Writing a book is tricky. You have so much research, and well… You aren’t sure what you need and what you can do without when you look at it in a big heap. It can make you crazy and scare you from writing at all.
But don’t let it!
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As you’re reading the first book or just beginning, you won’t know what’s important and what’s not, generally. If you’re writing a biography, you know right off that certain details will be important, such as the subject’s date of birth. No brainer right? Or, if you’re writing an historical piece, you’ll want to include the date it happened, who the major players are, etc. There are just some details that can’t be left out.
But what other details will you use that might or might not be important?
You’ll figure it out as you go along.
I write in the margin of my research books and highlight what I feel is important. It’s something in your brain that just finds interesting and that you feel your readers might be interested in, too. It’s a gut thing, really. But as you read more and more, you just know.
So, don’t worry about it too much to start, but as you’re going through the materials you gather, just pick out things that you know are important and that you FEEL are important. Then, by the time you get to organization, you’ll know.
