The OCD Writer Thing

Yesterday, while waiting for my TurboTax updates to download over our slow-as-molasses dial-up, I decided to spend some time re-reading a "Fat Magic" manuscript of mine. It was for a story I posted on the Dimensions website back in August, "Thoughtful" (the illo on the left is a thumbnail of BeakerFA's wonderful story graphic.) As usual, when I revisit my manuscripts, I felt the pressing urge to tinker with it.

Nothing major, mind you: on the whole I'm satisfied with the story, which involves the magical ultra-fattening of a leggy conservative talk show pundit clearly modeled after Ann Coulter. Though a part of me was tempted to treat the character rather nastily (anyone who calculatedly throws the word "treason" around to trash those she disagrees with is a creep, end-of-story), to do so would run counter to the spirit of Fast Majicke that's been established in dozens of stories: super-sized fatness is seen as a desirable state in these stories, not just because the characters look good that way, but because size is aligned with magickal power. Once I decided to initiate my pundit heroine into the world of Fat Magic, there was no way I could be too mean to her.

No, my urge to tamper with the ms. was connected to smaller concerns: most of which related to the way I'd expressed myself. "Thoughtful" is a longish piece – about 11,500 words in length – and sometimes when you're in the midst of an uninterrupted yarn like this, it's easy to slack off when you're halfway into it. Reading the work again, I found several instances where I'd repeated either the same words or sentence structure too monotonously. I also came across a few spaces that needed to be beefed up with an additional sentence of description. And, of course, there were also a couple of previously uncaught grammar gaffes.

One big advantage of posting stories on the web: if you have access to 'em, you can revise any material that dissatisfies you. (One big disadvantage of posting stories on the web: if you have access to 'em, you can revise any material that dissatisfies you.) As a result, I spent part of a Saturday afternoon that could've been used working on something new, tweaking a story that most of my limited online audience read months ago, then posting the revised version Sunday morning. In the end, one of the primary reasons that anyone does this type of fanta-sizing fiction is to tell tales that you'd wanna read yourself – so, even if the changes are being made for an audience of one, it's worth it.

But next time I'm just sitting 'round, waiting for a download to finish, I'm picking something by The Studio to read. . .