Awesome, I will note that and pursue it in time. That sounds very inspiring. As a writer I do enjoy the guidance both from Stephen King's craft discussions, but also the James A Michener Writer's Handbook [1]. Art is work, no doubt in my mind.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/James-Micheners-Writers-Handbook-Explo...

I'd be happy to upload scans of one of my more recent short stories, "Pink Paint Rain," simply to show how much true effort goes into massaging lines and language a la code.

Finished version: http://www.scribd.com/doc/156040925/Pink-Paint-Rain-Vernon-W...

I have about 7-10 print outs of the story with mark ups. Before switching to English & Creative Writing I was in Computer Science and pretty skilled with C++ at the time, so I can come up with a decent correlative:

Every version I printed was like running it through a compiler - this is to evidence that even if a piece of code or a line of text is functional, is it efficient, and, if at all possible, an excellent construction? These are subjective concepts that are innate in language. There may be several writers who can put words to paper directly from their head with no revision process - hell, it's what I do when I'm "practicing" on my IBM Selectric III to commit to writing in permanence (think before I type) - but for the greats, it has always been an iterative process.

To keep this from being all about me, allow me to provide a link to something that may be to your liking:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Micheners-Writers-Handbook-Explo...