Toolkit: Balance and Book Charts
One easy way to get a sense of what is happening in your manuscript — article, grant, talk, book — is to visualize it. (And no, I don’t mean manifesting structure and success, while you do something else. But if that speaks to you, sure, go ahead and send those vibes out to the universe too.)
So, for every piece of writing that comes past my desk, I make a chart that maps out its structure of argumentation.
I’ve always loved charts and have used them for brainstorming and syncretizing material when I’m writing, and now, as an editor, I use them to see what is happening in my clients’ writing, from an architectural perspective — turning the long strings of words and immersive manuscript experience into an immediate, visual snapshot of how the piece works in its most material form.
With these charts, I’m looking for balance across the piece and within and between each section so that the manuscript’s structure reflects the argument’s consistency, focus, and clarity. I find this especially helpful when working with books, as their long structure can be overwhelming to process and see at once.
Charting out your manuscript can tell you, or your editor, how the piece is actually working, which tells us what it is doing and how the argument is being presented. When we step back and note how we’re presenting these ideas visually, we can see that balance, or lack of it.
Balance is key.
Does your article or chapter have a 2-page section, three 6-page sections, and 9-page section? You have a balance problem.
Does your talk have two sections, one of which is two or three times the length of the other? You have a balance problem.
Does your book have four body chapters of 25 pages, 40 pages, 53 pages, 15 pages? You have a balance problem.
Does your chapter’s keyword appear centrally in all but one section, which is about something else entirely? You have a balance problem.
Is your manuscript divided into parts, each of which has different amounts of chapters, and those chapters of very different lengths? You have a balance problem.
What does lack of balance tell us?
When we know the pacing and placement of each structural element, we can see where our piece is conveying what we want, where it might be overly fragmented, where we might need to develop connections more in our own thought, or what part has taken over, grown to a life of its own — for good or bad.
We can also see what elements are given more time in our writing, which could tell us either that we need to cut and condense some parts or that our writing is doing something different, or more, than we thought. It can tell us where our interest actually lies or what we’re spending too much time on.
It can show us places where readers might get bogged down or feel an interruptive reading experience. Ultimately, we’re writing for readers, and using a chart to keep track of your manuscript’s overall structure can help you see more clearly what they will experience and how we can make it easier, more coherent, and more pleasurable for them.
The parallel elements don’t have to be the exact same length, but it is helpful if they are generally consistent, within a page or two (or for a shorter piece, like this blog post, perhaps we count paragraphs). For books, I find that most authors write sections between 6 and 8 pages long, and chapters between 30 and 40 pages.
Each of us has a default length we write at, and often one of the main lessons these charts tell us is what that natural length is. Knowing that can help us see deviations as places for intervention, of one kind of another.
Let’s chart it!
Okay, Holli, you’ve sold me on this charting thing. But how do I actually do it?
I’m glad you asked. Here’s an example and an exercise.
Create a table (I use Word), with around 6 columns. The first column is for section titles, the second for page lengths, the third and forward for whatever notes you want to make, or for revised structures you come up with.
First, write down every section in your piece and what pages they run through.
Count the numbers of pages for each section and write those in the column to the right, including the overall page count. Look at what this tells you. If you have subsections, not those individually, nested under their larger section.
Are the sections roughly equal? Is any one longer or shorter than the others? This will give you a sense of the size of the different elements, individually and as a whole, which can show up structural imbalance or strengths.
Second, turn to the section headings and look for keywords to see flow and idea coherence.
Are the section titles similar in style and scope? Does one word repeat in two different section headings, spread apart from each other? Might it make sense to bring them together?
If each section also has subsection headings, do they look like they’re in the right place or might you want to move some around, perhaps consolidate under a new section overall?
Third, highlight like elements in the same color across your chart. That can give you a sense of how the concepts are seeded across and if you need to bring them together, or perhaps make sure some concepts are added at other times.
Does a particular color appear in every section but one? If so, might you need to add that color somehow, or is it okay for your argument that you have dropped it? Are your argument’s keywords there, or are you perhaps leaving out an important element across the text?
What else might you see — good and not so great? And how can you use this visualization to help you go back into the details of the text itself and revise?
You might want to update this chart as you go and refer back to it during revisions. I definitely do.