the structure of my book
Jun. 8th, 2007 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lobelia321I have been feeling better all week. The sertraline has kicked in. Also, all week I have actually been working on my academic book. Which I hadn't done since December. Every time I opened the manuscript, a great chasm of existential horror opened up and I couldn't go on. But this week I have been going through and revising structure.
This is how I did it. I've been getting lost in the woods for so long that I've lost all sense of the overall arc of this book. So I took Jane Smiley's advice and the experience of rewriting the wraith fic and decided to go through the structure and figure out what the book I have written is about (not what the book I think I ought to be writing should be about).
I did this chapter by chapter. I labeled each paragraph, so e.g. 1 to 125. Then I made a list 1-125 and jotted down what each paragraph is about in a phrase. Then I took a different-colour pen and wrote 1-3 keywords next to each paragraph, using only the list, not the manuscript. Then I made a grid with each keyword listed at the side and wrote in the numbers of the paragraphs. Then I analysed my diagram and looked at which keywords went with which other keywords, and which keywords appeared most often.
Then I wrote one paragraph, saying what the chapter is about. I grouped the main points in a logical order, suggested by my grid. I also re-title the chapter if my findings don't correlate with what I originally thought this chapter should be about.
I've got one more chapter to go and then, I hope, I will have some idea of what my book is actually about and how its structure progresses logically!
I've never done this before. It's quite enjoyable.
This is how I did it. I've been getting lost in the woods for so long that I've lost all sense of the overall arc of this book. So I took Jane Smiley's advice and the experience of rewriting the wraith fic and decided to go through the structure and figure out what the book I have written is about (not what the book I think I ought to be writing should be about).
I did this chapter by chapter. I labeled each paragraph, so e.g. 1 to 125. Then I made a list 1-125 and jotted down what each paragraph is about in a phrase. Then I took a different-colour pen and wrote 1-3 keywords next to each paragraph, using only the list, not the manuscript. Then I made a grid with each keyword listed at the side and wrote in the numbers of the paragraphs. Then I analysed my diagram and looked at which keywords went with which other keywords, and which keywords appeared most often.
Then I wrote one paragraph, saying what the chapter is about. I grouped the main points in a logical order, suggested by my grid. I also re-title the chapter if my findings don't correlate with what I originally thought this chapter should be about.
I've got one more chapter to go and then, I hope, I will have some idea of what my book is actually about and how its structure progresses logically!
I've never done this before. It's quite enjoyable.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-08 07:16 pm (UTC)Another yay for re-vising the academic book. And that method you used sounds really clever and all. I'll have to remember that one because really, with longer stuff you totally loose the...erh...'Überblick' about the bigger structure and how each chapter and sub-chapter fits in. If they fit in.
Also sounds as if that method could give you a new perspective on the book you're actually writing. Not the one you have originally planned but the one sitting in front of you. Really fascinating. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-08 08:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-08 08:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-08 10:52 pm (UTC)messstory!(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-12 08:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-09 05:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-12 08:43 pm (UTC)