Failure to Answer Questions Raised in Your Book

Nothing drives readers crazier than having an author raise a question in the text that piques their interest only to find it is not explicitly answered anywhere in the book. To be fair, most writers answer most of the questions they raise most of the time. But even one unanswered question is one too many. There is certain to be a reader somewhere who thinks that question is the most important one you raise, and who ends up frustrated and dissatisfied because they can not find the answer.

They will probably even scan back and forth through the book for a while, convinced the fault lies with them and that they simply overlooked it, before they realize where the true fault lies. Hint: Keep a list of every question you raise in the text. Review your manuscript when you have finished it. Be certain you have answered each question directly and explicitly at some point in the text.

If not, raising them will mislead readers into expectations you do not fulfill. Trying to solve your writing problems on your own: Writing a book is no picnic. You are constantly coming up against challenges you need to put across a tricky concept, or you Do not know the best way to present material, or you are looking for a novel way to capture reader attention, or you wish you could put something across as well as you know a favorite author would. If you are a first-time writer or someone whose expertise lies in another field, you can waste hours, days or weeks, trying to solve these problems because what you are attempting is to reinvent the wheel, at least when it comes to writing.

Think about it. If you wanted to pitch a curve ball, become a cardiologist, or franchise your family restaurant across the country, would you take the same approach? Would you just start out blindly on your own with no knowledge of the subject and attempt to learn everything you need to know about pitching, medicine or business on your own? If you did, it would take you years of trial-and-error experimentation to learn even a fraction of what successful ballplayers, biologists and business people already know.

To become a mathematician, for example, you would have to start out by discovering simple addition for yourself, and then work out division on your own, as well as fractions, algebra, calculus, and so on. Typically, when we want to learn something, we Do not attempt to reinvent the wheel. Instead, we save ourselves time and unnecessary trouble by studying what people have already learned. In short, we make progress the same way so many have: by standing on the shoulders of giants. Yet, few people think to do this when writing.

You can save yourself wasted time and find the solutions to writing difficulties instantly. By going straight to the experts. When you find yourself at a writing impasse and Do not know what to do next or how to write something, Do not waste time spinning your wheels. Learn from those who have gone before you. There is no reason why you have to do it all on your own. Other self-help authors have faced and solved. the same writing challenges you face.