My Process for Writing Nonfiction Books

Hint: Do most of the work before you write the book!

Cathy Goodwin
5 min readNov 1, 2024

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Image by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash.

I have several books on Amazon, all non-fiction. Fiction is 10X harder! At one time I had a goal of writing a murder mystery (my favorite genre to read) but now…I’m not sure.

Recently I was asked, “What’s your process?” I hadn’t thought about this, but I realize I do have a process.

I am very lazy. If I were a hard worker I’d have a dozen more books on Amazon.

I don’t decide to “write a book.” The book demands to be written.

My books grow out of articles and coaching sessions. By the time I decide to turn the material into a book, I’ve got lots of material all ready to go. I don’t start with a blank page.

Usually, I write articles or coach clients well before I decide to write a book.

Then I open up Notion software, the free version, or Google Docs. I have one page that becomes an outline. Each element in the outline links to a page, or chapter. I especially like Notion because I can move the chapters around. When I’m ready to share I switch to Google Docs, because sharing is easy there.

Each page (or document in Google Docs) becomes a chapter.

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Cathy Goodwin
Cathy Goodwin

Written by Cathy Goodwin

Create a compelling marketing message that attracts your ideal clients through your unique selling story. http://cathygoodwin.com