I have twelve days to finish up edits on my nonfiction book, HOTSHOT. Once I’m done, I’m going to write about my revision strategies for nonfiction blended memoir. Before I do that I’d love to hear from my readers: what are your revision strategies for large projects? Do you outline? Use index cards? How do you compile research? Do you consider yourself organized or take things step by step, organizing the chaos as you go. I’d love to know everything!
this perfectly suns up how I feel in final revisions (“The Russian story book PL 11 // Frank Cheyne Papé)
For my first book, Venerable Trees, I set the manuscript aside for a month. This provided some perspective. Before returning to the manuscript, I went through my notes and outlines (which are voluminous) to look for ideas or topics that I left out of the book. The purpose of this exercise was to make sure that there wasn't something important that I left out in the winnowing process.
I hired an independent editor, not associated with my publisher and asked her to review and edit the MS. She did a wonderful job, and really helped polish up the final work. I'm a big believer in independent editors or draft readers. We get so bound up in our writing that it is easy to lead ourselves astray.
Finally, I would suggest keeping all notes, outlines, and references. They have come in handy for subsequent work. A lot of ideas that I chose to leave out of the first book are useful in the second.
For structural edits, I used a wall of post-it notes I could move around but it also allowed me to see the whole book in front of me and really easily identify where the narrative/structural issues were!
I do all the things you mentioned - anything and everything to get some movement going lol. it's like coaxing water out of a rock (or whatever the saying is). one essential to me is having enough floor or wall space to cut out the body of work i'm revising into small snippets and rearranging them. i did this all over the walls at macdowell, when i was a resident there:
I love this wall!!! I wrote mine out on index cards but right after this draft (which is due on the 15th) I am going to do some wall work before I turn it in, just to make sure I can get the arcs perfect (haha, perfect!). Def think it's especially helpful to do this chunk by chunk.
My best revision strategy is (unfortunately) to type it over again, from one document to another.
I've been trying to figure out my memoir structure overall, and what I'm doing is I have this Google spreadsheet with each chapter or potential chapter in a column, making a timeline that goes left to right. I've noted what year the chapter takes place and a brief summary and the topic. Still have no idea how it ends but I feel like I can see the first half taking shape.
Sounds like you are doing great, Rey! I have typed mine over again, too, and that's definitely one of the things I have to do with every revision. It can be tedious but I think it helps to address things on a sentence level as well as larger arcs.
Thanks for sharing, River! It's actually really reassuring to hear you type it over with every revision. A ton of work but it makes the sentences clearer and structure make more sense, as you said.
I don't do long writes but I'll bet it's not much different. As a writer of non-fiction I start with a mental impression or picture if you will of a memory and then I write what I see-just as an artist might see. When I am done I leave it for a day or two and contemplate what I liked or not and work around the image in my mind in a 3-D aspect. I go back delete add and leave it. This is the only way I know how to write-I have some learning disabilities and my intellect comes last therefore outlines and all that are useless to me. Love the picture. AUMMMMMM!
I def get this! Writing a longer project is different- there can be sooo much to hold in your head, but what you says def applies section by section. I do love your idea of starting with a mental impression. That's pretty much how I wrote my book- many many mental impressions <3
I agree with visual chunks that can be rearranged. However, I wanna feel like that painting!! I’ve struggled WAY TOO long on a third draft of my non-fiction graphic novel. Just posted about a potential shift…
For my first book, Venerable Trees, I set the manuscript aside for a month. This provided some perspective. Before returning to the manuscript, I went through my notes and outlines (which are voluminous) to look for ideas or topics that I left out of the book. The purpose of this exercise was to make sure that there wasn't something important that I left out in the winnowing process.
I hired an independent editor, not associated with my publisher and asked her to review and edit the MS. She did a wonderful job, and really helped polish up the final work. I'm a big believer in independent editors or draft readers. We get so bound up in our writing that it is easy to lead ourselves astray.
Finally, I would suggest keeping all notes, outlines, and references. They have come in handy for subsequent work. A lot of ideas that I chose to leave out of the first book are useful in the second.
Thanks for sharing, Tom!! Wish I could afford (or had time for) an independent editor, but I did have some great beta readers!
Perhaps for your next book(s). Beta readers are wonderful as well.
For structural edits, I used a wall of post-it notes I could move around but it also allowed me to see the whole book in front of me and really easily identify where the narrative/structural issues were!
Loooove this idea!!!
I do all the things you mentioned - anything and everything to get some movement going lol. it's like coaxing water out of a rock (or whatever the saying is). one essential to me is having enough floor or wall space to cut out the body of work i'm revising into small snippets and rearranging them. i did this all over the walls at macdowell, when i was a resident there:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CbYDDBoJ_E1/?img_index=1
I love this wall!!! I wrote mine out on index cards but right after this draft (which is due on the 15th) I am going to do some wall work before I turn it in, just to make sure I can get the arcs perfect (haha, perfect!). Def think it's especially helpful to do this chunk by chunk.
My best revision strategy is (unfortunately) to type it over again, from one document to another.
I've been trying to figure out my memoir structure overall, and what I'm doing is I have this Google spreadsheet with each chapter or potential chapter in a column, making a timeline that goes left to right. I've noted what year the chapter takes place and a brief summary and the topic. Still have no idea how it ends but I feel like I can see the first half taking shape.
Good luck with your revisions, River!
Sounds like you are doing great, Rey! I have typed mine over again, too, and that's definitely one of the things I have to do with every revision. It can be tedious but I think it helps to address things on a sentence level as well as larger arcs.
Thanks for sharing, River! It's actually really reassuring to hear you type it over with every revision. A ton of work but it makes the sentences clearer and structure make more sense, as you said.
I don't do long writes but I'll bet it's not much different. As a writer of non-fiction I start with a mental impression or picture if you will of a memory and then I write what I see-just as an artist might see. When I am done I leave it for a day or two and contemplate what I liked or not and work around the image in my mind in a 3-D aspect. I go back delete add and leave it. This is the only way I know how to write-I have some learning disabilities and my intellect comes last therefore outlines and all that are useless to me. Love the picture. AUMMMMMM!
I def get this! Writing a longer project is different- there can be sooo much to hold in your head, but what you says def applies section by section. I do love your idea of starting with a mental impression. That's pretty much how I wrote my book- many many mental impressions <3
I agree with visual chunks that can be rearranged. However, I wanna feel like that painting!! I’ve struggled WAY TOO long on a third draft of my non-fiction graphic novel. Just posted about a potential shift…
https://heartsquest.substack.com/p/monkey-breakthrough
Ooooh this is very interesting!
I learned a lot about my inner saboteurs. Still, now I’m SUPER happy to be back on the edit horse 🐎