Organizing and Managing Your Book Manuscript

I literally have boxes full of files of writing ideas and find the idea of organizing all that material into a novel to be daunting. Therefore, I am always searching for methods that might help me put all my ideas together.

When I wrote Raising a Gifted Child: A Parenting Success Handbook, I found it very challenging to keep my writing organized. I wanted to include a lot of information, but also didn’t want to repeat myself. I know that there are better methods than the one I used of keeping each chapter in a separate file.

Because of these dilemmas that I have faced and currently face, I am always looking for advice from others. Recently I took a three-hour class at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop titled The (not so) Dreaded Outline and taught by Doug Kurtz. It was helpful. I like to summarize the classes that I take on this blog both for my own use and, hopefully, others will find it useful as well.

In this workshop, a concept of outline was used that is far different from what I was taught in school, where we used Roman numerals, letters, numbers, etc. to plan in detail and in advance what would be written. Instead, Kurz taught the concept of outline as interactive and ever changing, going back and forth between a planning tool and a means to modify and validate the organization of spontaneous writing. This “new” organizational tool allows the writer to

• Plan the overall plot and individual scenes
• Check if writing that has already been done can be logically outlined to make certain it flows properly
• Go back and forth between the two, using the process to refine one’s writing

Kurtz builds his outline around the scenes of his story. He sees each scene as an arc, with a beginning and end.

Each scene (much like a brick in a wall), is integral to the story. These “bricks” are the “show me” parts of the story, held together by the “tell me” transitional material (much like mortar). As examples, Kurtz cited Virginia Wolf’s stories as heavy on mortar, while Dan Brown’s are heavy on bricks.

The individual scenes, when joined together, create the plot. A scene (usually a chapter) has the following characteristics:

• Setting
•  Emotion—this is what really helps the reader identify with characters and must always be included
• Moves the story along
• Develops both characters and conflicts, creating changes in the storyline
• Moves the story through “doors” that cannot be passed through again—just as we each make choices in life that are often impossible to change

Each scene arc with beginning, development, and ending, overlaps with the preceding and following arc. Since each scene contains new conflicts or changes, it sets up the succeeding arc with the necessity to respond to that conflict—thus, the overlap.

Conflict or tension may be a struggle within or with others. It is what drives the story and may be portrayed in several ways:

• Internal
• External
• Inter-personal

Each scene has a goal/desire or want/intention, with something standing in the way. It involves a complication or obstacle and is driven by action and emotion.

The plot has an overriding goal that is made up of many scenes, each with a sub-goal.

Kurtz uses the software Scrivener to outline, organize, and write his books. My research on the Internet found many positive reviews for Scrivener. While I have not yet purchased and downloaded the program (very reasonable cost), I have emailed the company a couple of times and have been very impressed with the quick response, which has been thorough and individual.

Using Scrivener, the writer is able to maintain several outlines for a story at once and can be organized according to individual needs.

Concepts to include in the outline for chapters/scenes might include

• Point of view—from which character’s point of view is this scene written?
• Setting—brief description
• Timeline—day, date, year, time of day
•  Summary
• Goal(s) of the character
•  Initial emotions
• Complications
• New emotions
• New goals—this sets up for the next scene
• Section to contain revision notes—what the writer needs to go back and fix later 

Notice that Kurtz does not use any Roman numerals, letters, numbers, etc. He does not plot out every little thing and the exact order in which it will happen; instead, he merely lists his objectives for each scene by category, and it does not need to be long and detailed. It just gives him an idea of where he is going and why.

Because the backstory (a literary device that provides history and background for the story) bubbles up into each scene, its pieces should have a separate outline. This is part of  the narrative summary or “mortar” of the story. Outline elements might include

• How will it be used as a transition device?
• Threads—little stories that wind through the bigger story
• Stakes—why does your character want/need something?

Scrivener also allows you to color code various sections if that would be helpful.

I think that the methods Kurtz uses will be helpful for me. I am still not sure if I will start with a big idea (plot) or if I will write many scenes and then see how I will weave them together. Learning about the methods that successful authors use has taught me one thing—there is no one correct way to construct a book. I appreciate seeing the many choices that are out there and then either picking one that will work for me or even creating an original organizational method of my own.