Manuscript frustration

The good news is my book will be great, one day. The bad news is I don't know how to get it there.

I am now completely panicked about my manuscript. It is pretty much done in terms of writing. I still have a few revisions I'd like to make. But turning it into a book is another story. I knew this was my main problem, but I thought class would help me figure out where to go with it. Class just made me more confused.

I need to come up with sections for the book. The obvious thing may be chronological or by "themes" (marriage, divorce, siblings, old boyfriends, etc). I don't like either of these options. Probably b/c they are both obvious. And I don't like the tone that theme sections creates. It's far too much about marriage/divorce and not enough about finding a peaceful relationship.

So what to do? I think of Laux, she has two sections Smoke and Fire. Or Olds has a book with different seemingly unrelated things, blood, tin, straw, as the titles of her sections. I think something like this will work. But what.

The title is currently "To Understand Water." My inclination is to have a set of water words as my section breaks. Bay, river, storm, evaporate. I don't know that I like any of these words, but it gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. The question is do I separate my poems and then label them or come up with labels and then put the poems where they belong.

Or is water totally the wrong way to go and I need to figure out something else. I think I will rearrange it like this and see what Kendra says next week. She'll probably be more help one-on-one.