diff --git a/graviton.js b/graviton.js
index 3063184..3b9c1e0 100644
--- a/graviton.js
+++ b/graviton.js
@@ -10,6 +10,20 @@ Meteor.startup(function() {
 // convenience
 Meteor.Collection.prototype.all = ManyRelation.prototype.all;
 
+// does an insert but builds a model first, returns the model instead of an id
+Meteor.Collection.prototype.create = function(obj, callback) {
+  var model = this.build(obj);
+  var id;
+  if (callback) {
+    model.setId(this.insert.call(this, model.attributes, function(err, res) {
+      callback(err, model);
+    }));
+  } else {
+    model.setId(this.insert.call(this, model.attributes));
+  }
+  return model;
+};
+
 // use a period-delimited string to access a deeply-nested object
 Graviton.getProperty = function(obj, string) {
   var arr = string.split(".");
@@ -49,6 +63,8 @@ Graviton.define = function(collectionName, options) {
     return new Cls(collectionName, obj, options);
   };
 
+  options.model = model;
+
   var colName = (options.persist) ? collectionName : null;
 
   var collection = new Meteor.Collection(colName, {
@@ -72,8 +88,7 @@ Graviton.define = function(collectionName, options) {
     return mdl;
   };
   this._collections[collectionName] = collection;
-  collection._model = model;
-  collection._name = options.name || collectionName;
+  collection._graviton = options;
 
   return collection;
 };
diff --git a/lib/model.js b/lib/model.js
index 7c54fe6..3addb98 100644
--- a/lib/model.js
+++ b/lib/model.js
@@ -38,12 +38,12 @@ Model = function(collectionName, obj, options) {
 // for creating a custom class to user for model transforms
 Model.extend = function(proto) {
   var self = this;
-  var o = function(collectionName, obj, options) {
+  var Model = function(collectionName, obj, options) {
     self.call(this, collectionName, obj, options);
   };
-  o.prototype = _.extend({}, this.prototype, proto);
-  o.extend = this.extend;
-  return o;
+  Model.prototype = _.extend({}, this.prototype, proto);
+  Model.extend = this.extend;
+  return Model;
 };
 
 Model.prototype.get = function(key) {
@@ -51,19 +51,40 @@ Model.prototype.get = function(key) {
 };
 
 Model.prototype.set = function(key, value) {
-  return Graviton.setProperty(this.attributes, key, value);
+  if (_.isObject(key)) {
+    for (var k in key) {
+      this.set(k, key[k]);
+    }
+    return this;
+  }
+  Graviton.setProperty(this.attributes, key, value);
+  return this;
+};
+
+Model.prototype.setId = function(id) {
+  this._id = id;
+  this.set('_id', id);
 };
 
 Model.prototype.plain = function() {
   return _.clone(this.attributes);
 };
 
-Model.prototype.save = function() {
-  if (this._id) {
-    this._collection.update(this._id, {$set: _.omit(this.attributes, '_id')});
-  } else {
+// insert a doc if it has no _id
+Model.prototype.persist = function() {
+  if (!this._id) {
     this._id = this._collection.insert(this.attributes);
     this.set("_id", this._id);
+    return true;
+  }
+  return false;
+};
+
+// insert or update
+// TODO: track the attributes that have changed and only update those
+Model.prototype.save = function() {
+  if (!this.persist()) {
+    this._collection.update(this._id, {$set: _.omit(this.attributes, '_id')});
   }
   return this;
-};
\ No newline at end of file
+};
diff --git a/lib/relations.js b/lib/relations.js
index dcff839..199d24f 100644
--- a/lib/relations.js
+++ b/lib/relations.js
@@ -16,10 +16,7 @@ Relation.prototype.build = function(obj) {
 // inserts model if it doesn't have an id - typically called by add
 Relation.prototype.persist = function(model) {
   model = this.build(model);
-  if (!model._id) {
-    model._id = this._collection.insert(model.attributes);
-    model.set('_id', model._id);
-  }
+  model.persist();
   return model;
 };