I’m editing a series of non-fiction books
at the moment, for a major publisher, and discovering a few bad habits on the
part of some writers. Here are three:
- Don’t take the “tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve told them” guideline too literally. I’m guilty of this kind of over-writing myself sometimes in my first drafts but it’s important to go over the material and cut until it’s concise. If more authors did that, of course, they’d realize they have enough material for a magazine article, not a book.
- Don’t get carried away with exclamation marks! Yes, you’re enthusiastic and want your statements to have impact! But it can get really annoying!
- Don’t open a chapter with a dull topic sentence. Open with a grabber. What’s the most interesting or dramatic thing you can think of that will go into each chapter? Usually that’s the best one to start with, because few readers read a book all the way through in one sitting. Not only do we need to attract their interest when they buy the book, if we want them to keep reading we need to do it again at the start of every chapter. Another strategy for doing that is to end each chapter with a little teaser about what’s coming up in the next one.
(Are you finally going to sit down and
write that book of yours, but not sure how to get started? See “Your Writing
Coach,” published by Nicholas Brealey and available at Amazon and book shops.
More info at www.yourwritingcoach.com)
