Finding the main threads and recurring elements that lead to a strong book
Today is a “heads-down” day, one of those unavoidable times in writing a book where you have no choice but to stop any forward progress and “assess.” I have spent years journaling for the book. There are a lot of reflections, insights, scattered accounts of events, and lists of things “to remember to put in the book.”
Avoid writing an encyclopedia
I have a “rough” outline for the book and how I “think” it should be structured, located in my Obsidian software. Each topic has a folder so that every time I think of a point, find a relevant quote, or dig up some nugget from my journals, I have a place to drop that information into. Hence, worrying about losing things or forgetting to add them is no longer a problem.
The problem I DO have right now is avoiding writing an encyclopedia of my life. Not everything belongs in the book. It’s like tending to a garden. You plant a lot of seeds. If you’re lucky, most or all will sprout. So you’ll have lots to choose from. But you can’t keep them all, or they will choke each other, and everything will die. You must winnow things down and keep only the best so that the crop has a chance to thrive. Otherwise, you lose the entire harvest.
It’s not a bad thing because the reality is if you want a strong book, you have to chop out the weak stuff. It’s that old saying about “killing your darlings”—you may love a passage, but if it doesn’t make everything stronger, it has to go.
Mid-course corrections with highlighers and markers
You can’t just breeze through writing a book without ever stopping to see if the outline you made still holds true. At least, I can’t. It’s like driving on a long trip without ever stopping to re-check your plan and see if you’ve picked the best route. Or destinations. Sometimes, mid-course corrections must happen, but they can make all the difference in the experience.
And there is nothing more helpful, too, than stopping and getting a “10,000-foot” view of it all. Take a look at the “whole of it” and see what jumps out at you—good or bad. So, I make lists, mind maps, and diagrams, print them out, look at “the whole” of it, circle things, color them with markers and highlighters, and move sections around, all so the final book will be as tight and powerful as I can make it.
It’s just not fun. But then deep thinking and soul-searching rarely are. Nor are they fast. Essential, maybe, but they are slow work. And I am not a patient person. I LOVE to rip through a checklist, cross things off, and feel exhilarated at how fast and far I have progressed. Yeah.
Book-structure “surgery” in progress
Anyway, the picture at the top should give a clear indication that I am deep into “book-structure surgery.” But, in the end, it will be worth it. There is no better satisfaction after so much cutting and thinking than to step back and see an amazing creation start to emerge. So, back to the “surgical suite” today!
Tags: abuse, child sexual abuse, deep thought, editing a book, kill your darlings, memoir writing, Obisidan software, order from chaos, thin the garden
Soul Mosaic 
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