Manil Suri on Visualizing Your Book’s Narrative Structure
Manil Suri introduces a tool he created called a book x-ray, designed to help authors visualize the narrative structure of their works. This tool proved useful during the editing process of his memoir, revealing how different narrative strands interact. By color-coding and graphing these strands, Suri was able to address concerns from his editor about the book's connectivity and focus.
- ▪Manil Suri developed a tool called a book x-ray to visualize narrative structures in writing.
- ▪The tool helped him identify areas needing more connectivity in his memoir during the editing process.
- ▪Suri used color-coded graphs to represent different narrative strands, aiding in the rewriting process.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. Here’s a nifty tool I’ve devised which authors might want to try out for themselves. It’s free, easy to use, and reveals the underlying narrative structure of a book, much like a medical diagnostic. I call it a book x-ray. I realized the need for it at a particularly fraught juncture in the editing process of my new memoir, “A Room in Bombay.” After a year of rewrites, my editor Jill Bialosky (of W.W. Norton) still felt that the first part of the book didn’t connect well enough with the rest. She also thought that the main thrust of the story, the relation between my mother and me, was in danger of getting lost for readers amidst competing strands.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Literary Hub.
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