Non-fiction stuff?

About a year ago, I started thinking about writing non-fiction. Mostly subplots and plot threads--because that was last years a-ha moment. But, the more research I do into craft, the more I realize many books don't address the fundamental problem.

A unified approach to desired effects. Alice said, "focus on a slice". I need to do that for my lecture, but--the subject is huge (another Alice-ism). It's not just character arc and emotional structure, it's gathering building blocks to be able to understand why it works, and how.

When I was first learning action beats and scene structure. Nobody thought to explain. Someone would say "scene", and I'd vaguely know it meant something to do with structure, but what a scene was, what it did and when it ended? Hey, clueless<<<<

In Robert McKee's Story, before he launched into structure, he explained, step by step, exactly what he meant by action beat, sequence, scene, whatever--he told all. Most of the rest of the stuff was... okay, but not what I was looking for. But I re-read those two pages over and over, unless I had them memorized.

To learn emotional structure, you have to know basic grammar, basic plot construction, how to use subtext and what it is, pov, not just the names, but actual mechanics and conventions common to your genre.

ie

The Moral Premise.

Hated that book. It sounded good. The reviews were good. I'm not sure who bought it and where their minds were, but damned if that wasn't the driest number of big words I'd ever seen. It started right out of the gate with one use of premise refers to the statement of evidence in a logical argument and then goes into a discussion of RW Burch, a logician and Edward Damer, a philosopher. Hey there, fast person--first, you used big words in a confusing way, and I have no clue where you're coming from. Then you assumed I already had a grounding in the logic and philosophy behind using abstract principles in screenwriting.

In every field, there are discussions. But, they are specific to that field. As an outsider coming in? I had no clue. It would have benefited from a chapter or two to bring me up to speed. Even if I'd been a screenwriter, maybe I wasn't privy to that discussion--same reasoning.

So I'm thinking, some kind of book, structured with building blocks first, important, don't miss rebar structure next and then how to get your building up. Of course, there needs to be a way to skip over sections you already know...

But, to that end--(you know, the end where I write a non-fiction book for Writer's Digest?) I'm working on my platform. This morning, I sent out a course proposal for continuing education.

I don't have the cred to teach English, but that's not what I want anyway. I'd like to teach a five day (it's college, so...I'm thinking an hour a day) interactive hands-on class in how to write a character-driven story from the ground up.