: Structuring and audience in non-fiction I wrote a first draft of a non-fiction, and an established professional writer and editor in my subject area gave me a good review, but said I should

I wrote a first draft of a non-fiction, and an established professional writer and editor in my subject area gave me a good review, but said I should edit for structure and flow.

Given this great response, I've tried very hard to develop a better understanding of writing good non-fiction, but I have some major stumbling blocks.

I have a feeling that the following is the main problem and cause of the others:

I really don't know what audience I should be approaching. The ideal would be that I could write a non-fiction that's accessible by most readers. The reality though is I find myself having to be concious beyond any reasonable degree to all the potential questions these millions of readers could ask.

I'm guessing that I'm simply trying to achieve the wrong thing, but I'm not sure what I should do instead. Maybe I should focus on my best-bet audience first, and then rewrite for others if it's popular for that audience?

I'm really baffled, and would greatly appreciate any help!

I just spoke to my brother, and he suggests that I go with the audience I can help best. Which to me sounds like a very good idea. Though I'd appreciate any thoughts.

In response to an answer, the book is about government, decision-making, and related things.

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@Deb2945533

Folks here might be able to give you more helpful advice if you can be more specific than "non-fiction". Is it a history book? Astronomy? How to fix plumbing? Etc. That said:

I think you always have to consider your audience. What level background do your readers bring to the subject? A book on astronomy intended for 10 year olds would surely be very different from a book intended for professional astronomers. What perspective do your readers have? A biography of Karl Marx intended for devoted communists would probably be rather different from one intended for libertarians. Etc.

As for "structure and flow", at least one important thing to keep in mind is: You should organize your material so the reader can go from front to back. That is, don't put material in chapter 2 that assumes the reader already knows the information that you don't present until chapter 9. This can be very tricky because in many fields, there isn't an obvious straight line from start to finish. Lots of things are interrelated. But you have to figure out a way to untangle it all.

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: Structuring and audience in non-fiction I wrote a first draft of a non-fiction, and an established professional writer and editor in my subject area gave me a good review, but said I should

More posts by @Ogunnowo420

: Does copyright law let me publish my detailed notes of someone else's speech? I attended a speech that was open to the general public and took my own very detailed notes of everything that

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