Cybersecurity, Memoir and Philosophy Are the Same Job
People assume the range is a problem. What transfers between a security book and a memoir is almost everything that matters.
Tag: nonfiction
Writing that argues, explains, or records. Authors on structuring a nonfiction book and finding the spine that holds it together.
AI and WritingWriting a How-To Book Readers Can Truly Follow
A how-to book succeeds or fails on one thing: does the reader achieve the result. That means writing from the reader's side, not the expert's.
AIAI Writes About Feelings. It Does Not Write With Them.
Ask for a moving passage and you get the vocabulary of moving passages. Everything is named and nothing is at risk.
GhostwritingGhostwriting Self-Help Books: Turning Wisdom Into a Usable Method
Ghostwriting a self-help book means turning a person's hard-won wisdom into a system a reader can truly use, in a voice readers trust.
Book WritingGhostwriting a Nonfiction Book: Extraction, Structure, Voice
Ghostwriting a nonfiction book is a craft of extraction and structure. The author has the knowledge; the work is drawing it out in their own voice.
Critical ThinkingStop Doing the Thinking for Your Reader
Most nonfiction hands the reader a conclusion and then explains it. The books people remember hand them the evidence and let them arrive.
Book WritingA Book Nobody Can Disagree With Is a Book Nobody Remembers
Every book that has done anything for me has annoyed somebody. The ones that annoyed nobody sank without trace.
nonfictionBuild the Chapter Around the Story, Not the Other Way Round
A chapter is a building, and most writers treat the story as the paint. The test is removal. Take the story out and see whether the chapter still stands.
nonfictionNonfiction Works Best When It Is Written With Emotion
A thermometer tells you the temperature of a room. It does not tell you whether anybody wants to be in it. Most nonfiction reads like a thermometer.
BiasHow to Avoid Echo Chambers in Nonfiction (Without Losing Your Mind or Your Voice)
Nonfiction should help us see the world more clearly, but too often it just flatters the worldview readers walked in with, because the likes and shares flow to whatever confirms the audience, not whatever challenges it. The louder the echo,…
GhostwritingFulfilling the Dream at 60: Terri Tonkin on Writing Her Book and Becoming a Ghostwriter
Australian author and ghostwriter Terri Tonkin on fulfilling her writing dream at 60, her conversational ghostwriting method, pricing the work, and why everyone has a story to tell.
Author TalksRebecca Bratspies: A Law Professor on Naming Gotham and Environmental Justice Comics
Law professor Rebecca Bratspies joins Author Talks to discuss writing Naming Gotham, her environmental justice comics, and marketing outside academia.