Nonfiction Writing Process Guidance

A structured writing process for nonfiction work: clear framing, traceable requirements, disciplined drafting, review gates, publication readiness, and post-publication maintenance.

Use this repository for reusable guidance, templates, and checklists for nonfiction writing projects of different sizes and formats, including long-form books, field guides, essays, articles, tutorials, white papers, manuals, reports, Git-backed Markdown documentation repositories, and other factual or instructional works.

Recommended Starting Path

1. WRITING_PROJECT_TAILORING_GUIDE.md — decide how much process the writing project needs for its format, risk level, and audience.
2. WRITING_DEVELOPMENT_PROCESS.md — follow the lifecycle from idea to post-publication maintenance.
3. WRITING_FRAMING_GUIDANCE.md — define the premise, reader, promise, scope, and success criteria.
4. WRITING_REQUIREMENTS_GUIDANCE.md — capture must-haves, constraints, risks, and acceptance criteria.
5. RESEARCH_AND_SOURCE_GUIDANCE.md — manage evidence, claims, citations, permissions, copyright review, and plagiarism avoidance.
6. STRUCTURE_AND_OUTLINE_GUIDANCE.md — design the work’s structure before prose polish.
7. DRAFTING_GUIDANCE.md and REVISION_GUIDANCE.md — produce and improve the draft.
8. QUALITY_REVIEW_GUIDANCE.md — run review gates, including copyright, permissions, factual, legal, and sensitivity checks.
9. PUBLICATION_READINESS_GUIDANCE.md — confirm content, metadata, rights, design, and release readiness.
10. POST_PUBLICATION_OPERATIONS_GUIDANCE.md — track errata, reader feedback, updates, and future editions or revisions.

Core Documents

The core documents now use writing-oriented names. Treat them as nonfiction-writing process guidance that can be tailored up or down for shorter formats.

• WRITING_DEVELOPMENT_PROCESS.md
• WRITING_PROJECT_TAILORING_GUIDE.md
• WRITING_PRINCIPLES.md
• WRITING_FRAMING_GUIDANCE.md
• AUDIENCE_AND_MARKET_GUIDANCE.md
• WRITING_REQUIREMENTS_GUIDANCE.md
• RESEARCH_AND_SOURCE_GUIDANCE.md
• STRUCTURE_AND_OUTLINE_GUIDANCE.md
• DRAFT_SOURCE_GUIDANCE.md
• VOICE_STYLE_AND_CONTENT_GUIDANCE.md
• DRAFTING_GUIDANCE.md
• REVISION_GUIDANCE.md
• QUALITY_REVIEW_GUIDANCE.md
• REVIEW_ROLE_GUIDANCE.md
• AI_ASSISTED_WRITING_GUIDANCE.md
• PUBLICATION_READINESS_GUIDANCE.md
• WRITING_GOVERNANCE_AND_APPROVALS.md
• POST_PUBLICATION_OPERATIONS_GUIDANCE.md

Templates

Templates live in templates/ and are intentionally lightweight starting points. Tailor them to the nonfiction format, risk level, audience, and publication path.

Worked Examples

• examples/podman-ai-field-guide/ — end-to-end sample for a technical nonfiction field guide.