Writing a table of contents
As anyone can tell you, writing a table of contents is a piece of cake, right? All you do is write down the chapter name or number and what page it starts on, right? Wrong.
I'm working on a book proposal for a nonfiction YA project, and it turns out that this table of contents doesn't need page numbers at all. What it does need is approximately two paragraphs on each chapter to explain what purpose each chapter will serve in the book. I think of it as an annotated table-of-contents-cum-outline sort of thing. When completed, it should give the reader an idea of what the book will say, and where in the book it will say it.
Not a piece of cake. But an interesting and worthwhile exercise that I'm strangely enough enjoying nonetheless.
I'm working on a book proposal for a nonfiction YA project, and it turns out that this table of contents doesn't need page numbers at all. What it does need is approximately two paragraphs on each chapter to explain what purpose each chapter will serve in the book. I think of it as an annotated table-of-contents-cum-outline sort of thing. When completed, it should give the reader an idea of what the book will say, and where in the book it will say it.
Not a piece of cake. But an interesting and worthwhile exercise that I'm strangely enough enjoying nonetheless.