Tips on Arrangement in a Story

How to not be a junkyard.

All your material piles up. Index cards, composition books, computer files, pieces lifted from your journal. You wonder what to do with it. How to arrange it so that it makes sense.

What comes first? Then what?

The more material you have, the more confusing this process. Daunting, too.

Where to begin?

You have to ask yourself—and dig deep for the answer: What is my main mission with this piece? What main point do I want to make? What does this mean to me? What would it mean for someone else?

Then you ask: How can I arrange the material to fit a narrative arc? An arc rising toward recognition and awareness.

Lay it Out on the Floor

Sometimes you have to physically arrange the material. When I was writing Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, my first book, I would spread chapters on the floor, trying to find the thread that would lead me through. The process was new and supremely frustrating. My brainpower was weak from inexperience. So I'd start crying.

I'd weep.

I’m not even ashamed to admit that.

Because you’re probably weeping too if you’re struggling with this. How to arrange a bunch of material into a whole. And not just any whole, but one that makes sense. That will mean something to folks who read it.

The Chapters Alternate

I didn’t figure out the structure of Ecology, to be honest. In the end, I signed with Milkweed Editions, and Emilie Buchwald, founder, publisher, and my visionary editor, took the manuscript on vacation (two weeks), and there she figured out a structure. She instructed me to start with birth, end with leaving Georgia, and alternate layers. I should start with a chapter of personal history, then leap to natural history. The book would be humans and nature, back and forth. Humans, nature.

As we worked together, Emilie tasked me with creating a timeline of events. She wanted to understand when things were happening. That was very helpful.

Since, I have often created timelines when working with a large body of material. I create lists of characters. Genealogies. Maps. And whatever other supporting material helps dog a story along. A reader often never sees these supporting documents but they keep me on point.

I bet it would be the same for you.

Emilie is long gone from Milkweed. Perhaps you can find such a dedicated and genius editor as she. Except they are increasingly difficult to find. Most editors don’t have the time, wherewithal or experience to shape books for writers. They’re looking for easy pickings. You as creative genius have to make a book ripe and ready for them.

So Get Cranking

1. Do a bunch of flow-writes about what the main story is about. Especially this one—“What I’m really trying to say is…”

2. Get clear on what you offer the reader.

3. Start where that story starts.

4. Make yourself a timeline.

5. Enter the story at one point on the timeline and move forward. Give up leaping back and forth. At least for now. Forget backstory and flashbacks. Urge your characters onward into their lives. Into the beautiful epiphanies of their lives.

6. Arrange it all on the bed or the floor if need be.

7. Read John McPhee’s chapter “Arrangement” in his book on writing, Draft No. 4.

8. Urge yourself onward.

9. Leave out anything that doesn’t drive the story forward. No rabbit-chasing. Please.

10. Sit down when it’s time to sit down.

This is when all your material feels like a junkyard, and you’re trying to find the way in. By the way, this is the junkyard where I grew up, the one I wrote about in Ecology of a Cracker Childhood. My friend Linnea is walking around. Photo by Crumbstarz.

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