July 4, 2011

Happy July Fourth. Pass Me the Scissors

This is the perfect day to write. Kids are grown up–one’s in San Diego celebrating with friends, the other’s in Georgia at Signal Corps

wordsmithing

This will take forever

school with the Army. Holidays aren’t the same when kids aren’t the engine that drives them. Today, my husband and I are relaxing, bbqing steaks when it cools off and watching a TVo’d show before going to bed.

Me, I’m editing my mss. I have about a month this summer to complete it or I probably never will. As a teacher, my only big block of open time is summer. I thought I’d finish last summer, but didn’t even get close. I’m committed this time. Today and the next 45 days, I’m wordsmithing, cutting out unnecessary descriptions, actions, redundancies–all that stuff that slows a novel down and makes you want to skip pages. Who was it said, Cut out the stuff that readers skip. That’s what I’m doing.

It’s July 4th and I’m at 108,398 words. I need to get to 100,000. I’ll keep you up to date.


Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-fifth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman. She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, an ISTE article reviewer and a weekly contributor to Write Anything and Technology in Education. Currently, she’s working on a techno-thriller that should be ready this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

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