call “arrest” – or an immediate appeal to the attention of the reader – don't attempt to
do this at the outset: it's the most difficult part of the whole job. Instead dive straight
into what you have to write – the part that interests you (as it will then inevitably
interest the reader) – without preamble. Long afterwards, with all that you have
written floating organised in your mind, and a complete picture thereby obtained, go
back to the beginning and do your opening chapter: which, again, may well include a
summary of what is to come after – a thing impossible until you've actually written
the remainder of the book.
Don't be deterred – or let your style be cramped – by any subconscious self-limitation as to length. Nowadays the old 100,000 limit to which the
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book trade always tried to work as an all-round economical figure, no longer holds.
Books of five times that length are common, and editors are beginning to see the
wisdom of offering the buying public a good fat wad of stuff for their money. So, if an
idea or a situation appeals to you, and you find yourself writing on and on about it, let
it rip! Go on at it, irrespective of length. Remember the golden psychological rule that
the reader's interest in a subject is his exact reflex of the writer’s: that and no more:
certainly no less. Enthusiasms are, in fact “catching”.
But the moment you find you've written yourself dry at any point, shut up quickly,
tuck in the ends, and put a full stop as big as a cricket bat.
In other words, don't be afraid of writing. Remember
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that you’ve stuff in you, experiences, contacts, enthusiasms and – to use a hardworked term – adventures, such as any other writer would envy: and you've not the
least call to be in anyway diffident or apologetic about it.
In regard to maps. The stereotyped way, of putting a folding map in at the end, is
usual, but maddening. It and the book cannot be held open at the same time, unless
the reader sits up to a table and spreads it. A very usual plan is to substitute
diagrams inside the front and back covers. These are far more accessible, since they
are easily found and glanced at while reading. But in your case, I would recommend
skeleton diagrams as above, reinforced by a whole bird’s eye view folding map just
in front of the index, for the
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more earnest, or informed reader to consult about the details which your diagrams
from their very nature would fail to supply.
Illustrations. They add enormously to the costs of production. Having regard to
one's own submissions and memories, the tendency always is to put in too many of
them, with the result that the price of the book rapidly mounts from half a guinea to
15 shillings and hence by an almost immediate step to a guinea: with consequent
shortening of sales. One per 20 pages of print is a usual maximum ration. This is a
great pity. Your stock of unusual photographs must be quite unique.
