Kickstarting Your Non-Fiction Book with Geraldine Walsh

Course Summary

Thinking about writing a nonfiction book but found yourself caught up in the overwhelming enormity of it all? Or are you ready and poised but stuck in those initial stages of developing your book concept and outlining its structure? Maybe you have no clue where to start at all, but you cannot stop thinking about this book idea. You may have translatable expertise in your field or want to explore a topic of special interest but don’t know how to get your ideas from your head to the paper. This course will guide you out of the overwhelm so you can pinpoint your ideas and get stuck into writing.

This course is suitable for those seeking clarity and focus on their nonfiction writing project, by aiming to guide the writer toward prioritising their writing, focusing their concept, and becoming clear on their project with motivation and enthusiasm. This course focuses on non-fiction writing and those who have just an idea and wish to expand on it, or writer who are a few chapters into their project.

Participants will be provided with action plans in the form of a questionnaire. They will work on these independently and in their own time as they gain clarity on their project by working through the questions in relation to their work. Action Plans are not submitted for review but are important to guide the writer in their progress.

Course Outline

Week 1 – The Importance of Sharing Our Stories

This first week looks at the importance of our stories and expertise, why stories need to be shared, the motivation behind writing our stories, exploring our expertise, and finding the value in memoir and nonfiction.

Week 2 – Developing a Theme, Hook, Or Focus for Your Book

What makes a personal story stand out and capture an audience, what is a hook, why it is important, and how can we refine a books theme.
week two looks at the core of your story.

Week 3 – Laying the Foundations

While thinking about writing real people, finding the substance of your story, and finding your voice, we will also look at the boundaries of memoir/nonfiction writing, and why organising your book will avoid writer’s block.

Week 4 – Creating a Roadmap

Week 4 continues with the idea of creating a roadmap, which will consist of ideas and perhaps multiple identities for your project. Learning to focus and align these ideas is the priority for week four.

Week 5 – The Book Proposal

A book proposal can be a daunting prospect, but by understanding what publishers need to assess your work, we can take the pain out of pitching. Even if participants are not looking to traditionally publish, a book proposal is a useful guide for writing projects.

Week 6 – Where to go from here?

In the final week of this course, we will look at developing a writing space, a writing practice, balancing your writing and home life, facing imposter syndrome, and beating writer’s block.

Course Outcomes

This course is suitable for those seeking clarity and focus at the beginning of their writing project or those who have lost their focus. The course aims to guide the writer to prioritise their writing, focus their concept, and become clear on their project. At the end of each session, participants will gain more clarity on their project and have the first draft of a roadmap which will help guide them in writing those first chapters.

GERALDINE WALSH is an award-winning writer, journalist, author, and editor. She is a frequent contributor to The Irish Times and Irish Examiner on a range of topics in the women’s health, mental well-being, and parenting spaces. Her debut book, Unraveling Motherhood (Hatherleigh Press, 2023), is part memoir and considers motherhood a tightly woven knot of physical, mental, emotional, and social changes and then seeks to unravel that knot. Geraldine’s fiction has appeared in Frazzled Lit, The Storms, Aimsir, Agenda and more. Her novel extract was placed in the Top 100 of the Bridport Novel Prize 2024, and she was shortlisted in the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize 2024.

Booked out? To be added to the waiting list for this course, please email info@irishwriterscentre.ie.