When one is putting together a book that tells the story of
a particular town, the details of how to organize that story can become a
problem. Perhaps the story flows
naturally through the era of time being chronicled, one part of the story
following the other in a logical neat order.
Or perhaps the story is disjointed, wandering off in one direction for a
while before lurching suddenly back in another.
When you come to the end of the story, after all of the writing has been
done, then one has to figure out where the divisions or chapter breaks will fit
into that story. An editor can start to
dissect the story and look at presenting it in the form of a published
book. Where are the chapter breaks;
where should the graphs and maps go; which photographs should be included with
the story – these are all questions that need to be answered as the book is
edited and prepared for publishing.
As I write
at volume II of my history of La Farge, I need to think about some of these
editing questions as I move through the time period of 1962 to 2013. I am tempted to just write the story from
beginning to end and disregard any consideration for organization while I write. I basically did that with my dam book, That
Dam History – The Story of The La Farge Dam Project. Once I started writing that story, I just
rammed forward with the writing and paid little attention to the format of the
book or how that story might look in book-form.
Interestingly, for that writing on the dam book, I wrote the story of
the dam project first and then wrote the “Prelude To The Story” introductory
chapter afterword.
I have
received criticism from some about how the dam book was organized and I think
those people who question the format and how the book was put together have
valid points. Some have said that my
“Prelude” chapter, which includes many of my opinions on the dam project in its
eleven pages, should have come at the end of the story. I thought about putting it there, at the end
of the story, but decided to put it up front in the book to sort of clear the
air of my opinions on the topic. I hoped
that after reading the “Prelude”, the reader would look at the rest of the dam
story and see that it was hopefully written without too much prejudice or
bias. As Joe Friday used to say, “Just
the facts, sir.”
Something
else that I hear from readers of the book has to do with the length of a couple
of chapters in the book, particularly chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 3 - “Parallel Paths – 1968-1975” is
sixty-six pages long and Chapter 4 – “The Wilderness Years On The Government
Land – 1976-1996” is forty-four pages in length. None of the other four chapters in the dam
book are longer than thirteen pages.
There is some inconsistency there, to be sure. But as far as the story flowed, the chapters
and their length seemed to be logical divisions of the telling of the
tale. Looking back, I think the chapters
could have or should have been divided better, especially chapter 3, but, as
they say, hindsight is 20/20.
Now I’m
working on another book, and am trying to use some foresight in telling this
story of my hometown. The story covers a
fifty-year period, so there could be a simple way of dividing the book by
coming up with a chapter for each of the five decades that the story
covers. The story may play out that way,
but I’m already looking at the first chapter as covering the years 1962 to
1975. Those are the years of the story
framed by the first unveiling of the Corps of Engineers dam project at La Farge
(1962) and the eventual stopping of the project by political forces in
1975. As far as how the dam project
affected La Farge over that time frame, there is a lot of story to tell. It is a long and convoluted trail that has to
be followed in telling that part of the story.
Not only do I have to relate the amazing run of events that played out
in the telling of the dam story, but the effect of those dam project twists and
turns on the village has to be told as well.
The loss of population and rural communities is one aspect of how the dam
project affected La Farge. But perhaps
of equal or even greater importance is how the divisiveness of the debate over
the dam project tore at the town and its leaders for decades.
In addition, there were other
things going on in La Farge during that time.
There was a physical transformation of the town during that time. The town started the process of moving away
from the river and relocating on higher ground.
There was a great deal of change in the business community during that
time, some of which carries through to the present. There was also a migration of new people to the
community during that decade, people who would eventually make up the
foundation of the town.
All of these aspects of that time
frame need to be told. Is telling all of
that part of the story too long for one chapter, especially the first? I’m not sure; we will see how it all plays
out when I take keyboard to fingers and start putting it all down on the Word
document. Regardless what I end up with
in telling that part of the story, I think that I have a good chapter title for
that first one. It is the title of this blog entry. So what do you think; does the chapter title
do anything for you?
