Revise Your Memoir
Create a re-vision Map
Revise with Authority
Revise Your Memoir empowers you with an authorial “big-picture” vision of your manuscript and positions you to approach your revision with insight, clarity, and confidence about what needs to happen when. This 1:1 revision mentorship will teach you how to identify the revisions that need to be made, the order in which to make them, why you must make them, and the effect each revision will have on your manuscript as a whole. You’ll come away with a big-picture revision plan that will cut through overwhelm and deliver you to clarity.
Hi, I’m Marilyn
I teach revision as a holistic process that empowers you with a big-picture vision of your memoir AND deepens your understanding of the deeper story you are telling.
This approach is not prescriptive: I don’t just identify the issues and tell you how to fix them. That’s because revision is, at heart, a process of re-seeing–or re-envisioning–your entire manuscript.
I teach you how to shift from drafting mode to big-picture revision mode so that you know what to look for in your manuscript, how to identify the issues, and how to fix these issues. You take the reins every step of the way, and I am right there with you teaching, guiding, and supporting you as you re-see deeper and deeper into your manuscript’s needs.
You’ll come away with a clear revision plan that positions you to revise with confidence AND allows for discoveries you’ll continue to make during the revision process.
Re-vision is a process of re-seeing the breadth and depth of your entire manuscript.
So, what’s the process? How does Revise Your Memoir work?
1. Mindset
We begin by establishing a revision mindset so that you bring your best self to the revision process.
2. Your Deliverables
I provide assignments designed to give us big-picture clarity about what’s on the page and how to fix it. You submit these assignments as “deliverables.” I review your deliverables and return them to you with my comments.
3. Coaching Calls
After each deliverable, we meet on a coaching call, dig in, and determine next steps for your next deliverables.
4. Our Online Classroom
We’ll meet on Zoom. All coaching calls will be recorded and housed in your personal online classroom, where you’ll also find all of your revision handouts, strategies, and tools.
Your deliverables and our coaching calls are spelled out in more detail below.
Our 1:1 Work Together
Mindset Foundations
Cultivate Your Revision Mindset
Revision is a complex, in-depth, often messy process that requires a mindset equal parts patience, persistence, and willingness to pivot and adjust for organic discoveries you make as you revise. At the beginning of our work together, I’ll provide you with a Revision Mindset video that walks you through eight core values of a revision mindset that will sustain you through the inevitable twists and turns you’ll encounter on your revision journey. I will also provide you with a written exercise to help you envision yourself as a successful memoirist and to claim your voice of authority. We will check in on your revision mindset on each of our coaching calls to ensure you continually cultivate a mindset of completion, empowerment, and success.
Deliverables 1
Mini Blueprint + full manuscript + mindset exercise
The mini blueprint is a one-page assessment tool designed to give us a big-picture snapshot of your manuscript, everything from your book’s title and overarching point to your narrator’s arc of change to your story’s timeline to your ideal reader to why you must write this memoir. It’s all here on one page so that we can SEE the most fundamental elements of your story. For this deliverable, you send me a completed mini blueprint along with your manuscript and a mindset exercise. I review and comment on your mini blueprint, and I assess your manuscript with an eye toward big-picture story fundamentals—arc of change, narrative drive, cause-and-effect trajectory. I assess how your mini blueprint aligns with what’s on the page in your draft.
Coaching Call 1. Together we dig into big-picture editorial assessment and determine your next steps toward revision. I’ll walk you through the steps for creating an “As Is” outline, which serves as the first iteration of what will ultimately become your Re-vision Map. We’ll check in on your revision mindset and give you strategies to keep you bringing your best self to this process.
Deliverables 2
“As Is” Outline + Self-Assessment
You’ll create and submit an “As Is” outline that tracks every scene that appears in your draft as it is now, and identifies the external event for each scene, its accompanying internal effect on your narrator’s transformational arc, and its impact on your reader. (I will provide you with a tool for creating this multi-dimensional outline.) This outline enables us to see how your memoir holds together scene by scene so that we can identify issues and establish an order of priority for executing these revisions. You’ll also submit a self-assessment of your outline, using a tool I’ll provide designed to help you shift from drafting mode into big-picture revision mode. I will review your “As Is” outline and self-assessment and send comments on both.
Coaching Call 2. Together we dive deep into your “As Is” outline, identify necessary revisions, and begin to track these revisions by order of priority directly onto your “As Is” outline. And don’t worry, I’ll teach you a strategy for determining order of priority. At this stage, your “As Is” outline becomes a “Next Steps” outline: a document that tracks the revisions you will make and color-codes them to indicate order of priority in which you will make them. We’ll check in on your revision mindset and adjust accordingly.
Deliverables 3
“Next Steps” Outline
You’ll turn your “As Is” outline into a “Next Steps” outline that reflects the revisions we discussed on our call and submit it to me. I review it and return it to you with comments. At this stage, your Next Steps outline continues to bring to light issues that need our attention. By tracking these issues on one central outline, we have a map of where the manuscript is now but also where it’s heading in the revision process.
Coaching Call 3. We dig into your Next Steps outline and together determine any additional revisions that you need to track on your Next Steps outline. As always, we’ll check in on your revision mindset to ensure that you continue to cultivate your vision for re-vision from a place of big-picture clarity, conficence, and conviction.
Deliverables 4
Revisions to Your “Next Steps” Outline
You update and submit your Next Steps outline to reflect the revisions we discussed on our call. I review it and return it to you with comments. At this stage you’ll notice that, as you continue to cultivate a big-picture re-vision mindset, you’re catching things now that will save you hours of writing and re-organizing time later. You’re seeing—and by extension implementing—fixes from a whole new level of authority over your revision plan and process.
Coaching Call 4. We go through your Next Steps outline with a fine-tooth comb. Are all the big-picture revisions tracked in the place you will implement in your manuscript and color-coded to indicate order of priority? Does this version of your Next Steps outline give you a clear revision map forward? If yes, your Next Steps outline now becomes your Re-vision Map, and you’re reaady to begin implementing revisions. If your Next Steps outline needs another pass (the most common scenario) we’ll continue to dig in and determine additional revisions for you to make on your Next Steps outline. We’ll check in on your revision mindset so that you can keep moving forward from a place of confidence and authority.
Deliverables 5
Continue Revisions to Your “Next Steps” Outline OR Begin Implementing Revisions
Depending on the outcome of Coaching Call 4, you’ll either update and submit your Next Steps outline for another deep-dive pass or you’ll begin implementing revisions we’ve identified and submit up to 20 revised manuscript pages (6,000 words) for feedback.
Coaching Call 5. We’ll determine your next steps for your revision journey so that you are positioned to write your revision forward with clarity, confidence, authority, and accountability.
Because every draft is different, there’s no telling exactly how many passes we’ll need on your Next Steps outline until we roll up our sleeves and dig in. For this reason, additional deadlines can be purchased separately as needed.
Use Your Re-vision Map
As a living document during the revision process
Writing memoir is a process of discovery. No matter how clear and straight forward your Re-vision Map, you will inevitably experience moments of discovery during the re-vision process. This is a good thing! It means you’re tuned into your story and letting it tell you what it wants to be even as you execute your planned revisions. Track these discoveries on your Re-vision Map as you make them so that your Re-vision Map continues to reflect your manuscript as you implement changes. Your Re-vision Map becomes a living document that grows and changes with your book’s needs as you implement revisions.
Payment Options
1 Payment (usd)
$3500
2 Payments (usd)
$1795
Interested in Revise Your Memoir? Let’s chat!
Contact me to set up a complimentary Zoom call. Let’s see if Revise Your Memoir is the next right step for your memoir journey!
Before working with Marilyn I’d spent more than six years floundering on a draft of my memoir. With Marilyn’s guidance, I found my story’s deeper truth, solidified a working structure, and completed a full manuscript in six months!
Marilyn helped me reclaim my voice and uncover layers of my story I hadn’t known were there. I now envision, for the first time, a book I want to write, a book I know I can write, and a book I am confident at least some people will want to read.
With clarity and kindness, Marilyn helped me identify the core threads of my narrative arc and see clearly the issues in my first draft I couldn’t figure out how to fix on my own. I now have a clear path forward to tackle my revision with confidence.
Revise Your Memoir will help you:
Save time
The time you spend creating your Re-vision Map on the front end will save you enormous time (and frustration!) during the long-run revision process.
Gain authority
By learning how to identify your manuscript’s needs and how to fix them by order of priority, you retain authority over every step of your revision process.
Achieve clarity
Re-vision entails re-seeing. Shifting from writing mode to big-picture revision mode will empower you to re-see your entire memoir with clarity.
Questions you may have…
How long does Revise Your Memoir take?
This program includes 5 Deliverables of your work and 5 Coaching Calls. Depending on how much time you have to write, we can structure your Deliverable dates to meet your scheduling needs. Average = 2-3 mos.
How will we share materials?
As a 1:1 client, you will have your own personal classroom within my virtual course platform. Here you will find all of the handouts, documents, and revision tools we’ll use in Revise Your Memoir.
How long is each Coaching Call?
1 hour. Recordings of our calls will be housed in your online classroom.
How do I format my deliverables?
We’ll work in Word and/or Google Docs to track revisions. Please submit your deliverables in Times New Roman, 12-pt font.
What if I need more than 5 Deliverable dates?
Because every draft has its own unique set of needs, some memoirists may need more than 5 Deliverable dates to fully complete their Re-vision Map. Additional Deliverable dates can be purchased as needed.
Where will we meet for our Coaching Calls?
We’ll meet via Zoom. Recordings of our video calls will be housed in your classroom.
What's your refund policy?
I do not offer refunds for 1:1 coaching programs.
Can I continue revisions with you after I complete my Re-vision Map?
Yes! I offer 1:1 monthly mentoring for people who complete Revise Your Memoir.