Non-Fiction Advice

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Arrigo_Lupori
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Non-Fiction Advice

Post by Arrigo_Lupori »

Hello everybody!

I am currently writing a non-fiction book. I'm a little over 22k words right now, page 71 in standard A4 with standard font-size.

Now, what I'm looking for (and I hope that some of you may help me with this) is some advice on how to maintain credibility while developing real world scenarios.

My book concentrates on the abstract sensation of living without actually, fully understanding what a particular type of lifestyle means to oneself and so, it is very important to me not to fall into personal rants, but rather pull aside my views and look at the whole from a wider perspective.

What would you say is the best way to tackle in the grander scheme of things such an effort?

I will say that I am having no problems so far in trying to adapt the words that I want to write into a form that is not influenced by my own experiences in life, but I would still love to hear from some of you, as I know that you are more experienced.

The one thing I would like to improve is consistency. I believe that my book is fairly consistent in what it talks about, but not in the way it is divided into chapters. How should a non-fiction book who is trying to illustrate concepts that are to be somewhat "studied" divide its chapters? Should I address the chapters in the actual book? As in, "In Chapter 4 you will see that .."?

What would you say is best practice for a book that wants to be credible without falling into weird assumptions made from the reader towards the Author's perspective?

I want the book to be as neutral as possible. I don't want the concepts illustrated to be linked to me personally, but I'd like people to think about these concepts, without having to give their existence a static definition.

I try to do this in different parts of the book and I also try to incite people to really ponder on why we're exploring these ideas in the first place, because I want them to build on top of them on their own.

With that said, I hope this wasn't too convoluted. If any of you have some advice or a tip to write better non-fiction books I'd be extremely happy to hear from you.

Please note that the book has no reference to actual scientific or philosophical real world knowledge. It also doesn't reference any author or any book. It doesn't reference anything other than the book's content itself.

Thank you very much for your attention!
"The abstract sensation of living a lifestyle that hasn't been fully understood."
- The epitome of taste in living disgrace.
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Yung Senpai
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Post by Yung Senpai »

It's honestly very subjective how you should approach chapters, it all depends on how you want to stylize your book.

Do you want it to be something that someone can just open Cap 6 and read it without problems because it doesn't hold connections to the previous chapters or do you want to make a consistent thesis towards the whole book, which means while the chapters deal with different subjects in the grand scheme they complete each other, so they should be read in order.

About you wanting to make people feel the book is neutral is tricky to answer, because honestly people are very different, relative and arbitrary.

The best you could do is research the most about the subject and try your best to look from a outsider, unbiased perspective, which is totally possible, then you could either present the facts to the people and let them make their own theories, and thesis about it, or you could try to find a conclusion by yourself, like it was a monologue.

Good luck.
The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before, that's the deal. - C.S Lewis
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Arrigo_Lupori
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Post by Arrigo_Lupori »

Yung Senpai wrote: 18 Feb 2018, 20:09 It's honestly very subjective how you should approach chapters, it all depends on how you want to stylize your book.

Do you want it to be something that someone can just open Cap 6 and read it without problems because it doesn't hold connections to the previous chapters or do you want to make a consistent thesis towards the whole book, which means while the chapters deal with different subjects in the grand scheme they complete each other, so they should be read in order.

About you wanting to make people feel the book is neutral is tricky to answer, because honestly people are very different, relative and arbitrary.

The best you could do is research the most about the subject and try your best to look from a outsider, unbiased perspective, which is totally possible, then you could either present the facts to the people and let them make their own theories, and thesis about it, or you could try to find a conclusion by yourself, like it was a monologue.

Good luck.
Thanks for the heads up. Yes, I do believe it to be very subjective too, but I want to be sure not to come through as someone who wants to say what things are like, when many others have actually studied the topics I talk about for years and have made real discoveries, especially in psychology. That's what I am trying to avoid :)
"The abstract sensation of living a lifestyle that hasn't been fully understood."
- The epitome of taste in living disgrace.
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authorswrite
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Post by authorswrite »

What about narrative NF? And that is creative NF. You can be sure your author-self will not get in the way when you write using this tool. It isn't just for children's books. All books that are NF support this form. It's fact-based storytelling that makes people want to keep reading. And it is ideal for what you are trying to do with your piece.
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