My husband begged me to put down my book last night and come to bed.

I started to protest that I was almost at the end—only to realize that I was actually at the 80% mark. Still at least an hour's worth of twisty-turny reveals before I could close my eyes.

Reluctantly, I closed the book.

"If you weren't here, I would have read all night," I told him.

"Good thing I'm here," he said.

Of course, when I woke up at 4am and my brain was buzzy, I grabbed my e-reader for another chapter or two ... and finished the book 90 minutes later.

(So, I'm a bit sleepy.)

I just couldn't stop—this particular author always does that to me.

A few weeks ago, I taught a class at my local chapter of the Willamette Writers Organization on how to make nonfiction as hard to put down as a good thriller.

Afterward, one of the organizers told me more people show up that night than they'd had in months.

(I'm choosing to believe it was my sparkling personality. It was probably the title.)

I've been thinking about that ever since.

Because that title—"Make your book unputdownable"—made a promise a lot of writers clearly wanted to hear: your nonfiction book doesn't have to be dry.

You're allowed to write a page-turner.

Most of the experts I work with start out believing a business book's job is to deliver information. Get everything you know onto the page. Sort it into chapters. Done.

Here's the thing, though. Readers don't keep reading books just because they want the information.

They keep reading because they want to know what happens next.

Your reader can get information anywhere. (Hi, Google.) What they can't get anywhere else is a journey with you as their guide. A journey that changes how they see their own problem by the last page.

I write fiction, too, and the techniques that keep someone reading a thriller at 1am work just as well in nonfiction.

So let me give you my favorite one:

The open loop.

An open loop is a question you plant in your reader's mind and don't answer right away. Fiction runs on them. The chapter ends with a knock at the door, and your brain refuses to put the book down until it knows who's there.

Nonfiction can do the same thing.

Here's a few ways it shows up:

You open a chapter with a client in the middle of the mess, and you don't tell the reader how it turned out until the end.

You name the question your reader is secretly asking ("but what if I've already tried that?") and make them wait a page for the answer.

You end a chapter on the problem the next chapter solves.

(You may have noticed I did this at the top of this email. You might still be wondering, "Jessie, who the hell was the author that kept you up all night???" That, friend, is an open loop.)

One rule, though.

YOU HAVE TO CLOSE THE LOOPS.

The payoff has to be worth the wait, or you've just annoyed someone.

Try this with your book this week.

Pull up your first chapter or your introduction.

Read only the first paragraph, then ask yourself: what question does my reader have right now?

If the answer is "none," you've got room to insert a hook.

Rewrite that opening so it raises one question you won't answer until later in the chapter.

And I'd love to hear from you: what's the last nonfiction book you couldn't put down? For me, it was Leah Sottile's When the Moon Turns to Blood.

Hit reply and tell me. I read every one, and my to-read pile has plenty of room.

Talk soon, Jessie

P.S. If your writing group is looking for a speaker, I'm told I can fill a room—in person or virtual. (Or at least my class titles can.) Hit me up!

P.P.S. OK, OK. I'll close the loop. ;)

The book was The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall. I met her a few years back at a local conference, and am obsessed with her thrillers! They're beautifully written, have great characters, and are set in a moody and dark Pacific Northwest, which I always enjoy.