Posts tagged creative brain

Writing How To Books – Collections

Dec03
2009 16 Comments

Written by Help Desk

The fourth and final type of book is the collection.

What is a collection type book?

A collection type book is a collection of facts presented in a book format. Uhh… Okay, try this recipe books are collections. So are shopping catalogs. So are 50 best & 100 best and 500 best … add your own noun (dogs/cats/cars/boats/pirates … every one of those have been used).

In short it’s a bunch of short articles gathered together and presented as a book.

So what is the best way to organize such a book? Well, actually you have a choice.

One technique is to take a bunch of 4×6 index cards, write the title on the top, and then any facts. Then sort the cards. Viola!

Hey, it works! Elegant it ain’t and with a couple of major weaknesses.

A much better technique is the Content Map system. Start by filling out the Focus section at the top but do it on two sheets.

The first sheet will be the template for each of your articles. Remember that your collection book can be thought of as a series of articles collected and organized into a cohesive form. Now create the structure for your article. All the regular rules about arguments and presenting information apply. With one exception. The number of “chapters” doesn’t have to be exactly five plus two. You still need an intro and a conclusion and you shouldn’t have more than nine total. But the actual number of “chapters” can be whatever makes sense to you. Each of these “chapters” will become a section or paragraph for the book. The final step is to estimate how big (in words) each of these “articles” will be on average. You may find you want to write up a few “articles” to help estimate the average size.

Now take the second sheet. This will be your book itself. Just follow the usual steps for designing your book. However, when you write a topic which is an article, don’t bother to write up anything below the topic. Just mark it with a big “A”. Get fancy, put a circle around it if you wish! When you finish you’ll have the structure for your book. Estimating involves mixing the usual technique with the values you calculated above.

From there just follow the rest of the system.

So does the Content Map system work? Yup!

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Writing How To Books – Fact Based Books

Nov25
2009 34 Comments

Written by Help Desk

So the first type of book we’re going to talk about is the Fact Based book. There is a reason for that. It’s the type of book that our system of writing is best with.

It’s a good thing then that most How To Books are fact based.

So what is a fact based book?

As I’ve already said it’s your standard how to or why to book. In this type of book, the author concentrates on assembling and presenting facts (or opinions). Basically, think of it as an argument in the debating sense of the word. The author lays out a series of facts which make his point and convince the reader to do things the way the author wishes.

So why is our system the best method of designing and writing such a book?

First, the answer lies in the question. An argument is designed. It really doesn’t matter what form that argument takes – book, webinar, speech, debate – a well designed argument must be designed. It doesn’t just happen.

Second, a well designed argument follows a structure. A very flexible structure, true, but a single structure nonetheless. Specifically — intro, body, conclusion. Just like your teachers told you so long ago, “Tell them what you are going to say, say it, then tell them what you said.”

Finally, the creative brain doesn’t work well in structured ways. Rather it works by making connections, which can be totally illogical in their arrival.

So why does our system work so well? Because it allows you to generate ideas in arrival sequence but places them in a structured format. We do this with a technology called structured brainstorming and a tool called a structured semantic network diagram. Sometimes this is called a structured idea map or mind map. But SND is the proper (and generic) name. But call it what you will, you start off with unordered ideas and end up with a structured document.

Of course, to do this involved some 60 years of experience in multiple disciplines. And the whole process involves more than just the content map.

But the essence of why the process works for fact based books is in the content map.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for all types of books. In our next post we’ll look at a version that the system won’t work for. And give you some hints to a version which will.

Learn & Earn

Glen Ford
and the LearningCreators crew.