Rough drafts are tricky. Often you’ve been writing for months or even years, and once you have a book-length series of words, many writers wonder “now what”? You know that it does meet your standards for a finished book, but it’s harder than you might think to judge the gap between what you have and what will truly feel “finished.” First drafts can take many shapes, often depending on what style of drafter you are and how all the parts of your book have come together over time. Perhaps you started with a strong outline, perhaps you started from developing journals or a “pantsed” first draft. Not all drafts are the same, so not every draft needs the same steps in revisions. In working with many authors to develop and polish their work, we always first evaluate where their draft is with a manuscript review to determine the best strategy and process for tackling revisions. Whether you’re working with a coach or one your own, having clear eyes on what kind of memoir draft you are working with is an important first step to dig into the revision process. This week we’re walking through five common types of draft, and since you know I love a metaphor, each draft can be thought of as a kind of house.
Before we get into today’s post, we wanted to ask—do you have a plan for actually finishing your memoir? If not, we know you aren’t making the progress you hoped for. That’s why we developed The Memoir Method Checklist. This free guide (and video training!) will take you through every single step you need from idea to published marketable book. Grab it now at https://pageandpodium.com/checklist
Why houses?
When people think about the process of writing, the first thing they picture is usually the mostly linear process of drafting. It’s tempting to think of writing as just putting one word after another until you’re finished, but crafting a cohesive, book-length work is often less linear than you’d imagine. You need to develop a strong foundation, determine a functional structure and layout, a polish the surface level design and prose. This makes the full process—from development to publishing—a lot like building a house. It’s so tempting after you’ve finished the first draft to think of the next steps as polish and line-level editing. But often, revision is still in the construction phase of the project.
There’s also a lot that goes into building a house that should ideally be invisible once the house is done. You want your house to be comfortable, with rooms that have clearly defined purposes, to feel accessible to your guests, and have beautiful touches that make you feel happy and home. A finished house has framing, plumbing, and electric that should all work, but from behind beautiful, seamless walls. The writing equivalent is the structure, pacing, and purpose behind your narrative. The prose and surface-level design is where the beautiful touches come from, but you need to make sure the function is solid before getting into that polish.
The Chaos House
When you have a chaos house, you know you definitely have enough, but perhaps it’s too much. You’ve got lots of materials, some ideas about the shape of your foundation, and even a lot of beautiful furnishings and design. But–you’re not sure where it all goes. The rooms don’t all have a clearly defined purpose, and you possibly have two kitchens but not enough bathrooms. All that material hasn’t yet come together to form a house that you’d be proud to invite someone in to stay awhile.
At some point, you started writing, and now you have tens of thousands of words, but it clearly needs work before it’s a finished book. Maybe you have years of journals, a long, “pantsed” draft, blogs, letters and essays that all circle a central theme, academic or business writing and research. It’s clear you have decisions in front of you regarding what stays and what goes. Often fiction writers will call this a “Draft 0,” because it’s not really a first draft yet, it’s just all the raw material you need to put together your first draft.
To tackle revisions of a chaos house draft, the next step starts with a blank page. No, this doesn’t mean you’re starting over, but you do need a fresh start to create a strong structure. All that great material isn’t going anywhere, but you need to pause and develop a blueprint for the finished book. Once you have a strong outline, you can then start assigning and repurposing the raw material with a clear plan in mind.
The Skeletal Frame
Another kind of draft you might have is a skeletal frame house. You had a clear plan, and the foundation is solid. The rooms are framed out, but not all of them have dry wall yet. Perhaps you’re not fully confident you have started house, and sometimes if feels more like an elaborate shed. This can feel like a very vulnerable stage for a house (or a draft) to be in, open to the elements. It’s easy to worry that as time goes on, it won’t ever be finished.
In draft terms, this can happens when you’ve stopped and started the process several times. So many writers face this problem, quite understandably, because of how often life gets in the way of our creative endeavors and dreams. We can feel in our heads and hearts that we have a lot to say, but we don’t have the tens of thousands of words yet and it can easy to doubt whether it will come together.
Though this is a very different kind of draft as the chaos draft, the first step for both is to come back to that separate outline. If you made an outline already, it’s time to revisit it and identify where your gaps are and make a fresh writing schedule for finishing. If you don’t outline, it’s time to make one! This will give you clarity on what material is left to draft.
The Lopsided House
Your foundation is uneven. Some parts of the house are lovely, painted and clear, while others feel bare or rickety.
This kind of draft is very common with memoirs, especially those we often call “hybrid” memoirs, which combine life story with instructional or message-based non-fiction writing. There are two ways you might have this kind of draft. You might have a lot of reflections and message-heavy writing, but few stories to ground the narrative and make it emotionally resonate. Or, conversely, you might have lots of stories, but no clear message to help you choose what to include or to tie it all together.
To tackle this kind of draft in revision, you will first create a reverse outline. A reverse outline is not a blank-page outline, but rather one that you make alongside what you have written. Describe what each section is accomplishing in a few words to establish a bird’s eye view of the book so far. Once you have that reverse outline, revise the outline so that each chapter has both message and story that progresses the narrative and relates it to the instructional theme of the memoir. Then revise the chapters to match your new outline.
The Painted Sandcastle
A sandcastle can be beautiful, but it’s not a house you can real live and walk around in. It’s structure isn’t made to last. This kind of draft happens when writers spend a long time polishing the surface-level prose and trying to make everything perfect, but only skin-deep. The longer you polish your writing, the harder it is to make the big structural changes that may really be needed. The fear is that you will undo all your hard work when you move things around.
You can still be proud of all that work. All those beautiful turns of phrase, the practice you’ve made choosing just the right word, and brushing up on your comma rules and tenses will not have been in vain: they’ve made you a better writer. However, it’s time to let go of the way your draft is in favor for the way your draft can be. Go back to that blank page and develop the outline your draft deserves.
The Messy House
This kind of house is a bit different than the others. Each of the rooms in the house has a clearly defined purpose. The foundation is solid and even, the structure is sound, and all the functional parts work as intended. All the furniture is in a good place. And yet, it’s not quite company ready. It’s just a little messy.
This kind of draft is actually pretty rare for a first draft, and it often takes one or two passes at revision to get it to this stage. When you’ve been moving things around, organizing and doing the revision work, often things get even messier than when you started. Revision is a messy process!
If you think you may have a messy house draft, you’ll be making a reverse outline, this time with the added step of establishing the desired emotional tone for each chapter. As you revise and edit, you can use the emotional tone to sharpen your prose and make it resonate with the emotion you want to evoke in your reader.
Memoir Method is for revising, too!
When we started the Memoir Method program, it was initially aimed at writers who are just getting started on their drafts. We have developed and are now expanding the program to invite those who are embarking on the daunting task of revisions as well as those who are just starting. If you have a messy house, you may not need to the support to give it that final few passes, but if you have any of the other kinds of drafts we’ve described here, we’d love to have you in the Memoir Method.
PS. Searching the internet for writing, publishing, and book marketing advice can be exhausting to say the least! If you’re ready for hands on, one-on-one support for your memoir, check out The Memoir Method. We’d love to welcome you into this nine-month group program specially designed for women writing their first memoirs. And don’t forget, if you’d like to chat with Amanda about the program (or any other services we offer), you can book a free consult any time!
