One of the biggest struggles people have when writing nonfiction is writing concisely. We have a tendency to be overly wordy when we speak, and that translates to excessively detailed writing. In some instances, such as fiction writing, detail can be to your advantage. But in most nonfiction writing, the goal is simple: have a point, and make it. To do so in as few words as possible takes both skill and an immense amount of editing.
So where does one start? My advice is to break it down into four easy steps.
Step 1: Weed out the extraneous words.
Removing unnecessary words may seem rather obvious, but you'd be surprised how many you will discover with a quick read-through. Since most of us write like we speak, there tends to be an entourage of the words that and of, as well as excessive adjectives/adverbs. This step is all about clearing out the clutter.
Step 2: Enhance your writing.
Replace weak verbs with strong ones, and eliminate helping verbs when possible. Improving verbs is an age-old rule the works for fiction and nonfiction alike. It makes your writing stronger and more professional.
Step 3: Edit the document until it is 50% of its original length.
One of my professional writing teachers in college introduced me to this step, and in my opinion, it's genius. The idea is to write your draft, then rework it so it's half the size. If your document is two pages, make it one. If it's ten pages, make it five. Doing so casts out fluff words, and you are left with a more straight-forward document.
Step 4: Repeat Step 3 until the original meaning is lost.
This is where the editing process gets interesting. If you thought Step 3 was hard the first time, wait until you repeat it. When you continue to halve your document until it is transfigured into a new document with a new meaning, you've reached the point where your document is as concise as it can be.
The process is challenging, but the end result is worth the effort: a clear, easy, and concise document.
Nonfiction Writing, Part 1: Structure and Mechanics
When you hear the word "writer," your first thought is probably that of a fiction writer, one who makes up stories and creates fantastical worlds. Little thought is usually given to the other type of writer, the one who put facts into words and combines those facts to create textbooks, user manuals, and the like. And it's no surprise really; many see books as an escape from reality, a stress reliever. And fiction seems to fit that bill. However, nonfiction is still arguably the most popular type of writing. Our curious nature and insatiable thirst for knowledge actually makes the informative books rather appealing. So I'd like to speak up for the nonfiction genre and give it recognition it sometimes lacks.
Planning
The subject matter of nonfiction has a vast range, and it is one of the most difficult types of writing to master, making it a much sought-after skill. Not every person can balance the art of crafting a book with technical explanation. Each piece of nonfiction has a different audience, making a different style of writing necessary. The most successful nonfiction writers figure out how to both relate to the audience and communicate in a way that is clear and easy to understand.
Before writing a nonfiction piece, you'll want to answer these essential questions:
1. Who is the audience for this piece?
2. What am I trying to communicate?
3. How much can I assume my audience already knows about the subject at hand?
4. What am I trying to accomplish by writing this piece?
After you have answered those questions, you can begin sketching an outline or a rough draft of your nonfiction piece. You'll want to decide on the type of nonfiction best suited for your purposes as you do so.
Classes of Nonfiction
Nonfiction can be anything from essays and articles to manuals and textbooks to documentaries and biographies. It is literally every form of literature under the sun that narrates fact or topics understood to be fact. Some types of nonfiction span over several classes or categories of nonfiction. These include articles, essays, textbooks, photographs, and magazines. Other are more specific to their individual class. There are four prevalent classes of nonfiction this post will cover, each with a preferred audience and style.
Sciences and Arts
For science and art pieces, your audience will consist not only of those with a high interest in (and likely a decent understanding of) science or art, but you'll pull in some people unfamiliar to the subject as well. For that reason, nonfiction pieces for this class need to cater to those who are learning new information and those who want to expand their knowledge in the subject area. That's no easy task. So instead of initially focusing on the content you want to present, start by establishing an age range for your audience.
Once you do, maintain the level of your content, keeping it consistent with the audience. For example, let's say you're writing a piece for grade schoolers 8-10 years old. You would present far different information about the solar system, novas and supernovas, and gravity to them than you would someone older who likely would have a better understanding of the detailed physics and chemistry of such objects and ideas. Some previous knowledge can be assumed; your job as a writer is then to fill in the spaces with new material of the same level as the assumed information.
A similar approach can be taken for art books. Those for younger children may introduce the different styles, while ones for older readers can go more in-depth about those styles and the history of them.
How-To and Self-Help
For the how-to and self-help class, readers consist mostly of teenagers, young adults, and adults roughly through middle age. The pieces are heavily content based and should be structured in a way that is easy to follow and concise. The literature can be something as simple as an article or diagram to something as lengthy as a manual or textbook. Blog posts such as this one also fall under the how-to and self-help class.
When constructing a piece for this class, practice the KISS principle; don't make anything more complex than it needs to be. Focus on the point you want to get across, and only include the information that is essential. This type of writing in particular takes some practice. It's a fine balance between realizing the assumed information and exposing fresh material about an otherwise familiar topic.
People and Places
The people and places class is a fairly simple one. It contains factual stories told about historical events, as well autobiographies, biographies, journals, memoirs, diaries, and documentaries. The audience for these pieces will vary based on the content. It's a good idea to first establish the specific topic you want to cover, the information about said topic you want to include, and go from there. If you can further deduce a more specific category for the type of nonfiction piece you'd like to write (i.e. a textbook, essay, or narrative), your intended audience will become more obvious. The biggest challenge in writing a piece for this class is presenting the information in a way that is both interesting and completely factual. In my experience, some pieces in this class tend to come off as biased, making it difficult to determine how accurate the information given is.
Politics, Philosophy, and Religion
Many written essays and narratives fall under this class of nonfiction. There is also some overlap between this class and the people and places class, particularly for politics and religion. Catering to this group can be tedious. The topics are abstract, and the audience will vary, though the age range tends to be young adult and older. One of the most advantageous aspects of writing a piece for this class, however, is that you are open to explore many ideas and notions of the topics within, allowing you as the writer to guide the reader where you want them to go. The writing is often very creative. Narratives of this class should pose thought-provoking questions and provide in-depth answers. The biggest challenge with pieces in this class is creating a distinguishable line between fact and satire, a common tool used in crafting this type of nonfiction.
Mastering the Technical Craft
As you write, recall the initial questions you answered in the planning process, and continue to apply them to your piece. Make sure that the details of your writing line-up with these answers. As your piece begins to take shape, go back and review it periodically for accuracy, grammar, and spelling.
When finished, ask yourself some additional questions and make changes accordingly:
1. Is the point of this piece effective?
2. Is the content appropriate for the intended audience?
3. Is the writing clear and direct? Is it easy to understand?
4. Are correct grammar and spelling used throughout?
5. Does the structure of the piece make sense? Should the order of anything be changed?
6. Is the length appropriate?
7. Should any part be more concise?
8. Should any part be expanded upon?
Some of these questions will seem a bit repetitive, but technical pieces require extra revisions. Since they are assumed to be factual, accuracy and professionalism is a must.
Overall, the ability to write nonfiction work takes practice, but it's a useful skill to have. Besides giving you a rather marketable trait when being hired by an employer, becoming adept at writing nonfiction also can increase your abilities in fiction writing, as it gets you to focus more on structure and intended audience for each piece.
Make Every Scene Count: Intimacy and Romance
As natural as intimacy and romance are in everyday life, they aren't the easiest scenes to write about, especially when it comes to standard fiction. For pure romance/erotica novels, the task is pretty simple. Explain in detail the heightened emotions and surges of passion one experiences when engaging in any intimate physical activity. However, for standard fiction that doesn't focus on romance, writing a sex scene or even just a romantic one can be tricky. To establish a well-written and seemingly spontaneous but cleverly crafted love scene for your fiction novel, consider the following guidelines.
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Use heightened emotions. As I mentioned in some of my previous posts, dramatic writing isn't really something that I endorse very often. Nevertheless, love scenes call for it. When you're in love, every motion, breath, and thought (especially of your lover) is intensified and becomes paramount to your next move. As such, these emotions often lead to instinctive reactions that are not well-thought-out. These scenes usually have a slow-motion-like effect to them.
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Pay attention to physiological changes. Before any close contact is even made, our bodies adopt some physiological responses when someone we attracted to is in immediate vicinity. Some we notice ourselves, and others we do not. These responses include increased heart rate, perspiration, flushing of the face, clamminess (especially of the hands), and butterflies in the stomach. Some other common, less obvious responses are nausea, shyness (hiding or quickly fleeing the scene), loss of speech or stumbling over words, talking too much or too quickly, forgetfulness, and nervousness (i.e. playing with hands or hair, fidgeting, biting lower lip, looking downward, shifting position often, not able to look in someone's eyes).
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It's all about the specifics. As with the previous points, note all actions and physical responses that each character involved makes. If the scene is unfolding slowly for the character being followed, so should unfold it for the reader.
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Don't be too revealing. Even with emotions portrayed and physiological changes exhibited, when it comes to full-on sex scenes, it's good practice to leave some to the imagination. While the reader wants to know what happens, they are usually more excited and "turned on" if you will when parts of the action are eluded to but not actually stated in a count-by-count blow. A good sex scene in a fiction novel works a lot like clothes on a woman; unless you're going for erotica, it's best to show a few tantalizing parts that make your mind wander.
Make Every Scene Count: The Magician's Rule and Narration
If you've ever dabbled in magic tricks or have a friend who has, you might have heard about the simple magician's rule, "Only let them see what you want them to see." The truth is, that rule is not limited to magic tricks. Writers use that tool daily. To write a good book, the author must tell a specific story without revealing the secrets of the developing plot. In other words, they must pick the point of view and narration that best conveys the story they want told. The best method for telling the story depends on the genre of the story and the point the author is trying to make. You can have two identical copies of the same plot, characters, and setting, but the second you choose a different point of view or narrative style, a new story is born. So what is the deal with all these different methods, and how are they best utilized?
First Person
First person is probably the easiest point of view to write and is common with stories relying heavily on emotion. In this point of view, a character in the story becomes the narrator, and everything is seen through his/her eyes. The reader is shown the character's emotions, opinions, and life events, making the story rather subjective. As such, using this type of narration leaves the author open to purposely lead the reader astray. For this reason, first person narrators are not always trustworthy. This point of view is handy for writing intimate stories, such as mysteries or romance novels.
Second Person
A second person point of view is rarely used when writing modern fiction; however it is still used frequently in television. It is equivalent to what is called an "aside," a tool used primarily in earlier dramatic plays. Asides were short speeches, or soliloquies, in which the character addressed the audience directly with his/her thoughts. A second person point of view breaks the fourth wall so to speak, just as the asides in plays did, and gives the reader some extra insight into the story from time to time. However, in modern fiction books, most authors opt out of this style of writing. Many see it as less desirable since it breaks the reader's connection with the story, rendering it more objective. However, one type of literature that is still commonly written in second person is a personal diary. When stories of this type are recounted, fiction or non-fiction, the second person narration is the most viable point of view to use.
Third Person
Third person point of view is the most flexible, and is therefore the most frequently used of all viewpoints. In this point of view, the narrator is an unspecified entity following the main character(s) as the events of the story unfold. Third person singular is most common, whereby the narrator refers to the characters in the story as he or she, but a plural third person (they) is also an option. Third person can be subjective or objective, and it can also be limited or omniscient.
Objective
Objective narrators have no direct involvement in the story and tell a completely unbiased version. They never state more than can be inferred from observable events and dialogue. No thoughts, opinions, or emotions of any kind are given about any of the characters. The narrator remains completely detached. This type of writing is difficult to master, as it's a strictly show-all-and-never-tell style of narration, but it can be very powerful when done well. Books of the thriller genre are best suited for this type of narration.
Omniscient
Omniscient narrators are all-knowing about all the characters. They know what every person thinks and feels, and is aware of all their motives. This narrative style allows the author to jump between each of the characters' minds throughout the story. It is often coupled with the third person point of view and can be objective or subjective.
Limited Omniscient
Limited omniscient is similar to omniscient with the exception of the narrator only having insight to a limited number of characters' thoughts/feelings. It is also usually paired with the third person point of view but is usually subjective.
Tense/Diction
Tense deals with the time of events having occurred, and diction refers to the vocabulary and speaking style used by the author in a book. Both relate strongly to the type of story being told and the author's particular writing style. Present tense, which is more common in short stories, has sort of a flattened emotional narrative style and increases distance between the author and the reader, often making the reader less sympathetic of a character. The objective feel of this tense can be to an author's advantage depending on the story, particularly if the author doesn't want the reader to take the side of the main character. This is especially true if the main character is the antagonist rather than the protagonist. I've personally written a couple of stories this way, and I can tell you that it does work well in certain situations. It's not a great style choice for every story though.
The more commonly used tense is past. It gives the reader a more personal connection with the characters, and it flows naturally. It's less choppy and awkward than present tense, making it more pleasant to read and write.
Choice of diction depends on the genre of the story, setting of the story, and characters. The most diction differences are seen within dialogue, but the narration of a story can have an unusual diction to it as well. For instance, I've read some works of fiction that take place in the southern part of the U.S. where the author chose to write with a southern diction for the whole book. It wasn't my particular cup of tea, but it worked well for the story being told. Likewise, if you're writing a book about medieval times, it makes sense to use the language that they would have used when telling the story. The same is true for non-fiction, particularly with guides and how-to books. Certain technical and slang terms would be expected in these.
Whichever tense and diction you decide to use, make sure it matches the story being told. There is nothing more annoying than reading an excessively wordy book or one that uses incorrect terms/facts for that genre or era.