I’m sure many of you have thought at some point, or maybe been blatantly told that “your wild adventures and unique experiences warrant a memoir”, and figured that at some point it would be a fun project to actually sit down, and put pen to paper, figuratively speaking. Having just gone through the process with the good folks at Harper-Collins (HC) for my memoir, The Boundless Life, I thought I’d share a bit of insider information to help you avoid some pitfalls and time-sinks along your path to a Pulitzer Prize for autobiography.
1. Make a table of contents
Having written several grad school theses, academic papers, and magazine articles, I though that writing this book would be a piece of cake - it wasn’t. It was mind-cluttering when I started to think about what to write, but what really helped give me direction and clarity was creating a table of contents (TOC) - and I can thank author Mike Vlessides for sharing, and assisting me with this. Much like we were all taught in our high school english classes, setting out a framework via your table of contents is a very effective way to organize your thoughts and flesh out themes. As a linear thinker, my TOC went from childhood, to early sport, adventure racing, creation of Adventure Science, and finally to Boundless. Within each section, I made subheadings for the most interesting moments and experiences from that particular period or chapter of my life. Input from Mike and Brad Wilson (my editor at HC) helped me shape this - so don’t be afraid of getting a second opinion early in the process!
2. Write more than you think
Brad gave me a guideline of shooting for a first draft of 65,000 words as he said that they would edit it down, but wanted to have enough material to work with (average page will contain ~250 words, so that makes for ~260 pages of written, double spaced manuscript). This seemed daunting initially when considering the page count but by the time the smoke cleared, I had submitted 85,000 words or 340 pages. Much to my astonishment, the first edit came back with a guillotined manuscript of ~35,000 words. You can take this as a massive hit to your ego and sulk, or recognize that everyone is working towards the same goal - to produce an excellent piece of work that people other than your friends and family will want to read. I took it as the later and worked with this paired down version.
3. Arguing with your editor is good
While I think that ego can get in the way of achieving the best result in many situations, sometimes it’s worth the time and energy to ‘argue’ over certain aspects to your work, because ultimately, it’s your name on the cover and your stories inside. If you feel that certain paragraphs are important for setting backstory, or giving depth or richness to the passage, then they are worth fighting for. You have to remember that the editor wasn’t there when the event occurred and may not understand the merit or personal value of it to your overall narrative. When I encountered situations like this, a quick discussion and explanation often cleared things up and the section was saved more often then not.
4. Organize your material
As a linear writer - deviating from the chronologic path is not something that comes easily to me. The benefit of working with the editors at HC is that they were able to see a strong theme in the manuscript and accordingly pulled anecdotes and stories from my carefully constructed timeline into once that was theme based. It’s definitely a good early step in the process to lay our your timeline in a chronologic way, but depending on what message you’re trying to share, it may make sense to look at the broader themes and then move text accordingly to strengthen the key themes and message.
5. Hurry up and wait
Editing your manuscript takes time and you’ve got a few choices - submit as one consolidated work (minus the acknowledgments, etc.), or individual chapters as you write them. Both methods have pros and cons. The pro to submitting the completed manuscript is that the editor can get the whole picture after one or two read throughs and have a better idea of how to tweak the manuscript for best results. The con to submitting the full manuscript is that it will take a long time to get back to you - and you’ll potentially be sitting idle for several months. If you chose to submit as you go, the pro is that you will have quicker turn arounds, and the editor may be able to make structural or thematic suggestions early in the game, thus allowing you to modify your writing - saving you time in the long run. The con is that the editor will not have sight of the full picture this way, and may still have modifications to make to the whole once it is compiled. An additional con here is that edits early in the game may have the effect of derailing your writing to either fix edits, or worse, derail your confidence and ground your efforts completely.
From the time I started writing to when the book hit the shelves was about 1.5 years and the hardest part for me was getting into the writing groove - mind you I was filming Boundless at the time and the travel schedule really broke up the flow. Once it was submitted, the process picked up steam and excitement, although it can sometimes be hard to juggle everything when there are deadlines to meet on several rounds of revisions. Regardless, it’s a very rewarding feeling to create something that represents a significant personal effort for others to experience, and in the case of The Boundless Life, with the hope that it inspires readers to strive for personal greatness in spite of their fears and reservations!
