Shaping Your Book: 3 Tips to Create Order from Disarray
“I’m sending you all of it,” one author told me, “because I have no idea what to do with it anymore. I don’t even know if it all fits together.”
She sounded tired. She’s not the first author I’ve worked with who sounded this way about their book when we met.
The manuscript in question was over 40,000 words when it came to me (book math = over 160 pages), and grew to over 50,000 (200+ pages) before we got the structure into shape (this is before any line edits, for those of you keeping track at home). The key insight that I had was the way the different parts that she had already written—some complete chapters, some fragments—seemed to fall into three big thematic categories. When I told her my idea, and showed her how it could work in practice, the author was delighted.
If you are struggling with the organization of your book—it doesn’t have the flow you want, the pieces don’t seem to fit together, your points are muddy—you are not alone. Organizational woes are the thorn in many an author’s side. The work is sometimes gnarly (check out this post on the developmental edit), but the good news is that once you get through this, the revisions themselves tend to flow like a river going downhill: in the direction they were seemingly always meant to.
Once you get your book organized, revisions flow like a river going downhill: in the direction they were seemingly always meant to. Share on XHere are three tips to consider to get you to that downhill section. Writers of fiction and nonfiction alike can make use of these techniques.
Tip 1—Play Tetris
You might have all the pieces you need, but they’re not in the right order. This was the case with my nonfiction client, above. Once we saw what categories different parts of the book fell into, and we knew what order those categories needed to appear, the remainder of the work was cleanup: put all the material where it belongs, and go from there.
Play around with the order of different parts of your book. Anyone else remember Tetris, the video game invented in the 1980s? (I used to be obsessed!) The game is a variation on the puzzle idea, and I want you to think of your chapters/sections as puzzle pieces. Take them apart and move them around (literally). Do they fit together better in another way?
Think of your chapters/sections as puzzle pieces. Take them apart and move them around (literally). Do they fit together better in another way? #writingtip Share on XIf you like, you can do this in your head, though the going can get tough, especially if your book is longer. You can do this with paper—print out the full manuscript, or chapter or section headings, and manually rearrange the notes. Or (my favorite), you can do this on your computer with Scrivener (no, they don’t pay me a commission). Microsoft Word isn’t your friend, alas, for cutting and pasting. In any case, make sure you have first saved a separate draft of your book that you have NOT made any changes to!
Tip 2—Fill in the blank
What if you don’t have all the pieces? If you go through Tip 1, and sections don’t align well, this might be the case for your book. Mark the places in your manuscript where there seem to be gaps. After we played Tetris, my author and I recognized plenty of awkward transitions we needed to smooth over.
Also take a look at any extra bits that don’t add useful information or story material. Eliminate what’s not serving your book (again, save a separate version), and create new transitions. Creating transitions can be as easy as writing one new sentence (or a paragraph). I’ve said this before: a small number of words can have a huge impact.
Creating transitions can be as easy as writing one new sentence (or a paragraph). #books #writing Share on XTip 3—Clean slate
I know, none of us like to think about this one, right? It’s possible that rearranging the pieces and filling in the blanks won’t give you the result you need. The text still seems muddy. My friend, you might need to clear the slate. Trust me, sometimes it’s better to start from the ground up.
Go back to your outline, if you have one. You can also create a synopsis, so you have a quick overview of what your book currently contains.
- Does this outline/synopsis still make sense? If not, tweak to include the most important points you must make or story elements to include.
- Make sure you’ve got one bullet point per chapter that clearly states the work that chapter needs to do.
- Clear the slate one chapter at a time. What important details or story elements support the work the chapter needs to do? Write that chapter with these important details in mind.
You may need to do this for multiple, or a majority of the chapters. As you go through, you’ll notice when the fog begins to lift.
The bottom line
Organization is the crux of a good book, even if you don’t notice it as a reader—especially if you don’t notice it. Once you find the right structure, writing and revising becomes easier, and the changes you need to make become more obvious. I won’t lie, though: development is work. Yet once you’ve cracked that nut, your book will have the foundation it needs. You don’t build a house in a quagmire, so do your book the same favor.
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Need help with your puzzle pieces? You might benefit from outline development or a manuscript evaluation. Let’s chat!
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