Reinforce, but Avoid Being Repetitive in Your Nonfiction Book

When editing nonfiction, I often suggest deleting sections, paragraphs, and/or sentences because they’re redundant. It is a common problem.

After all, repetition has its place in learning, but it is a double-edged sword.

While reinforcing key points is essential, overdoing it can frustrate readers and make your content feel redundant. Striking the right balance requires intentionality and strategy.

Avoiding being redundant starts before you even write the book. If you’ve already written the book, then follow the revision tips, but if you haven’t, you can combat this problem before you begin drafting.

To avoid repetitive ideas across chapters, create an outline that states the topic and purpose for each chapter. Each chapter should have a clear, distinct purpose that advances the topic.
If you find that some chapters have a similar purpose, then it is best to merge those two into one chapter.

Under each chapter’s purpose, write the topics and subtopics that will illustrate the chapter’s purpose. Stick to those subtopics when you write your chapter.

Tip:
Use your outline as a reference throughout the writing process to ensure you’re not revisiting the same points unnecessarily. Refer back to the chapter’s purpose and make sure all the content you write in that chapter builds on that purpose.

Determine which examples, case studies, and stories you will use to illustrate your points. If any stories, case studies, or examples seem too similar, then that tells you the concepts they are exemplifying are similar enough they should be merged together.

During your self-editing phase, read your manuscript and pay attention to whether each chapter, section, paragraph, and sentence introduces something new or if it merely restates earlier content.

Tip:
Highlight phrases, concepts, or anecdotes that appear frequently. Then at the end look at what you have highlighted and either delete it if it’s redundant and not needed, rephrase it if it is needed for reinforcement, or merge it with earlier content discussing the same concept.

It can be hard to spot redundancies yourself because as the writer you think everything is important. So reach out to others and ask them to flag sections that feel redundant.

As you revise, keep an eye on areas where redundancies often appear.

Often nonfiction writers will end a chapter with a chapter summary, which is a good tactic to reinforce learning.

But ask if the chapter was dense enough to need a chapter summary or list of key insights. If the chapter was fairly straightforward and focused on one or two main topics without any subtopics, then you probably don’t need one.

If the chapter had a lot of subtopics, then it is a good idea to provide this. But consider creating a bulleted list of key insights, reflection questions, or action steps rather than a full-on summary. It is easier to be redundant when writing a summary.

A bulleted list of key insights, questions, or action steps reminds the reader of the main takeaways and concepts from that chapter, but it does so without feeling redundant.

First, you need to trust that your reader will get it. I understand this is hard. Trust me! I am notorious for explaining a concept at least three times, in three different ways, to make sure people understand me.

Miscommunication triggers my anxiety, so I overcompensate. It annoys people, and it annoys me.

Luckily, when I am editing others’ work, I can easily see when a point has been made and suggest deleting the redundancies. It is easier to spot these when you’re viewing the content from the reader’s perspective.

To combat this, determine what your target audience already knows and what they need to know. Don’t waste time explaining what they already know. If you have a wide target audience and some will not understand the basics and others will, then you will need to explain things that some readers will already know. But be mindful of this and keep the basic part short and sweet.

Tip:
Ask someone in your target audience if you have overexplained concept X. They must be in your target audience for this feedback to be useful.

My husband is an electrical engineer, and science was the only subject in school I didn’t understand. He could never overexplain to me because I need all the explanations. So it wouldn’t do him any good to ask me.

When referencing a previously mentioned idea, pair it with fresh insights or context. This not only avoids redundancy but also adds value for the reader.

Example:

“As we discussed earlier, consistency is key in building habits. A recent study by [researcher’s name] further emphasizes this by showing how daily practice increases skill retention by 50%.”

Use phrases like “as we explored earlier” or “to build on our previous discussion” rather than fully recapping the prior concept.

As mentioned at the start of the blog, we do learn through repetition. Sometimes you do need to repeat a concept. In that case, reframe it using different language or examples. This keeps the content fresh and engaging for readers.

Avoiding repetition is not about eliminating reinforcement but about presenting your ideas in varied and engaging ways.

When you write your book, make sure to: