This is an ongoing series about BigAl’s first experience writing a book. Join him as he flies by the seat of his pants and figures things out as he goes. For a more complete explanation about the book and this series of posts, you can read the series introduction here.
In this installment I’m going attempt to formulate a to-do list of items unrelated to writing the book which I’ll need to accomplish with some preliminary thoughts, plans, and decisions. Some need to be done sooner than others, but the order of the list is random. Continue reading “You’re Going to Write What? – Part 3”
This is an ongoing series about BigAl’s first experience writing a book. Join him as he flies by the seat of his pants and figures things out as he goes. For a more complete explanation about the book and this series of posts, you can read the series introduction here.
In this installment I’m going to briefly cover two areas. First, establish my starting point. Second, report on some non-writing activity I’ve done.
The Benchmark
In the introduction I indicated that I’d previously started work on this book and then stalled due to other distractions. It seems reasonable to report on from what point I’m re-starting and a bit about how I got to that point.
I could give credit for this idea to the author of one of those self-publishing how-to books that are constantly being discussed in the Minion Cafeteria. (“Is this a scam? Does it have anything new? What does an author whose bestselling book is ranked at twenty-bazillion on Amazon know about how to write a million-seller anyway?”) That would be giving that author too much credit. But he did get me thinking. Continue reading “You’re Going to Write What? – Part 1 – The Introduction”
For the sake of simplicity, let’s agree that authors who write fiction draw freely from their imaginations. Nonfiction writers are expected to deliver verifiable truths. We do not invent characters, events or dialog. Our task is to spill hard, cold, often ugly facts onto the page, framed in captivating paragraphs. Like novelists, we are storytellers engaged in a similar creative process, and what we write is filtered through our subjective perceptions.
Passion is the emotional component that drives the research. How we interpret information cannot be objective, no matter how hard we try to restrain influences that sway our points of view. Deeply held convictions influence the way our sentences are constructed, determine which resources will be brought forward to support our opinions, while at the same time we strive to keep the third person narrative consistently detached and trustworthy. After scouring every other author’s tome on our topic, we must remain convinced that we have something utterly new to offer our readers. Otherwise, why bother to retell the story? Continue reading “The Challenges of Publishing Indie Nonfiction Books by Marcia Quinn Noren”
This is an ongoing series about BigAl’s first experience writing a book. Join him as he flies by the seat of his pants and figures things out as he goes. For a more complete explanation about the book and this series of posts, you can read the series introduction here.
