Have you ever read a book, a really heavy philosophy book or one that discusses what I call big brain ideas and thinking, and walked away wondering what it all meant? No? Just me? Okay, so maybe this part doesn’t apply to you, but in case it wasn’t just me, I thought I’d share one or two ways to take those big brain books and help your average reader follow along a bit better. You want to make the ideas tangible.
Abstract writing can leave readers with a lot of questions, which can be a good thing. But you don’t want them to walk away from the book confused, so you want to include concrete writing. Concrete writing includes descriptions and examples which create tangible images the reader can use as an anchor and can also visualize while reading your book.
“Show, don’t tell” the reader the information.
This is heavily discussed in fiction writing, but you also want to use it in non-fiction. You basically want to show the reader how the theory works instead of just describing it to them. It looks something like this:
Telling: The issue in relation to the interest rates is that it will negatively impact consumers.
Showing: An increase in interest rates of 0.5% could raise the average mortgage repayment by $10,000 a year.
The second statement gives the reader actual data to work with. It says the same thing as the Telling statement, but it solidifies the meaning with something the reader can grab on to.
Create a hypothetical or use a real life example.
Another way to make it tangible is to set up a real scenario or a hypothetical at the start of the story or chapter and use it throughout to demonstrate your point or argument. In this way, you are giving the reader a real life scenario that they can then apply to their interpretation of your thinking. This also helps to make it concrete, as in stick in their minds, because they can then apply that same thinking to other relevant real life scenarios.
So, for example, you are writing a book about how there is too much information out there, from what to buy, where to buy it, what research is available online, to how to pay for it and how to track it – information overload in a shopping environment – and you want to show what that looks like in the real world. What you would is to set up in the introduction of the book/chapter/story a hypothetical human – call them John or Jane – and have them be interested in building their own PC with a lot of RGB (pretty colorful lights for those of you not into PC building; can you tell I just built a PC?).
Begin the real life example by discussing recent developments in the field. Your hypo-person Jane begins to research computer parts, starting with a basic web search and spider-webbing out from there as more and more searches take her deeper into the online jungle of information. And then you write about all the places Jane visits where PC building is discussed (information overload) – Youtube content is king here, but there’s subreddits, specific websites that are focused on PC and PC building, reviews on multiples sites, reviews of reviews, and updated reviews. And discuss how some PC parts are country-specific, so when someone on the PCBuild subreddit shows their CPU, the US user can’t get that same CPU (global trade) because it doesn’t exist here, and so on and so forth before moving to next piece of the overload puzzle.
Show Jane struggling to figure out what is the most credible site to use for determining which type of RAM to buy for which CPU or GPU (for example). And then show that as Jane does more research, she is being bombarded on any site she visits, PC related or not, with ads of all of the different PC parts or websites she visited during her research. Then move down the consumer path to show Jane using Paypal to pay for the customized product, and then show Jane tracking the package over email, text, and home security devices. You could even use Amazon as an example here, where you can track your package on their app, and they’ll also (not always) send a picture of it on your doorstep once its delivered. So now Jane is being bombarded not just by ads on the website, but by notifications on her phone, email, and apps.
In this way, while it seems overkill, you are showing the reader an example from their own life that they can use to see the more theoretical points you are making in your book, which will make the ideas stick in their brain.
If you want to see a great example of this type of writing, check out “Why Information Grows,” by César Hidalgo. He takes what could be a very theoretical discussion and makes it accessible with personal stories, hypothetical stories and other relevant real life events. So, take a leaf out of his book and give it a shot!