The woman whose memoir writing advice I most admire, Marion Roach Smith, recently discussed a technique for self-editing your writing that I love: indexing. Now, this is not the process of creating an alphabetical listing of important words and phrases and the pages you will find them on that appears in the back of an academic or instructional nonfiction book. No, the way Marion describes her form of indexing is this: to read each paragraph of your writing and make a little note or symbol next to it that tells you what the paragraph does, i.e., what purpose it serves in the manuscript.
Does this sound overwhelming to you? Or does it thoroughly confuse you? Or both?
I’m going to try to offer more insight on this technique, but be warned—this process is for those who really want to improve their writing by acknowledging whether each paragraph has a clear purpose. If you can stick it out through an entire manuscript, it will make your writing tight, precise, and far more enjoyable to read.
Most Common Writing Mistake
I edit a lot of manuscripts, some by accomplished authors, most by novice writers. But both groups often make the same mistakes, especially when they are trying to make a point—they overdescribe, overexplain and repeat, repeat, repeat. (See what I did there?) This is an issue with all forms of nonfiction I’ve worked with—political science, economics, business—but it is most often the case with memoir.
Because the memoirs I edit are nine out of ten times written by first-time writers, they want to make darn sure you understand their reason for writing the memoir: trauma, grief, redemption, new insight, physical or mental health challenges, and so on. So, they say the same thing, more or less, repeatedly throughout their writing. If your reader finds themselves thinking, “Yes, I know, I get it, you told me already!” too many times, they won’t bother to finish the book. Or recommend it.
Once you have made a point, assuming you’ve made it clearly, that’s great. Now more on. There is no need to bludgeon your reader with the same point in passage after passage.
Indexing—Analyze Purpose
As I said, if you really want to streamline your work, indexing is one way to do it. With good writing, every paragraph should perform a purpose. Here are the thirteen most important paragraph purposes, taken from an article by the Jackson School Writing Center at the University of Washington:
1. Stating: Making an assertion.
2. Supporting: Providing evidence for an assertion.
3. Concurring: Agreeing with another author's assertion.
4. Qualifying: Restricting the meaning of an assertion already made.
5. Negating: Offering reasoning or evidence to demonstrate the falsehood of an assertion.
6. Expanding: Stating more comprehensively an idea or assertion already expressed.
7. Analyzing: Breaking an assertion down into its constituent parts in order to clarify or evaluate it.
8. Describing: Naming one or more features of an object or concept, to help the reader imagine it precisely or understand it fully.
9. Comparing and contrasting: Examining objects alongside each other for the purpose of clarifying their features, evaluating them or noting differences and similarities.
10. Evaluating: Making judgment about something discussed previously
11. Synthesizing: Combining elements of previous paragraphs into a coherent whole; often this includes presenting a new perspective on the subject.
12. Summarizing: Restating the principal idea of an argument or point already introduced.
13. Transitioning: Moving from one aspect of the argument to another by connecting the points for the reader.
Wow, right? The point here is,
every paragraph you write should serve one of these purposes.
After a paragraph serves the #1 purpose (stating, making an assertion, e.g., the allure of underage alcohol drinking entices 20 percent of girls aged 12–13), you then move on to write paragraphs that serve one or more of the other purposes (e.g., supporting, concurring, or expanding). Yes, this can be an exhaustive and time-consuming process. If you have written a statement paragraph and you write another paragraph that simply repeats the statement, or if you can’t identify the paragraph as clearly serving any of the other twelve purposes, delete it or rewrite it to serve a clear purpose.
Is this process easy? It is not. Will it make you a better writer? Yes. Is it worth the time and effort? That is totally up to you.
Write with Purpose
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. Marion Roach Smith’s sister, published author Margaret Roach, calls a first draft the vomit draft. (I warned you!) That’s some harsh imagery. But the point is, of course, all first drafts stink, no matter who you are. Write, write, write. Get it all out. Throw in everything including the proverbial kitchen sink. But then, edit. Edit as furiously as you wrote, maybe more so. Keep two things in mind as you self-edit and rewrite: your purpose and your ideal reader. My business motto is Every word of every sentence matters. Please feel free to adopt it as your own!
In addition to working as a nonfiction and creative nonfiction editor and writing coach, I am co-author, with Dr. Terri Lyon, of the book Make a Difference with Mental Health Activism: No activism degree required—use your unique skills to change the world. Visit my website page Make a Difference and Dr. Lyon’s activism website Life At The Intersection to learn more about Make a Difference, including how to place bulk orders.
Updated: Nov 8, 2021
Through my business, Strike The Write Tone, I have chosen to work exclusively with nonfiction. But my focus, my specialty, my love is memoir. Thanks to memoirs, memoir instruction books, online courses, private instruction, and webinars, I am confident in my understanding of what true memoir is, and what it is not. Is there a genre any more misunderstood than memoir? Based on my research and experience, I think not!
First-time memoirists send their manuscripts to me for assessment or as the first step to coaching or developmental editing. I would guesstimate that four of five of the memoir manuscripts I read suffer from the same flaw—the writer is trying to cover too much in the memoir. I have written about this in my blog post Writing Memoir: Avoid These Common Mistakes and How to Choose a Memoir Theme. Frankly, I’ve touched on it in nearly every bog post I’ve written about memoir writing. Why? Because having a clearly defined theme (which is not the same as the plot/story line) is absolutely key to writing a good memoir that people will want to read. Key!
Staying the Course
I started to work with a brand-spanking new memoir writer two years ago. He showed me his first ten chapters, within which I could identify at least four different themes—he was all over the place. In his first chapter, he wrote about a woman, now deceased, whom he admired and had learned about the meaning of life from (or so he said). The memoir was to be dedicated to her. By three pages into Chapter 2, she was gone, never to return.
Now, this doesn’t mean your theme can’t be modified or fine-tuned as you write, or even after you feel your first draft is finished. Does this sound like I am contradicting myself? My point is, a theme might start as:
How my life with four younger brothers who went on to lives of crime led me to become a social worker.
to one of greater insight:
How I learned to forgive myself for not being able to prevent my younger brothers from turning to lives of crime.
Do you see the difference? Embedded in the writer’s original theme is a hint at her sense of having failed her family. But her career choice is not the heart of the story, it is symbolic of her (possibly subconscious) desire to get over her sense of having let down her brothers by helping others avoid making their mistakes.
Spilling Your Guts
Recently, an aspiring memoir writer said to me, “I just want to keep writing, I’ll decide on my theme later.” Oh, no. No, no, no. That is a formula for wasted time and effort. And, ultimately, wasted money, when the time comes for the editing phase. For those who read this and think, why can’t the writer just let it all out? I suggest you read my post Writing About Trauma. In it I say,
Memoir writing is not therapy. A memoir is not a therapeutic journal. Simply re-living painful events in your life and calling it a memoir is not helpful to you nor is it a source of comfort or inspiration to a reader.
If you feel the need to get it all out in your writing, I suggest you might not be ready to write a memoir. Read my post Is It Time to Write Your Memoir? When, through your writing, you recognize your transcendence and see clearly what your experiences have taught you, then it’s memoir time.
Help Finding Your Theme
There are several questions that a writer should be able to answer (or at least take a good stab at) when planning to write or revise a memoir. Memoir writing coaches know how vitally important the answers to these questions are:
1. What is the theme of your memoir? That is, what have you learned that you are sharing in your memoir?
2. Who is your primary audience? If you were looking across a table at your ideal reader, describe who that person is.
3. How do you want the reader to feel when they've finished your book?
4. What do you hope to achieve with your book? (Don’t say make money!)
If you feel you have a pretty good idea of how to answer all or most of these questions, you are ready to start writing. Contact me and let’s start your memoir journey.
In addition to working as a nonfiction and creative nonfiction editor and writing coach, I am co-author, with Dr. Terri Lyon, of the book Make a Difference with Mental Health Activism: No activism degree required—use your unique skills to change the world. Visit my website page Make a Difference and Dr. Lyon’s activism website Life At The Intersection to learn more about Make a Difference, including how to place bulk orders.