Have you ever wondered what makes your favorite nonfiction books so compelling, understandable, or enjoyable to read? Those works connect with you, as a reader. When you recognize what’s happening, you can apply those same methods to your own writing.Writing To Be Understood is the thinking writer’s guide to effective nonfiction writing techniques, such as:- Using analogies to illustrate unseen … illustrate unseen concepts
– Appealing to the reader’s innate curiosity
– Balancing humility with credibility
For each topic, the book combines insights from cognitive science with advice from writers and expert practitioners in fields of psychology, technology, economics, medicine, policy, and more.
Whether you’re an expert trying to communicate with a mainstream audience or a nonfiction writer hoping to reach more people, Writing to be Understood will help you expand the impact of your words.
Gold Medal Winner, 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards
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If You Write Nonfiction (or Want to), Get this Book!
Audiobook Review
As a freelance editor and writer of nonfiction myself, I’m always on the lookout for books that will help me with my writing or help me assist my clients with their writing. So when a book about writing shows up at one of my favorite book review sites, I snap it up. This one was actually an audiobook, read by the author. I’ve only just recently gotten into listening to audiobooks because one of my favorite book review sites just started offering them. I’m finding that I particularly like nonfiction books that are actually narrated by the author, as this one is. I have found that they are able to convey their love of their topic and their excitement for sharing it with you. And that was certainly true of the author/narrator of this book.
I am so glad I picked up this book. It will not only help my writing, but it will help me with my clients. I’ll be able to give them much better direction—not that I was doing so poorly before as six of my authors have gotten number one bestsellers this year! The author has written nonfiction books herself, and she found herself asking certain questions about what makes a nonfiction book work—and what doesn’t. She started doing research, re-reading and analyzing her favorite nonfiction books and reaching out to writers of nonfiction as well as other nonfiction readers, too, to ask their opinions. So while this book isn’t scientifically researched, the author has put a fair amount of time into it. And it shows.
She broadly divides the book into three sections. The first section is all about the audience; I like that the author puts the emphasis on discussing the target audience first. So many people who start a nonfiction book—and I’ve seen this happen so many times—just think about getting their expertise out there without really thinking: what does the reader want to know, what do they already know, and why do they want to learn more? So, the very first section helps the would-be writer get into the reader’s head and appreciate what they might want to know about this subject the author has knowledge about, a passion for, or expertise in..
The next section explores how to explain your subject well in ways that engage the reader, like telling stories, how to artfully incorporate data (if your subject lends to that), and other considerations. She doesn’t go into chapter or blog post structure or analysis, which I would have liked to have seen because I’ve found that nonfiction writers or would-be authors struggle with that. But, of course, this book isn’t strictly about writing nonfiction books or blog posts; it’s more generally about nonfiction writing. She did discuss the balance needed between the different aspects of it, like stories, abstract sections, analogies, details, and data. I agree that balance is important.
The final section talks about how to make your writing less boring—and that is literally the title of the section, which I think is fun. In this section, she includes things like imagery, tone, humility, and humanity, finishing out the section with humor. I really like how she offers both what you should include in section two as well as ways to finesse it in section three. What I also liked, too, is that she openly admitted at the end of the book that she herself has learned much from writing this book by her deeper analysis of the books she likes as well as talking with other writers and readers about what works for them. How nice that she benefits from this book as well as we the reader do. I really like this book, and it certainly gives me more arrows in my quiver for myself as well as for my clients. In fact, the Kindle book is so reasonably priced that I think I will be folding it in with my nonfiction book mentoring/coaching price and have reading assignments for my authors as we work on developing their books. The book is that helpful. Highly recommended.
I received a free copy of this audiobook (and purchased the eBook), but that did not affect my review.
If you are writing nonfiction and wanting to translate complex/abstract ideas into a book that is accessible to a general audience, this is a wonderful book for you! I think a lot of amazing ideas get lost because they don’t get mainstream acceptance. People who are experts in their subjects are not able to translate the complexity of their thoughts into a form that is easily digestible.
Anne talks about how to write so you’ll be understood by a general audience.
As a writer who has written a memoir and plans to write more books in the creative nonfiction space, I found this book really insightful. Instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of writing such as grammar and punctuation, it talks about how to use cognitive neuroscience to engage readers. Readers today have a hundred things that are vying for their attention, which puts a huge cognitive load on them. As writers, we need to understand this reality and write in a way that makes reading our books easy for readers. Anne shows us exactly how to do this. I highly recommend you get this book if you are writing nonfiction or creative nonfiction.
Perfect for nonfiction writers of every shape and kind.
I’ve read my share of nonfiction books over time. After reading Anne Janzer’s new book, Writing To Be Understood, I know why I’ve quit reading more than I’ve finished. Exciting or interesting subject matter does not make an exciting or interesting book.
This manual will help you write better books. Simple as that. Know a writing teacher? Pass this book along. As a former English teacher, I wish I would have had a reference like this. Most of our resources for teaching writing (back in the day) read like dictionaries. This book is user-friendly, full of stories, and even includes some touches of wry humor.
You’ll get more than just the normal “how-to” stuff from writing teachers in this book. Anne draws on the advice of experts from many different fields: writing, psychology, cognitive science, economics, and medicine. Her observations are thorough.
What I liked:
One reminder every nonfiction writer needs: beware of the curse of knowledge—thinking your readers understand more than they do–because you do. This book will help you navigate those waters and be understandable. Work to, as Anne says, “reduce the unnecessary cognitive load.”
The chapter I think most nonfiction writers should read (and re-read): how to not be boring. Enough said.
I’m afraid I could go on and on passing on nuggets of excellence from the book, but I’ll leave room for you to figure it out for yourself. Just pick up a copy—you’ll thank me.