Ask HN: Tips on writing long-form non-fiction? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Tips on writing long-form non-fiction?

8 pointssamh7489 comments

I'm currently in the midst of a pretty substantial non-fiction writing project (a series of critical essays altogether roughly the length of a short book).

I've written short essays before, but nothing of this scale. I've developed most of the ideas, fleshed them out, written rough explanations, etc. I know roughly how everything will string together. But I'm feeling kinda stuck and overwhelmed with the task before me, of assembling everything together, knowing where to put what, concerned whether I'll over-explain or repeat myself, etc etc.

One particular problem I'm experiencing is that, while I know and remember all the points I'm trying to make, I feel like I've kinda "lost touch" with some of them, like I'm just robotically piecing ideas together. It's hard to explain, but I hope that makes some sense.

Obviously, I'll probably figure out some of these things as I go, but it'd be nice to hear how others have navigated big complex (non-fiction) writing projects like this.

So, writers of long-form non-fiction (or non-fiction book writers even): What's your process for navigating all this?

Thanks!

Create Quotes - Shorten long ideas in few words

Create paragraphs - Build a paragraph based on the quote

Create chapters - Build chapter based on the paragraph

Validate chapters - Find references that validate your: Quotes, paragraphs, chapters.

Not a writer, but have two tips. Learn touch-typing if has not been done yet and read Paul Graham's essay about writing an essay [1] because it is the best I have read about the topic.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html

Use the spirit-mode construct; which is a writing technique.

All writing shouldn’t go the same direction. It only appears that way. Finish your chapter, then travel back through it, citing the length-only.

Once you have length, split it into length-by-idea, and now you’re measuring in another dimension. Keep all ideas the same length, to be completely professional. Good luck!

Sounds interesting, will definitely look into that! Thanks!

- Don't try to write it all at once - and that may include not even whole chapters at a time

- Work with a good editor (or 3)

- Get honest feedback from others

- The best way of proofreading your own writing is to read it out loud like you were reading to a small child (if you can read it out loud and backwards, that's even better)

Thanks for these pointers!

Though, could you elaborate on the first point? Like I get the idea but tangibly I'm coming up empty.

Nothing says you have to write the whole book start to finish

Or even a whole chapter start to finish

You'll find, as you go, that your outline/plan will morph and shift as you go, that some part(s) will be better elsewhere, etc

Don't be afraid to cut-out content, move it, reword it, etc

Some things have to be done in order (you can't throw a roof up in the air and build the walls under it so it lands on them) ... but many things are not sequence-dependent during creation

Keep this in mind especially if you're writing something of the "technical" or "reference" variety - your audience may (but probably won't) read it all in the order you wrote it. They could easily find half of chapter two to be where they start, move to the end of chapter nine, and back to the middle of four

This is so clarifying! Thanks so much!!

Get an editor.

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