GenresNon-fiction
Relationships
How we attach, leave, and stay.
Relationship books are about the ordinary difficulty of staying attached to other people. Dating, marriage, friendship, and the decision to leave are all well-worn subjects, which means a new book needs a clear promise and a fresher kind of honesty than a list of communication tips. Readers arrive with their own history. They can tell when a theory has never met a couple who were tired, loyal, angry, and still trying.
If you are drawing on psychology or clinical work, translate it and don't overclaim. If you are drawing on your own life, don't make your life the proof of a universal rule. Advice should leave room for the other person, who is not in the room and did not buy the book. That sounds small and it changes the tone of everything. Give the reader language for what is happening, and a few practices that don't require their partner to become a different species. Some relationships should end. A useful book is willing to say so.
The kinds of book inside it
Dating
The early stages of choosing someone, written with the present world of apps and manners in mind, and without contempt for people who are still hoping.
Marriage
Long partnership is the subject, including boredom, money, children, and the work of staying, not only the crisis that makes a good anecdote.
Friendship
Friendship gets a serious book, with its own loyalties and betrayals, rather than being treated as a lighter version of romance.
Separation
Separation is handled practically and emotionally, with enough clarity that a reader in the middle of it could feel less alone and slightly more oriented.
When you want a first sketch, Storywell can draft a contents list in this vein. You are still the one who writes the book. Compose an idea.