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Sunday, November 29, 2009

You Can Call Me Michelangelo


So I didn't plan on taking a break from blogging over this splendiferously long weekend, but I have to tell you- I got a lot done this weekend writing-wise. I also cleaned the house, cooked a whole lot, and painted half of my living room. And I met with my beta readers!

Their feedback was awesome- I've already integrated a lot of their suggestions into Major Revision #3. It's nice to have fresh eyes take a look at the manuscript. Also, I found it rather eerie that their suggestions were almost all things that I pondered as I was writing, but blew off, thinking it was only me who would care about them. But no, I was wrong. And there were only a couple big issues, ones I think I've resolved.

So here's the rundown of my major revisions so far. Yesterday, I was thinking that writing a book is kind of like Michelangelo creating David. (Yes, I just compared myself to Michelangelo. I have delusions of grandeur.)

Revision #1: Michelangelo chips away enough marble to tell that he's making some sort of human figure. Oh wait, is that an arm coming out of David's head? Gee whiz, gotta fix that!

I aligned the plot.

Revision #2: David now has two arms, two legs, and one head, all properly attached. Maybe he needs some hair- the blockhead look isn't working for him.

I cleaned up the dialogue and plugged up some plot holes.

Revision #3: Michelangelo takes care of some details- muscles, eyes, nose, lips. Oh yeah, and the slingshot. Almost forgot about the slingshot.

I slashed a lot of unnecessary words and sealed the final gaps in the plot.


Okay, so by the end of Revision #3 it should be pretty shiny, but there's still be some polishing to do. Heck, when I was in Florence a few years ago I couldn't see most of David because he was being restored. Art is an ongoing process. And I'm not going to get into how David's hands are waaaaaaay too big for his body. Even a masterpiece can have flaws, right?

So, what's your revision style? And more importantly, did you have a good weekend?