How to Structure a Book

“I’m putting together a book on John the Baptist and the recent illumination of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Any advice?”

Yes, I do, was my first thought. The writer’s life is miserable! Back away while you still can! Then I realized it was just my inner voice having its monologue again. 

My actual advice: figure out what you want to talk about, then work out a structure before you start writing. If you get this part right, the book will practically write itself. Here, I want to share what I’ve learned about structuring a book so writers can articulate their points well and enjoy the writing process as much as one can.

Scope

The question here, and my advice below, is for a non-fiction book. This book project is more of a legacy than for sales—once the manuscript is finished, we can always figure out if we want to show it to an agent or publisher. But for now, we are assuming that the writer is pursuing the joy of writing and a way to organize his research.

Methodology

I’m not an expert, so I am hitting the library shelves again.  

Initially, I thought this would be an easy question to answer. After all, this is a “where to start” question that everyone, well, starts with. 

Alas, I found a lot of books on writing (various topics on how to write well, how to find your voice, how to market your book, how to write a good plot, etc.), but not much that fits the bill here. Often, the problem is that most authors’ subject matter is writing and the people who write these books have not considered the writers with an expertise in something other than writing yet want to write a book.  Books on the craft of writing tend to resonate with people who actively study writing or always wanted to write books. Anyone who’s brand new to writing might feel very behind even if they feel called to write about their experiences or industries.

After hitting libraries in two counties (Arlington and Fairfax) and an extensive search on the Internet, I found a couple of books that included some discussion on content structuring: 

Book Blueprint: How Any Entrepreneur Can Write an Awesome Book by Jacqui Pretty and

Jacqui Pretty is an Australia author, digital content manager, and content writer.

This is a solid book for newbie writers of non-fiction.

The Power of Writing It Down: A Simple Habit to Unlock Your Brain and Reimagine Your Life, by Allison Fallon

Fallon authored multiple books and founder of Find Your Voice, a coaching service for aspiring authors.

I have worked with Fallon through Find Your Voice, but she did describe her approach in the book and I’ve incorporated parts of it here in this post.

While both books are good reads, neither of them specifically targets the book structure question, which is what I will be addressing below.

How to Structure a Book

Examine What You Have

The first step is to figure out what you are working with. If you’ve done extensive research already, this includes pulling out all your reference material, notes, graphs, charts, and any other material and laying them out so you can see everything at a glance.  You’ll end up with a messy desk or floor space for a few days, but trust me, it’ll be worth it.

Grab a stack of notecards. For each item you’ve gathered, write a single sentence down on the card.  Write down each significant thought you may have as well. You’ll end up with a stack of notecards with something like this:

• Notecard #1: My insights on the impact of John the Baptist’s influence on early Christianity (For shorthand: John the Baptist = JTB)
• Notecard #2: Biblical accounts of JTB from Book Title, page number
• Notecard #3: Zechariah 8:16-17, including part of names of God written in ancient Hebrew
• Notecard #4: Roman occupation discussion

Create an Outline

Consider what you’ve gathered and what you would like to convey to your readers. Using the notecards you created earlier, you can start building your book’s content. For example:

• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Historical and Cultural Contexts (Notecards #3 and #4 go here)
• Chapter 3 JTB’s Influence on Christianity (Notecards #2, then 1 would go here)
• Chapter 4 Legacy of the Dead Sea Scrolls

You can see any gaps you may have, and this outline can give you a list of additional research topics to go after. I have a separate blog post if you are wondering how much material you need for a book.

Tell YOUR Story

Even though you are writing a nonfiction book, I urge you to include your own stories. For example, readers want to learn about the author, what motivated them to write this book, and what were their thoughts during the research.  Readers will also be curious about your expertise–why they should read your book as opposed to someone else’s on the topic. This provides a connection between authors and readers, which will ultimately make your book more enjoyable to write and read. 

Have you found some helpful books on structure? Did I leave out any helpful tips? I’d love to hear them in the comments.