Nonfiction books with stories using the narrative arc are almost guaranteed to be successful. 

Former publisher and writing coach Allen Arnold says that well-written stories engage readers, draw readers in, and make the content memorable. 

“In today's world of distraction with so little time to read, you have to compete for a reader’s attention,” says Allen. “It can't be enough just to say, this is something that I thought you might want to read, I've written a book, now buy it.  

“You have to invite people into the story, whether it's food, whether it's technology, whether it's architecture. What is the story that you're telling in your nonfiction?” 

In a wide-ranging interview, Allen talks to Published Author Podcast host Josh Steimle about how to use God as a co-creator in any creative venture, the importance of the narrative arc, formulaic writing, the state of the publishing industry, and why knowing oneself is essential before beginning either a nonfiction or fiction book.  

USE GOD AS YOUR CO-CREATOR 

Author of two successful bestsellers—The Story of With: A Better Way to Live, Love, And Create, and Chaos Can’t—Allen has helped literally hundreds of writers publish successful books.  

Allen believes too many creative people pursue a formula or what is in vogue, when instead they should be creating their own story—as a writer, painter, poet, whatever.  

“Most people don't know how to pursue their creativity actively with God. Instead, they try to pursue a formula. They want to know what works and just do more of that. So I decided to write a book through an allegory, mostly that invited people into how do you pursue what you love to do actively with God?  

He hears a lot of creatives say “I feel like it's all up to me”.  Allen’s response is that by co-creating with God “You never have to be alone again. You're doing something with an eternal spark. The fruit of that it's been a lot of transformed creatives out there that all of a sudden enjoy it more and are doing more breakthrough work.” 

Allen describes his approach as inviting God into a playground of ideas. In his own writing he would “Sense God saying in the allegory . . .right, your character goes into an impossible situation that you can't resolve at the end of the chapter. And then wait for me to tell you what to do. The writing became this almost like, a game of back and forth and tag, and the pressure was off me.  

“I felt like God was guiding me in the story and in the teaching into some things that would be beyond me. I got to be a part of it. I think that's the best kind of writing possible, when you're not just relying on your own wisdom.” 

HOW MANY WORDS A DAY SHOULD YOU WRITE? 

Allen is a big proponent of forgetting word count when you sit down to write. Instead, he encourages writers to simply focus on having something to say something worth breathing life into. In his view, if you write no words one day in search of that strong piece of writing, and 10 words the next day, a writer is better off compared to someone who produces 5000 words a day.  

GET TO KNOW YOURSELF - REALLY WELL 

With most successful authors, it doesn’t start with their book, but instead who they are. “In the publishing world, if you don't know your own story, if you haven't lived an examined life, if you don't know why somebody would enjoy working with you, then ultimately, I think you do yourself a disservice,” he says.  

Allen passed up on many authors he knew could produce a New York Times best seller because they were, in his words, hard to work with, had a high ego, or were driven by such a need for validation that they would  just drain his team.  

He says authors must “Know your effect on others, as a writer as a creator, because it's a relational business, whether you self-publish, or whether you're with a traditional publisher. You work with other people and so it starts with who you are. And the more you know your story, the more the story you write, it will have a power to it.”  

ABANDON FORMULAIC WRITING 

Allen recalls that as a publisher he learned that the most successful and appealing authors were those who did not write to a formula.  

Writers who wanted to write what would be hot were in fact limiting themselves, he explains. Instead, he was drawn to those who would say “I don't care if this is a genre that's hot or not right now, this is what I was born to write. This is what I'm passionate about. And this is what I want to offer you.” 

Those were the writers who most caught his eye. “We all know in this industry that trends come and go.The best thing you can do is write what you're passionate about; not write to spec not write to formula if you want to have heart within what you write.” 

In large part he blames the publishing industry for this state of affairs, saying it’s gotten off track for two reasons. First, too many publishing hours are chasing authors with large social media followings to be able to say they can make a book around a following instead of what's a good book and how do we grow the audience? 

Next, the publishing industry has lost its ability to define their customers. At one time, it was the bookstore, not the reader. But along came Amazon and defined the customer as the reader, not the bookstore. They also happen to know a lot about that reader. So when bookstores started closing physical locations, publishing houses realized they had no information about their customers.  

The fruit of all this, concludes Allen, is: “A lot of forgettable books by smaller publishing teams who are overworked, understaffed, and have no marketing budget.” 

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ABOUT THE HOST 

The Published Author Podcast is hosted by Josh Steimle, founder of Published Author. Josh is a book author himself and his article writing has been featured in over two dozen publications including Time, Forbes, Fortune, Mashable, and TechCrunch. He's a TEDx speaker, the founder of the global marketing agency MWI, a skater, father, and husband, and lives on a horse farm in Boston. Learn more at JoshSteimle.com.