How to End Manuscript Chaos
Today, I am a developmental editor who helps writers organize their content and finish books, but several years ago, I was in a different situation that you might relate to; my manuscript was in chaos and I didn’t know what to do about it.
I knew I had a story worth developing, but when I sat down to write, I faced everything I'd created in electronic files, paper stacks, images, and post-it notes. There were story ideas, character sketches, disparate scenes, old drafts of revised scenes, dangling subplots, unnecessary characters, excess exposition, etc. I'd amassed so much content for my novel that I no longer knew what I'd written and what I planned to write. I even found duplicate scenes I'd written a second time because I couldn't find the first. How could I even conceptualize what I needed to remove and what needed to stay?
I felt a lot of shame around this cluttered content because it reminded me of when I was growing up. We didn’t have any household cleaning or organizing systems beyond neglect of tasks and deferred decision making. Instead, we had a "family room," with an avocado green washer and dryer pair stuffed in the corner. The room was full of laundry piles, taller than I was. I lost school clothes, could never match a sock, and because the cats and dog slept on the piles, I couldn't tell what was clean and what wasn't. This chaos meant none of it was usable. The laundry room was where clothing went to die. As an adult, seeing writing content on my desk die a similar fate was unbearable.
I needed help not only getting rid of the crap I had but in stopping the habit of accumulating writing clutter in the first place. But I'd tried many writing organization systems suggested by "experts," and they failed me repeatedly. So I decided to find my own path to order. Could it be that since I experienced the same overwhelm with writing in adulthood that I had when I opened the door to those piles of laundry as a child, there may be a connection? Was there a way to transfer the skills and system I used to successfully manage laundry as an adult (or some other home task) to move my writing out of chaos?
I thought about the container system I used to end laundry chaos.
Laundry goes to the laundry room (large container), under the folding table (medium container), and into either the whites or colors hampers (small containers).
When either hamper gets full (limited space), I don't buy another basket (create more containers) or let the mess overflow (abandon the system). I wash the dang laundry (action to solve the impending problem).
Clean clothes go on top of the folding table with limited space. This self-limiting container requires putting each load away before another load comes out of the dryer, which calls me to action.
My laundry system is nested and limiting, a physical flowchart that creates boundaries and checkpoints. It reduces the number of decisions I have to make as early as possible and directs my behavior. So yep. I needed a writing system like the one I use for laundry. But how might the container system transfer, at least as a concept for moving forward?
Below, I'm offering you a description of some of my favorite writing containers as a starting point for choosing your own. To help you envision how you might use containers for your writing, I'm including how I'm using each of these containers for my work in progress, The ADHD Writer: Decrease Procrastination and Distractions While Increasing Focus, Motivation, Productivity, and the Courage to Share Your Work.
Here are some containers you can try for your writing.
Scrivener
Since bins, folders, and wall files were a level of organization that didn't work for me, I needed a single large container for all my content; every post-it note, image, scribbled napkin, and Word document. So I started stuffing everything in Scrivener (software for writers managing documents, notes, and miscellaneous content. Here's a great tutorial).
I love Scrivener because I can create a project file for each story (a room to contain everything) and then create folders for scenes, chapters, or chunks of content and line them all up on the left side of my screen. Then, if I've labeled the files well, I have quick-glance access to everything I create for a particular project (similar to books lined neatly on a bookshelf). The content I'm working on is in the middle of the document. To the right are any notes I want to add to that document (the closet or "to do" list).
But, Uh Oh. Physical Systems Aren't Enough.
Scrivener as my master container was an excellent first step, but I quickly learned that I could put endless disconnected words and images in a Scrivener project. It was like having twenty loads of laundry on the little folding table. The content was all in one place, but it was still inaccessible due to volume and disorganization. (Yes, I am going to stretch this laundry simile. Stay with me.)
I needed to be able to ask myself, "Does this content belong in this container or not? Does it fit or not? Is this content more container-worthy than other similar content in there?" Can all of this fit in one book? In my case, there was no way it was all going to fit. So I knew I needed to make some decisions to declutter and make room for creating the new content required to complete an unfinished story. The time to do the following was overdue (perhaps this is the case for you):
Stop deferring decisions. The process can suck if you fail to choose containers or select the wrong containers. It's true that not every container works for every writer. However, with experimentation and practice, you can learn to contain manuscripts expertly over time.
Clear some content. You declutter a manuscript by editing and revising one document, one file, one scene at a time.
Stop wasting time organizing unwanted and unneeded content. Please get rid of it, and it will no longer be a burden to maintain, catalog, review, and repetitively sort.
I found some conceptual containers that helped me get my manuscript organized. I learned to do my best to choose the parameters of these containers before I start a project (before opening Scrivener in the first place).
Nonfiction and Fiction
This first container may seem obvious. You learned to decide whether your project is fiction or nonfiction by the third grade. But it's worth mentioning because I often hear writers struggle to choose between writing a memoir or a fictional version of their lives to create a complete story arc or protect "characters."
The container idea is one of the reasons I love writing nonfiction; there's a significant limit on the range of material you can include. In addition, what goes into the nonfiction container must be accurate to the best of your knowledge as the writer, so there is a lot that you can't throw into that container. Sure, there are still many choices to make, but this eliminates a number of them. This container is not unlike having laundry in piles all over the house v. putting it all in the laundry hamper.
I'm using this container for The ADHD Writer by declaring this a work of nonfiction with true stories, scientific research, and the advice of successful writers with ADHD.
Word Count
The length of the story you want to write is also a container that can keep you from writing ad infinitum. Essays, articles, books, short stories, and specific marketing genres have standard word count ranges. Word count parameters are similar to the full laundry basket; you don't get to add to the mess. Now you have to process it. If the basket isn't full enough, it's not time to do the laundry (your story isn't ready to publish). Some general word count guidelines are:
Flash Fiction, less than 1,000 words
Short Essay, 250 to 750 words
Long Essay, 1000 to 6500 words
Board Book, less than 300 words
Middle Reader Novel, 40,000 to 65,000 words
Young Adult Novel, 40,000 to 85,000 words
Adult novel, 75,000 to 100,000 words
Adult Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or Historical Novel, 100,000 to 125,000
Self-Help Book, 30,000 to 70,000 words
Business Book, 50,000 to 60,000 words
Memoir, 60,000 to 90,000 words
These are not absolute rules but standard containers. For example, published business books have ranged from the low end at 35,000 to the high word count of 110,000, and memoirs have ranged from 25,000 to 120,000. Note that books outside the standard containers are the exception, real outliers, pushing the expectations of agents, publishers, and readers of the genres. If you write over the word count limitations for your chosen category, you'll likely run into problems with both story pacing and traditional publishing. So don't overfill those hampers.
I'm using this container for The ADHD Writer by determining the range for this genre of a self-help book is 30,000 to 70,000. Yikes! I'm going to have trouble staying within that 70k limit. There is so much I want to share! But I know this limit will help me keep my ideas focused and concise, especially for my chosen audience, so I've decided to aim for less than 60,000 words.
The word count container recently helped an editing client of mine, Martha, see that her 160,000-word manuscript needed some serious editing to fit within the parameters of the genre. Martha finally contacted her publisher, who surprised her when they stated, "We thought you already understood this needed to stay under 90,000 words." To Martha's credit, this hadn't been discussed and wasn't in her contract. But had she understood the expectations of the genre, she may have saved herself an extensive structural redevelopment of her manuscript.
Story Types
If you're writing fiction or memoir, you can rely heavily on Story Types as your primary container. There are seven different Story Types that you can choose from (Action, Crime, Horror, Love, Worldview, Validation, and Redemption). Each Story Type has its own:
Story Premise
Essential Characters, Moments, and Situations
Character Desires
Story Stakes
Character Change Arc
Audience Emotions
You can combine each Story Type with another Story Type or two to craft a story. Once you choose them, you can drop the other four or five Story Types from consideration. You can prevent them from junking up your manuscript. They aren't the kind of story you're telling. It's similar to not letting the red blouse get into the laundry hamper meant for hot water whites.
For example, if you're writing an Action Story with supporting Worldview and Love stories, you know you don't want to complicate the story with the lengthy planning and team performance of a major heist. That would be a Crime story with a different set of requirements. You know you can leave out the heist because your container isn't labeled Crime, and that arc won't fit within your word count requirements or satisfy your intended reader.
You can contain your story AND build its structure once you know what kind of story you're writing. Story Types are the path toward getting your story completed and making sure it meets all the structural requirements your story needs. You can learn more about Story Types in our Story Path course within the Happily Ever Author Club.
I'm using the Story Types container for The ADHD Writer by deciding that I want to take my reader on a journey of self-discovery, gaining knowledge, and triumph. In addition, I want to share my shift in thinking to help other ADHD writers shift theirs. That means I have a Worldview Story Type. And that gives me a solid map of the arc of the story. Further, this is a self-help book with strong how-to and memoir content, so I get to choose more nonfiction containers to balance the scope.
Intended Reader
To create this container, you need to know who you're writing for and what they want and expect from your story. You'll want to meet those expectations without going off tangents or unrelated storylines. Some story content doesn't belong in this container; you decide what goes in based on who the audience is. This container isn't a solution for a word count problem. It's for content problems, adding too many different ideas.
For example, if you know your readers are religious conservatives looking for a sweet (aka clean) romance, you know to leave out that scene where your lovers meet at a bondage orgy in Gotham City. That would be outside the expectations and tolerances of your particular audience. It's not what they want and would be a guaranteed way to receive one-star reviews on Amazon if you marketed it as a sweet romance. Of course, that example is fun and broad, but no sweet romance writer would make this kind of mistake.
A more relatable example might be knowing your intended readers are middle-grade science enthusiasts, so you're not going to write scenes about adults experiencing communication problems with their work colleagues. In that case, your reader would toss the book into the school cafeteria recycling bin.
I see intended reader challenges present when my editing clients try to stay too broad with their content and appeal to everyone, which is the writing equivalent of keeping everything piece of clothing that comes into your house. You become a writing hoarder, and the excessive content makes it very difficult for your reader to wade through. It's your job to clear pathways and surfaces for your reader, make your story easy for them to navigate, and direct their reading journey.
I'm using this container for The ADHD Writer by deciding my reader is an adult writer diagnosed with ADHD looking to increase their writing motivation, focus, and productivity. They want to find ways to use ADHD to their advantage rather than allow it to work to their detriment, to finish their work, and have the courage to share it with agents, publishers, and readers. Therefore, they need my book to be quick, informative, and NOT BORING. Now, I know I need to spend the entire book delivering the solutions to these challenges in a way that appeals to my specific reader.
It's Your Turn to Get Started.
Now you have a good idea of the container concept and have some physical and conceptual examples that you can use to start decluttering your manuscript, organizing writing content, and restricting the overgrowth of ideas to end your manuscript chaos finally.
I hope this short list gets you thinking about other possible options to choose from within the container system. For example, what containers might you use to create parameters for your work? I'd love to hear from you at Rachelle@PagesandPlatforms.com. Or, if you'd like help finding the best containers for your story, go ahead and grab a spot on my calendar for an editing consultation.