At left, reference materials at my desk.
I'm still working the non-fiction and will be for a couple months. I've got a decent stream-source library which is good because I'm writing about trout. Go figure.
Non-fiction requires a rigorous organization and structure. Think: dissertation.
You decide what the chapters are going to say before you write them in large part because of the cross-referencing necessary with outher parts of your treatise when you write "tight."
For a layman audience, you have to write "tight." They won't fogive rambling when no gunplay is involved.
The exercise is one I've done before and oddly after all these years I no longer dread the seemingly infinite amount of work that goes into saying something succinctly - when that something needs to be supported and documented.
My fiction will improve from this effort because it has been about a dozen years since I've sat down with any real verve and executed one of these beasts from start to finish. Even that most recent effort was only a few chapters for a buddy working on a topical survey as an introductory text.
So, I have things to say. I have the outline and layout of points, their documentation, citations, and sources. I know the manner in which I want to present my text, my quick reference sections, and my annotated bibliography so that I hopefully spur someone else to read what I cite and come up with the errors I might assert.
Now, if a little of this organization from an all-too-long academic interlude rubs off a bit on my plotting through the actions of my characters, yea! The sweat certainly will be worth it.
After all, I want to write about dead bodies in the living-room. Oh, I can do that already.
Now I need to tighten it all up so you want to read about my bodies in the living-room.
Well, off the to cold water and my documented topic.
Spring is coming.
