How do you develop narrative voice in non-fiction?

[K1P1]

My first book was in question and answer format. This turned out, in retrospect, to be really useful for developing a personal narrative voice, although what I was writing was a knitting reference book. After some thought and discussion, I decided that the questions would be in the first person ("I") and the responses would be in the second person ("you"). And that I would abandon this and move to the third person when it became obviously contrived or in longer explanatory sections. Looking back on it now, I realize that this made my book have a much more personal, helpful voice than it otherwise would have had.

Another benefit of the question/answer format was that I could craft each question and each answer very carefully, almost as if each were a prose poem, carving them down to just the essentials.

Friday I'll be meeting with my editor to map out my second book. It's another knitting reference book. Although I proposed it as another question-and-answer book, they've decided to make it a more traditional book. Now, of course, I'm feeling insecure about how to structure and style the prose it so that still has that personal, approachable feel to the reader.

Does anybody out there with more experience than me have any tips? I'd love to hear how you approach your business/technical/reference/historical or any other sort of writing to make sure it doesn't become dry or academic, or a user's manual.

[Cath]

Not sure about more experience, Maggie. I agree about the first person suggestion - it's a great way of making the reader feel comfortable. I also think a casual style of writing can help (it's something I've noticed Jenna does very well - just check out her articles on the main AW site).

I believe including personal comments and interpretation (without being all about the author, of course) is helpful in creating a narrative in non-fiction.

[Tsu Dho Nimh]

Third person "the knitter" in long explanatory secitons might work or might sound pompous.

Just refer to the reader as "you" and see how it sounds.

[K1P1]

Thanks for responding. I confess, I was sort of hoping this would generate a philosophical discussion of the craft of writing. But it sounds so far like my natural tendency to wing it and see how it turns out is what you'd do too. :)

Do you suppose there are any writing exercises that might be useful? For example, I could try to explain the same thing to an absolute beginner, to an average knitter, or to a very advanced one and see just how much the explanation changes. I think it's important to keep the audience in mind at all times, but I'm not always sure that it's useful to write to the same level throughout the book because it narrows the potential market for it. If I write specifically for beginners, they may not want to plunk down $20 for my book, and the more experienced knitters (except for my very own groupies) won't be interested.

Do you see it as a problem that parts of the book may be geared more to beginners and parts to the more experienced?

[Cath]

Do you suppose there are any writing exercises that might be useful? For example, I could try to explain the same thing to an absolute beginner, to an average knitter, or to a very advanced one and see just how much the explanation changes.
I suggest try explaining it to friends who are at basic/average/advanced levels. I think imagining (or actually having) a conversation with friends is quite different - basically, I think I'm suggesting that you treat your reader as a friend- invite them in and make them feel like they know you.

Do you see it as a problem that parts of the book may be geared more to beginners and parts to the more experienced?
No - a lot of the craft books I buy have differing levels of difficulty. You might want to specify that level somehow though.

[K1P1]

Hmm. Now I'm speculating on whether I'd explain it differently to a friend than to a stranger. I like the idea of a sit-down-next-to-me-on-the-couch-dear reference book, which is pretty much what I achieved in the first one. But it's so much more obvious in the question and answer format.

The thing is, I know from my teaching that I explain things competely differently to people who are computer programmers or who are comfortable with math than I do to people who come to knitting design with a tactile design background (like potters, for example). Unfortunately, I don' think that adjusting my discourse that way in a reference book is going to be helpful. It will just give the readers the impression that I'm schizo.

What kind of craft books do you buy?

[Tsu Dho Nimh]

One approach that works well in instructions books is direct command form - the buyer expects you to be blunt and bossy.

Make a loop with the fuzzy yarn
Cast on 17 stitches

The chatty part can be the intro to each section, but strip the chatty out of the instructions

[K1P1]

Thanks Cath and TDN. I'll take your suggestions under advisement. :)

[Lisamer]

"The chatty part can be the intro to each section, but strip the chatty out of the instructions."

That's basically what I did with my snow sport fitness book. I introduce the chapter with friendly discussion, and add a bit of humor. Then, when I present the exercises, I make a bulleted list of instructions.

[Odile]

I see a lot of textbooks at the school of my children and now it is costumary that there are three basic levels of mastery for each grade. These are introduced on the first 2 introductory pages that are open. The way the writer solves this level problem is by making different sections on these first pages, with more material following further in the book. So every section starts with two pages with introduction for all levels.

I don't know if you can use this idea?

Odile

[TheIT]

I'm not a non-fiction writer, but I read a lot of craft "how-to" books, mostly about polymer clay. The ones I like best are those with good step-by-step instructions, lots of illustrations to show what the instructions are trying to describe, and some amount of light-heartedness. Crafts are supposed to be fun.

Most of the polymer clay books I've looked at have similar structures. The introduction includes the basics about polymer clay, then the rest of the book describes different projects. The appendices describe details of either extremely basic techniques, extremely advanced techniques not everyone would be interested in, or recommendations for materials.

My favorite authors are Katherine Dewey and Maureen Carlson. My very favorite is Christi Friesen. Her how-to books on making dragons and jungle creatures are a joy to read even if you're not a polymer clay artist, and definitely show a unique voice. You can see links to her books from her website: http://store.cforiginals.net/index.html

As for narrative voice, I think craft how-to books are one of the few places where writing in second person works. I, the author-expert, am telling you, the reader, how I make this project. As far as I'm concerned, the author can be chatty and informal as long as the information is solid.

[RayHa2]

A couple of ideas:

Which person to write in depends on what's in a paragraph. My rule of thumb would be: anecdotes always in first person; instructions in informal imperative ("Experiment with different length needles to see which you like."); background info in informal third person ("Yarn varies by guage and type.")

Odile has the right idea about different sections for different levels. The easy way to do that for adults is to put medium-level info in the body text. Add sidebars when you need to include basic info for the beginners, and put the advanced stuff in footnotes or appendices.

[K1P1]

Thanks to everyone for replying and making suggestions. I get the impression though, that you're working theoretically, suggested what I could do. What I really wanted to know was how you, as a writer, approach this. If the advice you gave is what you actually do, fine, but I'm curious whether anyone but me even worries about this.

[Moonfish]

I co-wrote my first and only non-fiction book, so in some sections, particularly the introduction, we had something of a dialogue going. It was difficult though because we didn't want to exclude the reader by turing too much "inwards". Then every chapter had an introduction, first person narrative, kept very personal. The actuakl instructions were of the type: then you do xxx. But kept very loose and informal.

We just came up with the idea of a sequel this weekend and I'm pretty sure we'll keep the tone fairly similar.