Tina Morlock

Author: tinamarie

  • Deciding between Memoir and Self-Help

    Deciding between Memoir and Self-Help

    Many of us have powerful stories to tell, but we have to make a choice: should we tell an intimate story that dives deep into our secrets, or should we focus on helping others directly? That’s the dilemma many nonfiction authors face when they’re deciding between memoir and self-help for the first (or next) book. If that’s your dilemma, too, then take a look at the five questions I’ve created to guide you to your ultimate decision.

    Do you have an interesting story to tell?

    If you’ve got an intriguing story to tell that’s complex, deep, and inspirational, I’d urge you to consider writing a memoir that shares all the intricacies of that specific part of your life. With a memoir, you’re not telling your entire life story; you’re simply giving readers a slice of it. (If you want to tell your entire life story, an autobiography might be a better choice for you—or consider writing a series of memoirs.)

    Does this mean you absolutely will not help people along the way? Hell no! Tons of people find great inspiration in memoirs, inspiration that drives them to make huge changes in their lives. But these are all lessons they pull out from the reading experience because they might not need to be very complex.

    Do you have a unique solution to a problem that could help a lot of people?

    Personal development is a huge industry, likely worth billions of dollars every year. It’s been this way for a long time because human beings want to grow, evolve, and find ways to make their lives better. If your solution connects well with people seeking answers to their problems, then it’s clear you probably have a self-help book in you to write.

    Does your reading audience prefer to read a well-written story?

    Even though the self-help industry is a huge one, many people have a general distaste for it because they find self-help “gurus” untrustworthy. So, it’s important for you to consider who’s going to read your book and how they best interpret the content they read.

    Does it mean you won’t be able to help them? Not at all. But it means they prefer narratives framed in a story format. You can always offer action plans, worksheets, and other resources as supplemental content in the back of the book or on your website for readers who need that sort of support.

    What do you prefer to read?

    One thing that’s important for authors to do is to read a lot in their genre. This helps you research what readers respond to and get exposure to different writing styles you can learn a lot from. If you’re reading more self-help than memoir these days, then you’ve definitely been exposed to a variety of writing styles readers find helpful when they’re trying to change their lives. This naturally works its way into your brain and teaches you successful writing styles, interesting voices, and methods of communicating a message.

    Does the idea of writing a memoir make you feel too exposed?

    Writing a memoir is not an easy task. It forces you to face your vulnerability and put it on display for strangers to pick apart. This is especially important to consider if you want to protect your friends, family members, and co-workers from knowing your deepest, darkest secrets.

    If the idea if putting yourself out there like that is extremely stressful, I encourage you to find a way to turn your experience into a self-help book.

    And you can even write under a pen name if the topic seems controversial or shocking to those around you.

    Deciding between memoir and self-help is an important decision you’ll make for your writing career. That consideration doesn’t start or stop with these basic questions. Take some time to think about your options. You might even find value in outlining your book as a memoir, then as a self-help book. This might help you make a confident decision on where you should put your energy.

  • Nonfiction Developmental Editing

    Nonfiction Developmental Editing

    Nonfiction developmental editing is normally the first step an author takes after they’ve finished the first drafts of their manuscript. When I do a developmental edit, I am primarily concerned with the following three tasks:

    1. Is the book structured in an intuitive way?
    2. Did the author put enough information in their book?
    3. What information can we cut to make the book more concise?

    This doesn’t mean every single book is full of issues related to these three tasks; however, these are the most common concerns that most developmental editing tasks fall into. So, I thought it could be helpful to go over these three categories.

    Developmental editors look at the overall structure of your nonfiction manuscript.

    Structure in a nonfiction book—whether it’s a memoir, self-help, or business book—comes in several forms. There is not one structure that fits every book, so the one you choose will always depend on the type of book you’re writing. Below, I’ve outlined three popular nonfiction book structures, though there are more options out there for authors.

    Nonfiction Book Structure: Timeline

    This type of book structure is best for memoir authors because they’re typically writing about an event or a series of events. It’s important to note here that simply because we speak of time, we don’t necessarily means it has to be linear. Timelines in a memoir—exactly like in fiction—can jump around as you dive deeper into the story. What we need to understand about time in a book is that it’s arranged in a specific way.

    The most straightforward way to do this is to order events by date and time. So, let’s say someone is writing a memoir about pregnancy and childbirth, specifically about high-risk situations. They’ll likely talk about things in this order if they’re using a straightforward timeline format:

    1. Life before the pregnancy
    2. Finding out about the pregnancy
    3. A series of symptoms that lead to a diagnosis
    4. The struggle over the remaining months of the pregnancy
    5. The delivery
    6. Life post-partum
    7. Insights about the entire journey and their future

    With this simple structure as a guide, the developmental editor can arrange the story in an intuitive way that takes the reader through the same journey the author took—from conception to birth. (Though, hopefully the details on conception aren’t a play-by-play.)

    Nonfiction Book Structure: Problem Solving

    Many books start as an answer to a problem the author experienced in their lives and couldn’t easily find the solution to it. This is a great way to start a book, especially when the problem likely affects hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people. In this structure, the beginning of the book typically tells the story of how the author encountered a problem.

    Perhaps a self-help author is writing a book about caregiving for elderly parents on limited resources. Here is how one such book might be structured:

    1. Detail the background of the family dynamics and how this affects caregiving
    2. Life of the caregiver before their parents’ health deteriorated and how they transitioned to caregiving
    3. The diagnosis or series of events that led to their awareness of the problem and how they coped with this new information
    4. The many struggles and obstacles the author experienced and how they solved these challenges
    5. The end of their caregiving journey (through death or some other major event) and how it affected them
    6. How this experienced shaped their mindset and future

    Nonfiction Book Structure: Narrative

    This is another structure that works well for memoir, biography, autobiography, and true crime because it deals with telling a story, much like a fiction author might. The way these stories are structured are much more complex because they deal with the following elements:

    • Characters
    • Setting
    • Plot
    • Conflict

    With this structure, a developmental editor analyzes how all these elements work together to tell the overall story and makes suggestions for improvements when something doesn’t seem to fit.

    Developmental editors help you identify where any content might be missing.

    When you’re writing your nonfiction book, it can be hard to strike a balance between putting too much information or not enough. While having too much information can feel overwhelming to some readers, not having enough can be a bit more detrimental because it can affect their understanding of your content.

    Since we don’t want to create that divide between you and your readers, we work to supplement through the following ways:

    • Adding information from expert sources that support your theories
    • Identifying content that leaves us with more questions than answers
    • Clarifying content that doesn’t make sense
    • Adding context to complex theories and ideas

    Once all those blanks are filled in, you’ll create a much more intuitive reading experience for the people who need your book the most.

    Developmental editors help you identify where you’ve got too much content.

    On the surface, it sounds like having too much content wouldn’t be so detrimental because it would offer more value to your readers. But sometimes that “extra” content can add more confusion to your nonfiction narrative.

    A great developmental editor can help you identify and tighten up those loose areas, making your content as concise and targeted as it can be.

    Because, at the end of the day, that’s the job of the nonfiction developmental editor: to make sure you have the right amount of content, context, and support to make their lives easier.

    When combined with the work your editor does on your book’s structure, your book becomes much closer to being the exact thing your reader has been looking for. It’s not cheap. It’s not easy. It’s not quick. But in the end, it’s worth it.

  • Showing vs. Telling

    Showing vs. Telling

    Most of you are likely tired of hearing about showing vs. telling. It’s one of those writing rules that so many like to hand out to new writers, but they don’t really take the time to explain it. So, that’s what I’m going to do today. But we’re going to go beyond that: I’m also going to show you how it looks in nonfiction.

    What is showing vs. telling?

    This is a much easier concept to explain to fiction authors because there are so many opportunities in fictional stories to show what’s happening through action or dialogue. But in nonfiction—unless you’re writing a memoir—it’s much more nuanced.

    Since you’re dealing with truth, reality, experience, and theory in a nonfiction book, you’ll need to dig deeper to find ways to pull your reader into your content through the art of showing and telling. It’s not impossible; it just takes more thought.

    How can I show in my nonfiction narrative?

    Here are some ways you can engage your readers through showing vs. telling:

    showingtelling
    introducing a theorytalk about your experienceexplain the theory without any examples
    giving advice for improvementuse case studiestalk about the benefits without showing the results
    convincing to try something newinterview others who have done it with successoutline a plan, theory, or method with no experience to back it up
    talking about research studiesuse reliable sources for further readingmention studies without giving the evidence
    introducing a new ideatell a story about how the idea presented itselfoffer no context about why the idea is important to you or others

    Why is showing vs. telling important in nonfiction books?

    Though it isn’t a writing rule that’s often talked about in nonfiction, it’s important to understand how it affects readers when it’s used effectively.

    1. It helps your readers engage more with your books and you as an author.
    2. When a reader learns something important from reading your book, they tend to take actions that benefit both them and you.
    3. An engaged reader will seek you out after finishing your book to find out more information, which will present opportunities to introduce your other books, products, or services to them.
    4. When you impress a reader who’s new to your content, they tend to leave wonderful reviews and recommend you to their friends and/or family.
    5. You’re able to make a positive difference in a stranger’s life.
    6. You can feel confident knowing you told an impactful story and left a lasting legacy.

    How can you tell if you showed enough in your nonfiction book?

    Even if you feel you gave your best effort, it’s natural to have lingering doubts about the strength of your manuscript. And it’s even harder to be objective about the book you’ve written. A great developmental editor can help you determine whether you did enough to engage your readers or it needs more work.

    And even if your book does need more work, that doesn’t mean you failed as an author. It means you are willing to do whatever it takes to publish the book of your dreams. A great developmental editor can help you get there if you’re willing to invest in yourself and your future author career.