too swamped to write

It's a complaint I hear from students all the time, and one I'm tempted to succumb to myself right now. But NO. I won't let it happen. Today I make a pledge. No matter how busy term gets, how much marking there is to do, how many more places I have to ferry my son, how low we get in groceries or how dirty my house gets, Friday afternoons are mine. Families have survived dirty houses and students can wait half a day more for their papers back, but I will go crazy if I don't get my writing time. It's a pledge.

Mustache courtesy of Tracey Brailsford and family. They always know how to keep things light.

tip for close editing

I'm in the middle of line editing my sea otter story-- it's one I plan to send to Orca for another Currents I hope.
Here's a tip that I've stumbled across. I read over my text and make whatever changes I want, then when I have done 500 words or so, I read back over it, highlighting all of the verbs. It's amazing. This is an action story, so I want strong verbs, which is why I started this process, but I'm amazed at how many small details I'm finding as I do it. First, I'm getting rid of all the ing verbs, and as many of the "to be" variations as I can and replacing them with stronger verbs. But I'm also finding small words that don't need to be there. For example, "I know that the reason Dad is out here is because" becomes "Dad's here because".

I'm so amazed at how many extra words I use, and how clearly I see them when I go through this process. Laborious, but worth it.