With your Transformation Tale in mind, the process of finding your chapters begins by noting or bulleting everything you know about what you want to say. Don’t worry about what order it will go in, or if it’s even worthy of inclusion right now.

Think through what ideas and principles you also want to communicate.

All of your book’s content should flow from your book’s Big Idea (figure 6.1), which we discussed in chapter 5. Your Transformation Tale is how you prove or illustrate that Big Idea.

you’re writing prescriptive nonfiction, then your reader is your hero,

The most popular way to hook a reader is to tell a story. But it can’t just be any story; if you’re going to use a story at the beginning of the chapter, it should illustrate the little Big Idea.

In your query letter to help describe and animate your idea to agents. In your book proposal to expand on why there is an audience for your book. Here you’ll describe five to ten titles and go into more detail about the similarities and differences they share. More on this in chapter 16. In your elevator pitch when quickly explaining your book in

What readers will be expecting: Exposition, meaning the author takes the time to fully explain ideas, theories, or techniques A logical, consistent organization that feels intuitive to the reader Chapters that follow an established pattern or rhythm The use of stories, anecdotes, and illustrations to depict ideas The use of second-person (“you”) to

This little Big Idea should be stated as a complete sentence, an argument; it’s what you’ll need to prove in your chapter.

And don’t get hung up on the term “hero”; we use it here because Joseph Campbell used it. But if you don’t like that term, you can call this person the “main character,” the “protagonist,” the “subject,” or maybe just “the reader” or “me.”