Nonfiction Writing Techniques – How to Make Your Articles or Chapters More Interesting

Janet was walking along and saw the edge of the cliff.  Then her right foot slipped!  She didn’t regain her balance, and she slipped over the edge  She began to slide down the slope. She grabbed a branch and was hanging on for dear life.

How does that relate to your article or chapter?  It may not relate at all.  But if it did, you would surely have everyone’s attention. Let’s talk about four nonfiction writing techniques. 

Narrative Items

First, you can use narrative items.  Tell a story.  The story can still be a true story, so you would still be writing non-fiction.  You can also invent a story.  In that case, you would be adding some fiction in with your non-fiction writing.  At any rate, you can use storytelling or narrative techniques. 

You can do that in the form of an illustration.  After all, who doesn’t love a good story? 

Another thing you can do is use the story arc to develop your material.  You would have to do a little more research on what the story arc is, but it’s something you can do.  Basically, you have a beginning, middle, and end.  You have a problem, then a conflict, then escalating problems, and then solving the conflict.  You can set up non-fiction writing in a similar manner. 

Another place you can use that technique is in the introduction.  You can use narratives in the introduction just like I did with the fictional story of Janet and the cliff.  Or you can use a personal or historical story as you go about doing that. 

A couple of other techniques that aren’t necessarily narrative in the introduction is asking a question or questions.  You may be trying to solve a problem anyway, so you may want to restate that problem in the form of a question.

Another technique you can use in the introduction is interesting, unique, or funny thoughts at the beginning of your writing

So use narrative techniques.

Details, Details, Details

Also, use details.  Sometimes, you need to have some details just to help with the clarity of your writing. You can also add sensory details.  Talk about the smell, or sound, or the sounds in the setting.  Use those sensory details.  Sometimes, those sensory details relate to emotions.  If you are involved in sales, many people tell you that people buy from emotions as well as from want.  So use sensory details.  Add emotional triggers where that’s appropriate to do so.

This is the second technique.

Keep it Simple

Third, use simplicity.  Abraham Lincoln said if you have the choice between a simple word and a complex word, and the simple word will convey the proper idea, use the simple word.  That was good advice coming from our 16th president.  Use short or clear words where you can.

Use short paragraphs.  One of the ways to use shorter paragraphs may be contrary to what you were once taught in school.  In the old way of writing books, you may have had 2-3 long paragraphs per page.  One of those paragraphs may have included five items within that paragraph.  And that is a proper way of doing that.  You would have a topic sentence, then you would enumerate the 5 items, and you may have a clincher sentence at the end.

The more modern way of doing that is to make that 5 paragraphs and have the topic sentence in the first paragraph with the first point, and the second item would be the second paragraph, third- third paragraph, fourth- fourth paragraph, and fifth – fifth paragraph.  Or, you may have six paragraphs, with the topic sentence being a paragraph on its own, introducing that topic.  You may even make it seven paragraphs, having a “clincher” paragraph/sentence at the end.

You’ll notice in a lot of online writing, a lot of blogs, and a lot of areas where you observe writing techniques, you’ll notice in modern-day copywriting, there is a lot of “white space,” or there is a line between the paragraphs, which gives more white space.  That is if you have black letters on white paper, which is how it’s usually done. 

So, use simplicity.  Use short paragraphs and short, clear words, and white space where possible.

Variety is the Spice of Life

The last technique is to use variety.  You can use variety in sentence lengths.  I know I said to use short sentences, but don’t use only short sentences.  If you do that, they will be like little bullets one right after the other.  So you want some variety in sentence length.  Many of them will be shorter because you made a conscious effort to do that, but some should be longer so you have variety. 

Also, use variety in the sentence types. You have simple sentences, you have compound sentences, and even compound-complex sentences.  You may want to use several short sentences, but for variety, you should throw in compound, and compound-complex sentences.  Use variety in sentence length and types.

Another thing you can do is use variety in points of view.  If you are using stories, either fiction or nonfiction, to illustrate your points, you can tell them from the first-person point of view.  You may have been talking about something that was a personal experience.  In that case, you would say, “I did this. I did that.”

Another story may relate to someone else and you may speak about that in the third person.  Sometimes, you can tell a story about someone else, and you can tell it as though you are that character.  You should make clear to your reader that you are not that character, but you can tell it in first-person.

If you’re writing conversationally, many of your sentences will be the second-person point of view where you’re addressing the reader as “you.”  Or you could do a third-person point of view.

Think of each story as a scene in a movie.  You just don’t want to change the point of view within the scene or illustration.  The first story may be from the first-person point of view, and the next may be a third-person point of view.  Just don’t mix the two within the same illustration.

In Summary

These are some nonfiction writing techniques that can make your chapters or articles more interesting.
1. Use narrative items.
2. Use details.
3. Use simplicity.
4. Use variety. 

For more writing tips, head to Randy’s Blogs. On the top of the page, you’ll find a heading labeled “writing”. There is a lot of helpful information there. This article relates to the idea of steps to writing success.

To get even more help and advice, check out my book, ” How to Write a Book in 28 Days Without Stressing Yourself to Death”. Just go to Amazon.com, type in the full title in the search bar, and you’ll be able to purchase either an eBook or a print book. ( Note, the book is officially launching in November, 2021. I encourage you to participate in the launch. There will be some perks during the launch.)

I hope this has been helpful for you. Happy writing!

Writing Nonfiction Articles – A Good Addition to Writing Your Books

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.

Writing Nonfiction Articles – Questions to Speed Your Way to the Cash

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.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.