Organization and Arrangement in a Written Work
A few thoughts about macro-level organization (or arrangement) in a written work, and some RevPit news.
Hi Story Crafters,
The RevPit Editor Window opened earlier this week, so I’ve been diving deep into submissions! Some general impressions I’ve gotten during my first pass include:
Which means I haven’t had too much luck on narrowing down my submission selection… But I’m getting there! 😊
Once I’ve narrowed it down a little more, I plan to schedule my 10Queries sessions. I’ll announce the dates on Twitter/X, so stay tuned! As a reminder, the 10Queries sessions will be posted on the RevPit subr/eddit, and you don’t need to have a r/eddit account to view the public posts!
Please make sure to keep an eye out on Twitter/X and the subr/eddit for announcements from the other RevPit editors about their 10Queries sessions! I know Jeni and Miranda have already hosted one, and Natasha has set a date for one. Even if you aren’t participating in RevPit, or if your query letter + first 5 pages aren’t chosen for a 10Queries session, there is still a lot to learn from the 10Queries threads. I highly recommend reading through them!
A Few Thoughts on Organization in Manuscripts
This week, I was working on the first round of an editing project that involved rearranging a poetry collection. The project wasn’t scoped for any line or copyediting, but the client was open to having the order of their poems rearranged, or even removed if one didn’t fit with the others. It got me thinking about how the structural elements of a written piece are organized, and the effectiveness of that organization.
For this post, we’ll focus on the macro-level: poetry and short story collections, and novels.
Poetry and Short Story Collections
For poetry and short story collections, theme tends to be the deciding factor for how they’re organized. In general, broad strokes, this can look like poems of death and decay being grouped together, and then transition into rebirth and life.
Of course, this isn’t always the case. For example, in Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa, the link between the stories is subtle—a cameo from a character of a previous story. (Spoiler notice: It’s been a while since I read the collection, but off the top of my head, I remember the first story involves the protagonist visiting a pastry shop, and the pâtissier makes a cameo in the next story as a side character.)
Novels
There is a little more leeway and room for experimentation with organization when it comes to poetry and short story collections. With novels, chapters tend to have a set organization—in other words, the sense of the story moving forward is an expectation that determines a novel’s organization. A couple of frameworks for novels that might allow for more experimentation when it comes to chapter organization include multiple points-of-view or a nonlinear narrative.
Overall, it seems the driving factor behind organization is the sense of progression. This is usually linked to time passing in a linear fashion, since we tend to process developments (e.g., character development, relationship development, mental/emotional/physical growth, etc.) with time.
Regardless of whether this is right or wrong, it is something that readers are familiar with, and something to keep in mind while you write.
If you’ve got a manuscript that you’re working on that might need some restructuring, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! I’m interested in working with authors of:
Fantasy
Dark Fantasy
Science Fiction
Horror
I’m open to working in most genres if an author and I fit well together, so please get in touch if you’re interested in working with me!
Remember to keep an eye out for announcements about 10Queries sessions! Also, please note that if your submission is used in a 10Queries session, you won’t be notified until after the editor picks are announced on April 15. If you need a refresher, the RevPit contest schedule can be found here: https://www.reviseresub.com/annual-contest/schedule.
I’ll keep working through my RevPit selection process and prepping for my 10Queries sessions! I hope to chat with some of you then.
Best,
Leah
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