Creating Strong Bones in Non-fiction Writing
Writing is easy. It’s one word after another, repeat until you reach the end. Writing well is incredibly complicated. It’s one right word after another right word, one right sentence after another right sentence, paragraph after paragraph, until — what was your point again? Did you make it effectively?
One of the things I often notice when I’m working with newer writers is a pattern of traveling between semi-unrelated thoughts. Almost everyone writes their paragraphs this way at first — thinking of something, then something else jumps to mind, then a third thing, and did I write down that first thing yet? This is what the editing process is for. However, I don’t think many people have been taught how to fix this — or even that they should — when self-editing.
For years, I hoped an article would pop up explaining how to write logical non-fiction. I even went so far as to text another editor friend — routinely — something akin to “Why isn’t there an article about this? I would reference it all the time.”
Her response? “Because you haven’t written it yet.”
Spoiler alert? Kind of? I have now. This article is a look at how cohesion happens in a paragraph — and then in a section and a book — and how to develop it in your own writing.
