Fiction Mondays: Revisions and Links

During revisions, one of my undergraduate professors, Tayari Jones, posted a twitter update about her own revisions. She compared the process of revising to tucking an octopus into bed: "Every time you get one arm tucked in, two more pop out." I really understand, now a little more than halfway through my first revision. In addition to red pen on every single page--whether it is red pen for minor edits or scenes that need to be reworked--there are all of these post-it notes throughout the manuscript pointing to other things in the book, places where I might need to correct a timeline or fix something earlier because of something that's not revealed until later. It's a constant process, requiring constant notes to make sure it's consistent and makes sense. I love doing it, though.

Since revision is taking up a lot of my time and focus, I'm not working on a lot of other things, and my own reading has slowed down. I've been slowly working through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsen, which is a crime novel from Sweden and kind of odd. I like it enough, though some of the writing seems kind of clunky, like it could have done with another revision. I guess that might come from the author dying just after the manuscripts were submitted and someone else, who might worry about sacrificing the author's voice by revising too much, taking over the editing.

For this Fiction Monday, I've got some links:

• Vanity Fair ran a web-only piece editing Sarah Palin's amazingly ridiculous resignation speech. The fifth and sixth paragraphs are my favorites from the original because of how little sense they make.
• I've become hooked on "Pushing Daisies." It's the best forensics-type show on television, because it's about a guy who can (temporarily) bring back the dead. It is, of course, already cancelled. But DC comics ordered a 12-issue run of comics based on the show! Fair Warning: this show will want to make you eat pie.
  
• Will Ben & Jerry's make library-themed ice cream? God, I hope so. "Gooey Decimal System" sounds awesome.
• Finally, for those of you still in DC, check out the new Foggy Bottom Blog! And speaking of canceled TV shows, the name of this blog reminded me very much of Scott Baio's "Arrested Development" character, Bob Loblaw.