Recommend some frameworks for non-fiction writing?

July 5, 2020 11:07 AM

I find that having mental frameworks when writing non-fiction content makes the job of writing so much easier. For the most part, I use the time-honored “who, what, where, when, whey and how”. It has always helped disintegrate writer's block.

Applying such a framework to a topic, always proves a great starting point. But what other frameworks are used by writers of non-fiction? All inspiration, resources or links would be appreciated!

posted by jacobean to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

"On Writing Well" by William Zinsser is your new best friend. :)
posted by heatherlogan at 11:14 AM on July 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

It never really clicked for me, but I know several writers who use the snowflake method.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:57 AM on July 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

John McPhee, the greatest writer of nonfiction in human history, recently published an article about his writing process in tune New Yorker. On my phone so I’m too lazy to link, but it was called something like “On Structure”. He also did an Art of Nonfiction interview with the Paris Review that’s out there and informative.
posted by kevinbelt at 12:17 PM on July 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

I haven't read it, but John McPhee actually wrote an entire book (well, collection of essays) about how to write nonfiction: Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process . It was excerpted in the New Yorker under the same title.
posted by caek at 1:35 PM on July 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

It seems to me that a lot of popular nonfiction alternates between theory and narrative. So there might be an explanation of how concrete works, and a description of how a concrete structure fits into history and/or something about how it was designed or built.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 6:26 PM on July 5, 2020