, you’re able to connect with your audience in a much better way. There are three types of narratives.
One of the first is to tell your own personal narrative.
The second one is to tell the experiences from your clients or your friends. You have to be careful with this one, though. If you have been engaged in confidential discussions, and you don’t have permission to use their names, then you must change the names and some other elements to present the facts, but to protect the innocent (or sometimes the guilty). Sometimes you will have permission to use other people’s stories.
The third kind of narrative will have fictional characters that are composites of many clients. They have true characteristics, and the facts, the things that are involved are true, but the character is a fictional character that has those true characteristics.
What Makes a Good Narrative?
What are some elements of good narrative. The first one has to do with the setting. “They were standing in the desert. They had been there for several hours and the sun was going down. Though they’d been terribly hot, they had been told that the temperature would drop dramatically.”
There we are. We’re at the beginning of the setting for a good story. It helps you to identify with your audience. The setting should be similar to those to whom you’re writing. If you can involve the five senses in describing that setting, that helps create the image in the mind.
Then you want to introduce a main character. Since you’re doing these very short stories within the rest of your book, it’s best to focus on one character. However, you may have to introduce at least one more to have some type of conflict, setup, or to carry the story, but you focus on a single character.
When you introduce another character, you can make the story more interesting by including their dialogue.
Then you have the conflict. The conflict is related to the pain. It is related to the problem, and the problem can be agitated. It can be set up. The conflict, tells why there is a problem. It’s okay for things to repeatedly look like they’re going to succeed, and then fall apart. That makes for good fiction. So you have the conflict, you have the pain, you have the problem, and you have the tension and surprise.
At this point you can put in additional characters. Sometimes it’s man against nature. Sometimes it’s a person against a certain situation.
Then it builds to the climax. This is when the good finally triumphs. This is when the success finally overrules defeat. This is what this solution is. After that, you don’t really want to just cut it off abruptly. Sometimes you need to tie together the loose details,
The problem is solved. The satisfaction is there. This is where you dial it down a little bit, and perhaps you give a summary of the steps that were involved.
So those are some of the elements of putting stories within your nonfiction writing. Most of us like stories, and stories will keep us involved. Well, I hope that this has been helpful to you.
To recap, the elements of a good narrative are setting, character conflict, climax, and resolution.
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You have your rough draft. Yay! Now, what do you do with it?
We have talked about several ways to come up with your rough draft. We encouraged you to use the creative side of your brain, and to write quickly. In some cases, we even encouraged you to plow right on through without correcting little typos.
If you’re writing a book, you want your book to do well. While it will be fun to get the book done, it will also be great to get it to the point to where you can sell the book.
Now is the time to edit. This is when the analytical part of your personality gets to kick in. This is what some of you have been waiting for, depending on your personality type. Some, more than others, find it hard to slog ahead while leaving some of those obvious typos and items that we immediately knew could have been worded better.
Remember, our goal is to get the book done! Many would not be able to do so without that forced action of moving on with the wording that first comes to mind.
Why You Are the Best Editor for Your Book
Several reasons exist as to why you are one of the best persons to edit your book. In fact, you might be the best person altogether. Some of those reasons are:
You know where your book is going.
You know exactly what you want the end product to be. You may not be able to communicate that too well if you hire out the editing process to someone else.
You know your content better.
You, and no one else, knows your voice better than you do.
If you want it to really sound like you, then you are the best one to edit your book.
Hiring Professional Editors
It is also a good idea to have a third-party analysis. You need to have someone not as familiar with your content to look over your book. When it comes to the process of proofreading, this is especially true. Right now, however, I’m talking about the other content editing, sometimes it’s called line editing.
There are some options for getting someone professional to edit your book. Years ago, I used Elance. It was a good place to hire freelance workers. They gave you samples and descriptions of the writing. You were also able to look at ratings from people who had used those particular freelancers before.
There was also a site called O’Desk. Elance and O’Desk have now merged, and it is called Upwork. You may want to go to Upwork and check out some of their editors.
Another freelance site you might be familiar with is Fiverr.com. When you go to any freelancing site, look at the descriptions of what they do, their ratings, and ask for some samples. You can probably find a good editor simply by doing that.
There are some other options you can look at more in depth. You can look at some more expensive options. If you have gone with a Hybrid publisher, they may offer some editing services, and you may want to go with them. I have a book that I’m collaborating on right at the moment, and we’re doing it through an excellent Hybrid publisher, so we decided to hire their editors to go over our work.
Computer Editing Techniques
There are also some things you can do on your own. If you are pretty good with grammar, then you may be able to just use the computer software called Grammarly. Or, there is another one that is called Pro Writing Aid. Both of those are very good. If you are not good at grammar, you definitely want to use something like this before you hand it over to someone else. But if you are pretty good with grammar, then it may be that just running it through one of those two pieces of software is all that you will need to do.
There is another type of computer editing you can do. You have the “find and replace” button on your word processing software. So go through and do a search for the word “the.” If you are writing a nonfiction book and you want to do it in a very personable way, you may want to change some of those “the’s” to the word “you”. For instance, instead of saying “the book,, it might be better for you to say “your book” if, indeed, it is the reader’s book you’re talking about.
Another example would be to search for the word “that”. Many times, the word “that” can be removed from your sentence and still make sense. It won’t always be appropriate to remove the word, but, really, doing so sounds better in a lot of instances. Just be sure you go through your document and check that out.
Now here’s a very important one.: You have the “be” verbs: “am, is, are, was and were.” You can take your computer and search for all the instances of each of those words. Those sentences, more than likely, are written in passive voice. Passive voice is where the action is being done to something. Generally, your writing is more exciting if you have someone or something, doing the action.
So, you could change those sentences to active voice. An example would be, “The ball was hit.” You can change that sentence to, “He or she hit the ball.” See how doing that changes from the action happening to the ball to someone doing the action?
Sometimes you can’t change those sentences; it wouldn’t make sense for you to change some of those things. In those cases, then, just leave them in passive voice.
At times, it may be, that, at the very beginning of certain paragraphs or certain sections of writing, you may want a more powerful word. To start with such a powerful word, you may, in some of those cases, deliberately use passive voice. Just make sure you’re doing it on purpose.
Another set of words to search for with your computer, are words that end in “ly”. Those are generally adverbs. An example of that would be, “He ran into the room quickly.” Quickly is an adverb. Usually, whenever you have something like that, you can make your verb stronger. Let me give you an example. You can change your verb to rushed, “He rushed into the room.” or, “He burst into the room.” Doesn’t that sound better?
For some paragraphs, the writing may just be wordy. You might want to go through and pull out only the important words and rewrite the paragraphs using those important words as the foundation for your new paragraphs.
So, these are some ways that you can fillet that fish and get rid of the bones. The meat represents the good words and wording you want to keep. The bones are the things you want to edit out. We have described ways to edit for fun and profit.
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Today, we’re talking about writing non-fiction books-7 steps to success.
I want to tell you the story of John, who saw his friend Bill having some problems with his Internet business. John had been down that road before and thought, “Some of those things could be easily corrected.
So, he thought, “Well, maybe I should write a book. No. No one would listen to me.” Then he talked to his friend Bill, and found out that Bill was open to suggestions. He started working with Bill, and things turned around.
So John persisted in writing a book that would be helpful for people. Here’s how he went about it.
See the Problem(s)
First of all, he saw the problem. He was able to see the main problem and some other problems. He knew what success in this area was like, so he was glad to be able to share his successes, and he wanted others to not give up too quickly.
Dream the Solution
He wanted them to be able to dream about their success. He knew about his own experience, but since he was writing for more than just himself and Bill, he decided to make sure that he had amassed the information that would help others in their situation.
Do Further Research if Necessary
That meant he needed for information, so he did some further research. After having done this. He started grouping his information together.
There was a problem.
There was a solution.
There were steps to get to that solution. He formulated those grouped ideas as steps and ended up with eight steps.
Show the Steps
He knew he could write an introduction to this book. And after putting in the eight steps, he knew that he could write a conclusion. He could tell them what he was going to tell them, and he could tell them what he had told them.
He began the process of writing his book. Pretty soon, he had this 10 chapter book done, and then he decided to make it better–to make the chapters better. Of course it was a rough draft. He went through and started the process of polishing, which is actually going to culminate in the last step, He went through and caught his typos and spelling errors and made those corrections.
Put in Headings
Then he decided to break up the text in the chapters by putting in some headings. He had at least three headings in each chapter: sometimes he had four, sometimes he had five, sometimes as many as seven. But generally, three or four. So he had had an introduction, and he had eight chapters of steps leading to the solution. Within each of those eight chapters, there were headings that broke up the material, making the chapters easier to read. That type of chapter would allow the person to read a section, digest it, think about it, meditate on it a little, and move on to the next section.
Then, to make it better, as he went through his next pass: catching more than typos and spelling errors, he looked for things like passive voice that just jumped out at him. Thinking of the example of, “The ball was hit.” and he changed it to, “John hit the ball.” as he went through the document again.
Add Some Stories
To make it even better and more interesting, he added some stories. He told about his own experiences. He told about Bill’s experiences, and he told about the experiences of others that described universal experiences. He told the experience of others in a way that would not involve copyright infringement. So he added those stories.
After having done that, he had this great book. It was a book that would solve people’s problems. It was a book that would move them toward their dream of the solutions to those problems. It was a book that was interesting because of some of the stories that were placed inside it.
Polish and Publish
Then he hired an editor to go over the book, and he, himself, polished it even further. He also hired someone to create a cover for his book.
Having done that, his book was ready. The exciting day came, and he published it, fulfilling a dream that grew out of a desire to help his friend.
Conclusion
Writing nonfiction books, seven steps to success: Here were John steps: First, see the problem or problems. Second, dream the solutions Third, research further were necessary. Fourth, show the steps. Fifth, put in some headings. Sixth, add some stories. Seventh, polish and publish. Then you have a book.
Why don’t you do that? Can you see a problem that needs to be solved? Can you show the dream for the solution? Can you do further research on your topic? Can you put in some headings and add some stories? Can you proofread and get someone else to help you polish it even more? If you can do that, before you know it, you will be ready to publish your book.
So there you have it: Writing nonfiction books, seven steps to success. See the problems, dream the solutions, research, show the steps, put in some headings, add some stories, polish and publish.
I hope this has been helpful to you. If you would like more tips like these, go to www.randysblogs.com and you will find more tips like these. If you’re looking at this on my blog itself, you can just go the top of the page and click on “writing” and you will find more posts that include these videos. Subscribing to my youtube channel will include a list of most of my videos too.
Today, we are going to add “triggers” to your questions in order to help you complete your amazing writing plan. In previous sessions, I talked about how to come up with a writing plan for your book. I’ve called some of the special parts of the plan, “block parties”. Today we are going to see how to finish setting up block parties for each of your chapters.
What I talked about in the past, for a non-fiction book, was to come up with a list of 9-15 questions that are grouped with various headings. For fiction, you may just have 9-15 questions (with no headings) that are grouped in the best order. This is what to do with those questions to come up with a great writing plan.
Three Things to Put With Your Questions in Order to Complete Your Amazing Writing Plan
Begin by coming up with a list of trigger words or phrases. Look at the first question, come up with a list of three trigger words, or three phrases that would remind you of the answer to that question. Or it could be a combination of trigger words and phrases. You might have: trigger word, trigger phrase, and trigger word; or you might have: trigger phrase, trigger phrase, and trigger word. You might have some other combination, but you will end up with a list of three trigger words or phrases for each question.
Then when you get ready to write, you don’t have to worry about writer’s block; you just read the questions and look at your trigger words or phrases. Set your timer for five, six, or up to 10 minutes (whatever length allows you to consistently complete 250 words or 2/3 of a page), as I talked about in previous sessions, and press start. Then write as quickly as you can. This is how the creative side of your brain kicks in and helps you to produce a sparkling rough draft.
Now, this is just a rough draft. Later on, you will leave out some things, you will add some things, and you’ll revise some things. The point is, that you will have something that you can edit.
So, as you look at a plan to complete your book, the best way to do it is to have this writing plan set up ahead of time for all of the chapters. Usually you will have anywhere from 10 to 20 chapters. Once you have all of that data you are ready to write, and you’re good to go. Most of all, you’ll be reminded that writing is fun! You don’t have to worry about writer’s block because you have those trigger words or phrases to get you started.
Whenever I did this with my first book, I did it with just three words per question. (Sometimes, the trigger “word” was a combination of two actual words that fit together. For instance, if you needed to have a negative in there, like, “Don’t quit,” you might need both of those. I let those count as one trigger word.) But I just had three trigger “words” to remind me of the answers to each of my questions.
Three New Items to Put With Each Question as You Complete Your Amazing Writing Plan
More recently, I have used suggested trigger words or phrases. I find it much easier to think of the phrases. So here is my suggestion and what I’m going to do the next time I use this method. I’m going to have the question, and I’m going to have the list of three trigger words or phrases. Then I’m going to pick out three powerful trigger words: A powerful trigger word can be a sight, a sound, or something to do with the senses. It can be an action, or it can be a particular noun that fits the answer to your questions. (Some of your already written trigger words may fit these categories. If so, feel free to list them again for your power words.) Those three Powerful trigger words will be written right below my three trigger words or phrases.
When you start the writing process for these questions, try to incorporate those three powerful words or phrases into the first paragraph. That will kick in the creative writing process even more. I would recommend this expansion of my original idea for you.
Anatomy of A Chapter Writing Plan
So here’s what your chapter your writing plan would look like. You have the working title of your chapter. Then you have your list of questions, and those questions would be grouped with headings. Underneath each question, you’d have three trigger words or phrases. Under that, you would pick out three of the most powerful trigger words. This will help you add the finishing touches as you complete your amazing writing plan.
When you get ready to write, look at the question and fix in your mind the three trigger words or phrases that are the answer to the question. Then Look at the powerful trigger words. Start writing with a goal of using those power words as quickly as possible. I’m looking forward to trying that the next time I use this writing plan.
I can tell you this: Having such a plan is great. It helps prevent writer’s block, and it helps you to write on days when you feel inspired. On those days when you don’t feel inspired, this process is very, very helpful. Then later on when you go back and look at the end result, you will have trouble figuring out which days you felt inspired and which days you didn’t. At least, I often find that to be true.
Well I hope this will be helpful to you. If you use these tips, you will complete your amazing writing plan.
If you find these tips to be informative or inspiring, you can find more here. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel. If you put in a comment or a like, that will be helpful too. I also have a great course that puts all this together.
Would you like an example of how using these techniques to complete your amazing writing plan will work?
Try this little exercise: Write down a question. Below that, write three trigger words or phrases that remind you of the answer to the question. Right below that, write your thee powerful trigger words.
Now, don’t mull it over. If you have a timer, set it for five minutes. If you don’t have a timer, just look at your watch or a clock.
Now, without giving any more thought. Start writing as quickly as possible. Work in your power words ASAP. Then keep writing as fast as you can, including your other trigger words or phrases. Just keep going. Don’t think. Just write.
When the timer goes off or you see that five minutes are up. Stop!
Look at what you have written. How do you feel? Did it surprise you a little what you came up with?
This is how you can come up with a fun rough draft. Remember you can always edit later.
Please let us know, the results of this experiment for you. Just comment below.
Today we’re continuing to talk about planning your writing. During the first session, we talked about the need of coming up with a list of 12-18 chapter ideas. The second session in this series explained how to tighten those ideas by eliminating three of those items. So now you should have ended up with a list of 9 to 15 ideas. [Editor’s note: In the video, I talk about narrowing down to 12 ideas, but, actually it could go down to 9 ideas. In the written article, I correct this.] Now, what do you do with those 9 to 15 ideas?
I’m going to give you three optional things you can do, and two required things for planning your writing. When I say required, I mean they are required from the sense of using this quick-writing system.
Mind Map – Optional
The first one is, you can do a mind map. Now you may have already done that. However, after you have refined your list, you may want to do it again. It depends on how much you like mind maps. Mind maps are great tools for planning your writing.
At the center of your page, you write the topic or title of your chapter. Then you take your 9 to 15 ideas and run them out as strands, away from the center of the page, and that central idea. Draw a line out and put one of your 15 ideas there. Then write in another one that is related to that continued in a strand of thought. Draw another line up from that to the other one. You draw little circles around those, so it looks like cartoon thought bubbles.
Once that strand has run out, return to the center of the page. You draw another line out from the center, put another one of your ideas there; one that relates. After the first grouping of those, you continue that strand of thought. Keep doing that until you’ve used all of your ideas. This step is optional, but it would help clarify things in your mind.
Outline – Optional
Another optional thing to do, after you have made your mind map, is to reformulate it as an outline. Use Roman numerals for your major points, and letters or numbers for your sub-points.
Add Headings within Chapters – Optional
Here is another optional thing for planning your writing, but it is highly recommended. Put some headings within your chapters.
This is especially for nonfiction books. When we talk about fiction, then you don’t usually put the headings in. You would just want to have the order of your ideas, and they are arranged in the best way that fits your story.
Again, for nonfiction, this is optional, but I recommend you break up your chapter with some headings.
Now if you have done an outline. You have already figured out some likely content for headings because you have come up with some Roman numerals. Those more than likely would be your headings.
If you haven’t done the mind map and outline, and you just came up with your order of ideas, then look to see where you could insert some headings. Three to five would be a good number. But see what fits best in your mind with the topic of your chapter.
So we’ve got our three optional things: the mind map, the outline, and for nonfiction, it’s optional, but highly recommended, that you insert some headings.
Arranging Order – Required
Here’s what’s really necessary for using those 9 to 15 ideas. You need to arrange them in the best order. A mind map would help to clarify that somewhat because you had to group them together in strands of thoughts. You need to list these 9 to 15 ideas in the best order for you and for your reader.
Turn Ideas Into Questions – Required
After you have these 9 to 15 ideas, you’ve arranged them in the best order and possibly inserted some headings. The next thing for this system is to turn each of those ideas into a question.
Just put “who, what, when, where, why, or how” in front of your statement. Put a question mark at the end, and rearrange it to where it sounds right. You now have a list of 9 to 15 questions for each chapter of your book. If you had inserted headings, you would now have those headings sandwiched in between those questions at the appropriate places.
Remember when we talked about some secrets for writing? Getting your mind to get in gear? For instance, we said, write about cars. It may take you a while to think about that. But if you were to ask, “What kind of car do you have? What was your earliest car? What was the make of your earliest car? How did you like your earliest car? What kind of car do you have now? What color is your car?” you would find it much easier to write by answering questions.
When it comes time to write your chapters, you can just start writing by answering those questions. This is a great way to get away from writer’s block.
That’s the secret. Put those 9 to 15 items in the correct order, and then turn them into questions.
You can do that for fiction too. You will have a list, and it will probably be mostly composed of chronological events. You can turn those into questions. Then you will be ready to start writing.
I will have one more post following this strand of thought.
Today we’ve talked about what to do with your list of 9 to 15 items. To review: Optionally, you can do a mind map, form an outline, and (for nonfiction) add headings in between those ideas. Steps required for this method are: Put that list of 9 to 15 items in the correct order, and then, to really make this work, turn each of those ideas into a question.
So next time I post about writing, it will be telling you even more about how these questions can benefit you and get yourself triggered to write.
If you want more tips like these, check out more posts on my blog. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel. If you put in a comment or a like, that will be helpful too. I also have a great course that puts all this together.
Make writing better? Isn’t that what any author would want to do?
In the last blog post, “How to Come Up With Great Content Ideas for Your Book Chapters”, we talked about using mind maps and brainstorming sessions to come up with chapter ideas. This is part two of that.
What We Did Before
We’re still talking about coming up with great content ideas. In the last blog, we talked about coming up with 12 to 18 ideas. The reason why we wanted 12 to 18, is because we want our chapters to be anywhere from six to 10 pages long. We started our writing plan. Now we are continuing our attempt to make writing better.
Here, we’ll be talking about taking those ideas and “tightening” them.
It will all come together at the end of these few blog sessions as to why you need that many ideas. For now, just keep in mind that you need 12 to 18 chapter ideas. Your chapter ideas can be full sentences, phrases, or just one word, but you need to have 12 to 18 keywords that would help you remember what those ideas are.
What We Can Do Now
Now, we’re going to make these ideas better. I know you’ve worked so hard, coming up with those 12 ideas or 18 ideas or anywhere in between. Now we’re going to tighten those ideas.
How? Eliminate three. I know you’re probably thinking, “That’s easy for you to say. How do you do that?”
Well, here’s how you can do it
First of all, you may have added some ideas by using the question words. Well, then you will probably know which one of those is the least important or the least necessary, so just get rid of some of those lesser important ideas you came up with by using the question words.
It may be that you came up with 18 ideas that were just wonderful, and you’re really having a hard time eliminating any one of them.
If you look closely at the relationships between the ideas, you might be able to combine two into one. When you do that, you still have what you want and you have eliminated one number on the list.
Likewise if you could combine three of the ideas, then you will have eliminated two.
Doing the hard work of making these choices now will help in producing a better rough draft.
Let me suggest that you get your creative juices going. You can combine two similar ideas. If you do this, you’ve eliminated one idea already. It may be that you have three similar ideas, and you can combine them into one, so you’ve eliminated 2 ideas. Allow your brain to work a little and let the creative side kick in.
Tightening our list of ideas will indeed make writing better.
In the next session, it will all come together as to why I asked you to come up with that number of ideas, why we tightened it a little bit, and how to put them together in a way that you can have a blueprint for writing your chapter.
