I have alot of research material and looking to turn it into a non fiction style diary book, I'm struggling to get it started I'm hoping someone can help
The best thing you can do is actually start writing. When you start writing you'll see how your facts can be strung together and see if you have enough research material. Without getting started you won't know exactly what else you need to do. You may want to do a story line before. I usually write the story line after I write for a little bit so I have more of an idea of what I want from the story, but I'm sure other people do it other ways. Good luck.
The books in diary format with which I am familiar - sports diaries, mostly - are written that way to give the reader a sense of the personal experience of the writer. Not the type of thing that would normally require a lot of research. Reserached works are usually not based on personal experience, and so I would think a diary format would be not only limiting to the writer, but distracting to the reader. Why, specifically, the diary format?
I had the same thoughts as Ed -- what kind of book are you writing, and why do you want to write it in a diary format? I'm not saying it's impossible to do this, it's just that the answer isn't immediately obvious to me. But, to answer your question, Tanner is right -- you just have to start writing. You'll see if you need to do more research when something comes up, and you'll find out later on if you need to start the diary earlier (realizing you need to explain or include some sort of backstory, and going back and making those diary entries) or later (if you find you're writing a lot of superfluous stuff before the 'real action' takes place, or whatever.
Maybe he's looking at writing something like 52 Loaves, or The $64 Tomato, or The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken. They are written in a sort of diary format, but have lots of research crammed in them. Some blogs turned books are both diary and research. Yeah, just start writing and post some of the work in the writing workshop part of this forum for critique.
i have the regiment war diaries from ww2, i want to make it a diary/reference book so people can use it to read and also to look up certain dates etc
