People who love to write, who want to explore the world of fiction through writing, and those who just want to understand how writing works – these are the people I want to write for.
If you fit into any of those categories, or know someone who does, then this article is for you. In it I’ll teach you everything I know about writing non-fiction with an emphasis on presenting information in a way that’s interesting and easy to understand for a general audience. I’ll also give you my entire writing process, from idea to finished product. So you can replicate it easily if you want to.
Audience
You need to consider who you’re writing for – your target audience – when you’re thinking about structuring your content. When I teach non-fiction writing, I always ask my students who they think their audience is. Sometimes they have difficulty narrowing it down to just one type of person.
If your goal is to learn and to teach, then you need to write to the most appropriate audience for your skill level. The more specific you are about your target audience, the more you’ll narrow down the possibilities for your content to be useful to them.
Once you’ve determined who your audience is, you can begin to think about the content you’ll produce and how you’ll present it. Bear in mind that your content will be read by people from all walks of life, so you need to ensure that its language and style are appropriate for as many people as possible.
Subject Matter
The subject matter of your content is everything that you’ll write about. It can be about a specific topic – like nutrition or astronomy – or it can be a generalized category like history or art. The more specific you are, the easier it will be for you to decide what content to create and the smoother your editing process will be. Don’t worry too much about this part – as long as you’ve decided what your content will be about, you can find the right specialist to talk to if you’re not sure about what exactly that is.
Reason For Being
The reason for being of your content refers to the larger purpose or goal you have in mind when you decide to write about a certain topic. For example, maybe you’re studying nutrition and want to write about the different nutrients necessary for vibrant health. Or you’re a science writer and investigating the latest scientific research on Alzheimer’s Disease.
Usually you’ll have several reasons for being interested in a particular subject. After you’ve collected a few, you can begin to think about ways to present your information in the most interesting and logical manner. This will help you decide what content to produce and how to produce it.
Style
This is all about the way you want your content to be written. Will you use anecdotes or quotes to support your argument? What kind of language will you employ – plain English or academic jargon? Will you write in the first or third person? How will you want your content to be arranged?
These are all important questions and they have an effect not only on the way your content is presented but on whether or not your content is ultimately useful to your audience. If you want to learn more, simply google “style guides for non-fiction writers” and you’ll find tons of information from which to choose.
Know Your Craft
You need to familiarize yourself with some fundamental rules of writing before you put pencil to paper. These are rules that exist outside of the realm of creativity – they are rules that you need to know in order to be effective as a writer. If you don’t know them, you’ll wind up disobeying them, unintentionally, and this will hurt your writing rather than help it. Knowing where you should place your commas, for example, is something that will eventually become automatic.
You must know how to use commas correctly. Commas are used to create pauses and bring your audience out of their element. Without them, your writing can turn into a jumble of words that don’t make sense. Commas also separate items in a list and can be used to set off quotes from a speaker.
If you want to become a better writer, you need to learn how to use commas correctly. To teach you, I’ll give you an example:
“The moon is a celestial body that orbits Earth,” begins the essay. “It is the 4th planet from the sun, and the 17th largest object in the solar system. It’s average distance from the earth is about 239 million miles. It takes about 26 days for the moon to make one complete orbit around the earth, and it takes about 29 hours for the Earth to make one orbit around the sun.”
Here the author uses commas correctly – he separates the two halves of the definition of the moon by using a comma after the first sentence and another comma after the second sentence. When writing, you need to follow this pattern, using a comma to separate the various parts of a definition or long sentence. Look at how much easier this is to follow when written out:
“The moon is a celestial body that orbits Earth,” begins the essay. “It is the 4th planet from the sun, and the 17th largest object in the solar system. Its average distance from the earth is about 239 million miles. It takes about 26 days for the moon to make one complete orbit around the earth, and it takes about 29 hours for the Earth to make one orbit around the sun.”
In the first example, you’d need to place a comma after “The moon is a celestial body that orbits Earth” and another comma after “It is the 4th planet from the sun.” This is important because the words “The moon is a…” should be a complete thought on their own. When you write this way, it will be easier for your readers to understand your meaning. Placing a comma after every few words, like this, creates a pleasant pacing effect and makes your writing easier to follow. Remember: less is more.
A good rule of thumb is to place a comma only after a complete thought or clause. This helps keep your writing clear and easy to understand. The comma after “It is the 4th planet” provides a slight break between the two halves of the sentence, but other than that, the two halves would be understood to be one continuous thought. This is the pattern you need to keep in mind:
“The moon is a celestial body that orbits Earth,” begins the essay. “It is the 4th planet from the sun, and the 17th largest object in the solar system. Its average distance from the earth is about 239 million miles. It takes about 26 days for the moon to make one complete orbit around the earth, and it takes about 29 hours for the Earth to make one orbit around the sun.”
You can use a colon instead of a comma to separate the parts of a sentence or clause when you’re using it as a parenthesis or in quotations.
If you have a longer list of items or details to include, you can use a colon instead of a comma to separate them. For example, instead of writing “The moon is a celestial body that orbits Earth,” you could write “The moon is a celestial body: it orbits Earth; it is the 4th planet from the sun; it is the 17th largest object in the solar system; its average distance from the earth is about 239 million miles; it takes about 26 days for the moon to make one complete orbit around the earth; and it takes about 29 hours for the Earth to make one orbit around the sun.” By using a colon, instead of a comma, you make it clear that these are separate items that should be considered individually rather than as part of one continuous thought. In a nutshell, avoid using a comma after a one-word sentence, and use a colon to separate your list of items or details.
Plan Your Outline
An outline will help you plan your content – it will give you a logical structure that you can follow as you put your thoughts onto paper. If you’ve ever taken a journalism class or attended a creative writing workshop, then you might have encountered a story or essay outline – an outline, in other words, a rough draft of your content. You can use an outline to help you structure your content or to give you a starting point for your creative writing process. When you write an outline, use the above rules of commas and colons to make your writing easier to follow and more enjoyable. You might even find it helpful to write out each part of your outline in a different color – this will help you track the different ideas and information as you put your content together.