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book-nonfiction

Nonfiction craft reference: argument architecture, evidence discipline, narrative in nonfiction, chapter design, the nonfiction-specific AI tells. Read by all agents on nonfiction, memoir, business, self-help, essay, and narrative nonfiction projects.

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# Nonfiction

The reader of nonfiction wants one of three things: to understand something they did not, to be able to do something they could not, or to have lived through something they never will. Decide which this book delivers (or which mix) in `PRD.md`, and let that decide the structure. A how-to book with the structure of a memoir fails both.

## Structure options

- **Problem → Principles → Practice → Advanced** — the default for practical nonfiction. Reader arrives with a pain, leaves with a method.
- **Narrative spine with argument chapters** — a story runs through the book (a case, a person, a year) and argument chapters hang off it. Best for big-idea books.
- **Question-driven** — each chapter is a question the previous chapter raised. Best for explanatory nonfiction.
- **Chronological** — history, memoir, biography. Risk: "and then" pacing; fix by organizing around turning points, not dates.
- **Thematic essays** — a collection unified by voice and subject. Each essay stands alone; the order builds.
- **Framework** — one model, one chapter per component. Risk: framework inflation; only if the framework is genuinely the book's contribution.

Whatever the shape: the introduction earns the reader's next hour by naming the pain and the promise; chapter 1 delivers something usable; the middle escalates from simple to hard, not from topic to topic; the ending returns to the promise and shows it kept.