Starting Out
I'm in the early stages of creating a non-fiction book. My goal is to provide historical achievements by African Americans that usually get overlooked. My problem is the format which I want to use. I want to have several short chapters with several different figures. I don't want to write a biography on them, just their contribution to history, I want the motivate the audience into digging deeper on figures they may have never been exposed to.
My question is, would the best format be more like a story or more like a history book because that will dictate what information I seek out and how i should form it. I've only written college essays, so I still don't understand how a book and an essay are different/same. Are citations written the same? The format written the same?
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8 comments
• 24d
This sounds like an amazing book! You'd have a lot of different options for how to structure it, but consistency throughout the book would be ideal—for example, if you chose to focus on one historical figure per chapter, you could start with an interesting story from their life to get readers' attention, elaborate on their biggest achievement, and then close the chapter with a takeaway of some kind (again, that's just an example—you have so many options for how to structure the book!).
For book citations, you'll usually use Chicago-style citations (whereas you might have used a different citation style for essays). Here's a general overview of that citation style: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html! But don't stress too much about getting citations just right. What matters most is the writing! :)
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Thank you so much Yna. That is a great idea for starting a chapter. I have three book ideas right now. 1. Is providing short chapters on great accomplishments of the African American community, I don't like Black History Month because it has become entrenched in about a dozen names while allowing so many other achievements to be forgotten. I want to provide introductions to several individuals that people aren't normally acquainted with. There are so many that this idea may have to be two books in itself (with a lot more in the future), 2. The second book covers the Colored units in American History because it shows how all history is black history. It shows the obstacles they needed to overcome and the motivation to fighting for a nation that wasn't always supporting. 3. The third book covers the achievements of women in the World Wars. It is going to cover women from different nations because women's suffrage was global. World War 1 Death Battalions to World War 2 Night Witches. Some of greatest snipers in World War 2 were women and greatly feared.
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• 16d
Hi Shawn, I would check out the local book store and check out how others did it and see which process you like better. Good luck. It sounds like an amazing book.
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Hi Shawn! Thank you for this! I work with teens and young people and I think short stories are a great idea, even for a quick read for adults excited to see your outcome!!
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• 11d (edited)
what is your book about? Or what is your topic if you haven't started your book yet?
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hello! My topic is about the importance of making good decisions
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Great idea and much needed to expand on the African American experience. Yna's suggestion is the book I would gravitate to reading and learning. A chapter story- attention grabber- historical facts- then closure that leads to the next person/chapter.
Press on...
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Thank you so much for your guidance Abby.
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Shawn Clement
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