Sequencing & Outlining Story

I'm working on a memoir. Over the past few years I've compiled thousands of notes, ideas, and memories in a database. I've written hundreds of pages but only about 30 are polished, the rest is more journaling.

I'm trying to get to the next level toward writing an actual book.

My initial idea was to start with a critical, grabber scene where I get committed to a psychiatric hospital, then after that scene start from the beginning and proceed in chronological order, tracing the events and circumstances that led to getting committed, then wrapping up with my recovery and some critical closing scenes.

I just can't get into a groove with writing the book. I've even considered getting a ghost writer but was sorta talked down from that ledge.

When I try to formally write, I tend to just pick a subject (say, coming out as gay) then organize the sequence around that subject. But I feel like it might be better if I just plot everything chronologically. I feel like that might be a better way for building tension, keeping the action moving forward, and building suspense.

I'm sort of in the process of liquidating all my material and just sequencing it in a very systematic chronological timeline or outline. Then once I've laid it all out, I plan on fleshing out the bullets and polishing it into a manuscript. When I operate this way, I feel like I stick to proper chronological order pretty well, with very few flashbacks.

On the other hand, when I write according to a topic or subject or specific event (e.g. coming out as gay) I tend to not write in chronological order and sprinkle in a lot of flashbacks. It feels a little tangential and scattered, like I'm jumping around too much. Or like I'm writing a collection of essays instead of a single overarching narrative.

I'm not a very experienced writer or reader. I guess since I feel as though I've already unpacked and collected literally all the material of my story, I'm looking for what formula to arrange it in. I'm afraid of it coming out as a big autobiographical info dump.

Another issue is that I tend to write very humorously. But the crux of my story is about a medical malpractice incident that led to my life unraveling. So I have a lot of fodder that's really entertaining. A lot of people say the memoir should just focus on the crux of the story, but then people who have read my writing really enjoy the humor parts about random seemingly unrelated backstory.

I'm very lost.

I feel like it's time to write a good draft of the manuscript instead of all these fragments. Even if it will require tons of editing, I just want the full body/arc roughly outlined. Hence, why I'm leaning toward just straight chronological order after the initial grabber scene getting committed to the psych hospital, leaving the question dangling "how did the MC arrive here?" and tracing back the events starting from the beginning.

Finally, one problem with going chronological is that the farther back in time I write about, the less complete the memories thus scenes are. I find myself writing a lot like, "One time this happened, then this other time this happened, and later that year this happened" etc. In contrast, my opening scene, since I wrote it soon after it happened, is very much a play-by-play of one single day's events.

I feel like I have a good story and can turn a clever phrase. But I definitely would want a more experienced person to help mold it into the right shape. But I feel like I should be able to at least get a good draft of the manuscript down with the raw materials. Is writing it out chronologically the best way to structure it?

Violeta said:

Whether you write it chronologically or not, I would advise you to:

a) see how many of your memories can actually be enough to
make a scene, without actually having to invent half of it yourself
(like with your opening scene - even if they're not as complete as that).

b) take those "complete" scenes, put them in order so that they
make sense, and then fill in the blanks with the rest of the story.
And by rest I mean those other memories that you have only pieces here and there.

Just because you're telling it chronologically doesn't mean you have to write it down
to every single minute, hour or day of it. So if you can't recall that far back, and you
can't make a complete and real scene out of these moments... why don't you just add
them as some kind of flashback, for example?

- Or, say, having the character (aka you) remember them in the book itself some time after
they've happened in the story? (But without actually having written them down as scenes).

- Maybe even have the character tell someone else those memories, whether it is to another character,
the reader himself (if it is the kind of story where you adress the reader) or even as the MC's own thougths.

I don't really know, but if you want your memoir to be entirely true to your real life events, I wouldn't
force in scenes that you'd have to basically invent yourself in order to add the facts that actually
happened. Go with those you do have, and then make the most out of the rest.Though I guess
some of those pieces of memories could always be added as telling, instead of showing.

So... yeah. That's all I can say about that. Hope it's somewhat useful and
that you find the answers you're looking for!!

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Thanks! It is quite a conundrum because a lot of my fragmented are really entertaining, but I don't want to just write a list of funny memory fragments for those parts.

And unfortunately, a lot of my older memories are hard to flesh out into scenes, even if they are relevant and entertaining, simply because of the time that has elapsed.

I'm finding occasional opportunities to insert little fragments of memories as flashbacks, including as you mentioned as dialogue. But they are few and far between.

I guess one thing I'm struggling with is how close my cause and effects need to be.

I have a lot of characters, so I'm wondering if I should focus the arcs of my relationships with each one or if I should scatter them.

For example, I had a childhood best friend who was also gay. But later on in high school he tried to "act straight." Do I explore this relationship arc specifically by talking about our gay childhood antics then immediately jumping ahead to high school? Or do I plant the early childhood memories early on, then wander a bit and talk about other events, and visit the part about him trying to pass for straight in high school once the rest of the story catches up?

Thanks all.

I'm continuing to outline my story in mostly chronological order. And I'm finding that my intuition tells me when to make exceptions and include an anecdote or detail out of order be it via a flashback or info from "the future."


I don't want to organize it too strictly according to theme because I'm afraid it will come out more as a collection of essays and I want it to be a full narrative. I don't want the chapters to stand alone too separately but rather flow into one another with a sense of forward motion and action.

The central storyline of my memoir is a medical malpractice and health injury that resulted in my life unraveling and permanent damage to my body. Without that/those events, I would not be writing a memoir.

However, the medical drama/malpractice took place in a certain context with a confluence of factors leading to my mistakes and mishandling of my health. For example, I was very depressed at the time and not thinking straight. A big factor of this depression was my sexuality which was at odds with my home and school environment. Thus, I feel like I need to also explore the theme/thread of sexuality and oppression.

As far as my central character arc, I would say the shift in my character is learning in retrospect what physically went wrong, and what "sociological" or environmental factors contributed to making those mistakes with my health, and the resolution or conclusion is a mixture of getting appropriate treatment to help mitigate those physical injuries as well as letting go of some of the things in life that my injuries prevent me from participating in and acquiring a new set of priorities and outlook in life.

WeaselFire said:

Then you'll never get one written. Nothing wrong with that, millions of people every year don't write a book.

Asking these questions isn't going to get you any further into writing your book. There is no secret. You sit down and you write. Or you don't. Fortunately, there are few consequences to choosing not to write.

Good luck.

Jeff

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I'm starting to get my groove back. I think I was just going through a period of physical exhaustion and needed a break. Thanks

Poet of Gore said:

isn't writing a memoir boring? my first draft of the first novel was totally autobiographical. it was good to get used to writing, but i could not stand to write another draft really so i just fictionalized it but then realized it wasn't really much of a story so i tossed it.

writing a memoir is like being a reporter. it is no creativity and pretty boring.

everything you write is an autobiography.

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I don't find it too boring. I think that's because I have a lot of life experiences that feel surreal, stranger than fiction...like I'm sort of in disbelief that a lot of things happened. Plus I've always been interested in prose over plot. So I focus my creativity on how I write about events, and less so on the events I write about. That's sort of my issue right now as I try to sequence the plot points.