I retrieved the manuscript after it had lain dormant for
over a year and started over at page one, revising and re-writing. My female main character, Lydia, has
undergone some radical changes from how I had written her in the first draft,
which has necessitated changes throughout the story. The plot also needed a lot more conflict to
make it interesting, and these changes to Lydia help provide that. I’m hoping to finish this draft in October so
that I can start on a new project for 2015’s National Novel Writing Month. I’ll pick up Life Models again in December for a third draft and a polish and
hopefully have it ready to submit by February.
In the meantime, I’ve got a short story or two that I plan
on submitting to magazines and literary journals. To prepare for this, I bought the newly
released 2016 Novel & Short Story
Writer’s Market. In one of the
articles about outlining in the early part of that book, a novel called Life Drawing by Robin Black was
referenced. I was immediately intrigued
since the first title for my novel was Life
Drawing (I changed it to Life Models
in December of 2013). In fact, I was so
intrigued that I ordered a copy from Amazon and read it in about two days this
past week.
I will say that Robin Black’s Life Drawing is not the type of novel I normally read, but there
are similarities to Life Models. Both are told in first person and both
involve (sort of) recently widowed spouses.
Infertility also plays a part in both stories. When I received Life Drawing in the mail, I was surprised to find a full nine pages
of quotes from reviews, which made it seem to me like the publisher was trying too
hard to sell the book.
Ms. Black’s novel deals with an artist who is married to a
writer. The writer’s death is alluded to
in the opening pages, but the rest of the novel deals with the two of them
trying to maintain their marriage after a previous infidelity. It is the type of family drama that I
normally don’t enjoy, and I didn’t think I would like Life Drawing until late in the story, when the couple takes a trip
to Cape Cod. It was their exchange on
the drive there that really sucked me into the story (finally). When the writer’s death does come, it is
shocking and jarring and would have been far too much if it hadn’t been alluded
to in those first pages. The story is, ultimately,
a tragedy, but it is one that I did enjoy.
I’m glad the title prompted me to buy it, although there were no scenes
in an actual life drawing class, nor were there any references to drawing the
nude (in spite of the woman in what appears to be a robe on the cover).
I did notice that one of the review quotes in the opening
pages of Life Drawing was from author
Alice Sebold, the author of The Lovely Bones. In 2007 Ms. Sebold did write and publish a novel called The Almost Moon which features an
artist’s model as the central character.
I read it a number of years ago and had mixed feelings about it. I do recommend it, however.
