I started my writing career as a health and medical writer for magazines back in the old days when they were in print and the process for querying took months via snail mail. I then morphed into writing and co-writing books on the same subjects. Many (if not most) of my nonfiction books have been prescriptive nonfiction. I had a brief foray into creative nonfiction when I wrote a memoir, but until I started writing fiction, I spent most of my time honing my writing shops in the world of prescriptive nonfiction books.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a video on WRITE. FIX. REPEAT. where I tackled five tips for writing creative nonfiction. (You can watch it here.) This week, I’m tackling prescriptive nonfiction, whose techniques are also valuable for content creators, PR writers, and anyone who wants to teach someone something.
The problem I’ve seen over the years is that many writers don’t know the difference between narrative and prescriptive nonfiction and often muddle them together, resulting in a mishmash of writing that benefits no one—not even the writer.
So, this week, I have five tips for prescriptive nonfiction based on writing almost a dozen trade and textbooks in this genre.
Patricia J. Parsons 