In college, I minored in theater, specializing in the technical side of things—set design, construction, stage management, etc. I worked in theater for a few years after graduation; for a hot minute, I considered becoming a technical director.
Mostly because my absolute favorite class was a technical design class taught by our theater’s TD, Steve Beatty.
Steve would pose real-life problems to us that directors and set designers had given him over the years:
- They want the stage to rotate and lift during the dance number
- They want Yorick’s ghost to descend from the balcony seating
- They want end Act 2 in a literal rainstorm
Our job was to take these ideas and figure out how to make them work with real-life physics on the stage.
To take the set designer’s beautiful sketches and render them in precise blueprints according to the constraints of available materials and resources
To take grand visions and make them reality.
I guess in a way I’ve become a technical director of nonfiction books, helping authors take their big ideas and make them “book-shaped” by creating a specific, actionable blueprint.
What do I mean by “book-shaped?”
Different formats of presenting information have different structures. In other words, a speech is going to have a different flow than an email sequence or report. And different genres of that format will have even more specific structures. For example, a 90-minute workshop presentation is going to be structured differently than a keynote speech, which will be different than a Ted Talk.
They each have a different shape.
You can play around within that shape, but audience expectations mean that if you get too far from the expected flow, your message may not land as well.
Books are the same way.
A book has a very specific flow to how the information is laid out. Readers expect something specific when they pick up a book and start rifling through its pages. And even though you may have read lots of books before, that doesn’t mean you inherently know what that flow is and how to make it happen.
So when I talk about making an idea book-shaped, I mean capturing all of the messy uncertainty, notes, thoughts, and ideas, and wrangling them into tidy containers that flow in a way that’s satisfying and informative.
This is very easy to see in fiction. Police procedurals and romance novels may both be quite formulaic, but the readers have a completely different set of expectations as to how that formula unfolds.
A coming-of-age story has a different shape than a romance, novel, or thriller. And if you package your story in the wrong shape, the reader will leave feeling dissatisfied.
In nonfiction, an academic book will be shaped differently than a memoir. Straight journalism will be shaped differently than the type of investigative story that’s as much about the journalist discovering what’s going on as it is about the subject itself.
(Like Maria Konnikova’s book, The Biggest Bluff, which explores the world and history of competitive poker through the lens of the author’s journey to becoming a professional poker player.)
Business, leadership, and self-help books (which is where my specialty lies), also have a specific shape, feel, and reader expectation.
So, if your goal is to write a book this year, how do you make your idea book-shaped?
You need a story map
Just like a set designer needs a technical director’s blueprint to translate their ideas into reality, every author needs a map to translate their idea into a book that they can eventually hold.
It’s not meant to be a constraint or to take the joy out of the work. Instead, front-loading the work into your story map prevents you from wasting a bunch of effort when you’re drafting.
Some people worry that doing all this work before drafting will take the fun out of the writing process. I think it’s actually the opposite.
Having a big idea and no clue how to tackle it is stressful. I see this with my clients. At the beginning of our first story mapping session, they tend to be excited but overwhelmed by the enormity of the project.
By the end of that first session, they tend to be energized and ready for the next step.
They can see the book taking shape. And all of a sudden, this dream they’ve had for years or maybe even decades feels possible.
There’s nothing more magical than watching your vision come to life, whether that’s a set design or a book.
And in either case, the key to bringing that grand vision to life is in the blueprint.
Are you ready to finally hold your book in your hands? Let’s talk.
Email me at jessie @ story-rebel dot com or book a call today.