Authors and Their Books: Creating Your Story is Like Scultping

[David]

My wife and I recently returned from Rome and Florence on a working vacation. We were researching locations and ideas for my next two novels, THE CYCLOPS REPRISAL and THE CYCLOPS HOLOCAUST, the third and fourth titles in the CYCLOPS series.

First, a word about the food. It can be described, simply and succinctly, by the name of the first restaurant in which we experienced our first meal. Located on a uneven cobblestoned side street in the Eternal City, Sacro y Profano was the perfect initiation to true Italian cuisine. It means Sacred and Profane. Nothing better describes the decadent and palate-pleasing five course meals we greedily scarfed during our stay. More than a few hours we spent evaluating and critiquing the artistic gastronomical delicacies.

Sorry, I was distracted and just had to mention the culinary portion of our sabbatical.

Culture and history in Rome, Florence and all of Italy pervade every aspect of the civilization. Romans are proud custodians of the human journey through the millenia. Sculptures and bronzes abound.

From deep within the Vatican Museums, the piazzas and fountains to the Galleria d'Accademia in Florence (site of Michelaneglo's David), art of all forms is housed and cherished in this wonderful land.

Our tour guide mentioned this mind-bending tidbit: If you viewed every piece of art in The Vatican collection for one minute and did this 24 hours a day seven days a week. It would take thirteen years view the collection in its entirety.

The abundance of three dimensional art reminded me of a blog I had written about how creating our stories and plots is alot like the creation of sculptures and bronzes.

Hope you enjoy: https://www.davidperrybooks.com/2015/...

Regards, David

[Marc]

We all have out different techniques. Your method seems to involve taking a block of clay and removing everything that doesn't look like your story, which implies a lot of excess material to be taken off. I tend to grow my stories, adding only what I need to tell it. At editing time I'm usually adding lines to fill in setting and color elements I may have skipped before. I've written about my methods in a few places, including a Christmas-tree metaphor.

[David]

I disagree Marc. You are inferring that alot of excess material needs to be removed. That's not always the case. That depends on how well you have plotted and crafted your story. Bronzing involves making a substructure and molding your story around it. Sculpting does involve taking material out...but it also involves adding in clay where needed to round out the final product.