Metaphor for Writing

I found a helpful metaphor that seems to nicely describe the stages of writing. It's by Carol Rosenblum Perry (2011) in her book "The Fine Art of Technical Writing".

1. Order - The Skeleton: Constructing a Stable Framework
2. Conciseness - The Body Mass: Making Every Work Count
3. Vigor - The Muscle Tone: Empowering Your Words

Perry conceptualizes writing as a living creature, like us, and all parts must work together in concert "to convey meaning and ensure the ultimate goal: clarity" (p. 19).

I am currently reworking on the skeleton of the manuscript. I am reconstructing the structure because the reviewers have asked of me many things and I find that the current structure cannot contain what they are asking of me. I am expanding the structure in some places and unfortunately (or fortunately?) have to also restructure other places in order to work in the reviewers' suggestions. To me, this is the heaviest work I have to do. Because in order to rework the skeleton, I also have to do much reading and re-reading of new and old literature but also have to go back to my data to bring in more nuances into my writing of the findings and discussion.

Once I get this out of the way, I can work on conciseness. Actually, I will probably start working on conciseness tomorrow, even though the skeleton is still not fixed, because the word count is bulging already, and I don't feel comfortable expanding anymore as I have exceeded my frame. I actually enjoy this conciseness part of writing the most... :)

The part that I may have most problem with is the last point of vigor. My English is not very good. LOL. So I sometimes (or oftentimes) lack the skill of making a sentence more powerful. I tend to write in very simple and short sentences, if you have not already noticed. So... probably when the time comes, if there is enough time, I will be relying more on Perry's book to work on my muscle tone.