Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Back and Relaxed

Had a great weekend. Saw lots of family, went to the wedding and had a blast, and headed up to Fort Robinson on Sunday and did lots of fun activities with the kids. I always feel more focused after I visit home and family - and I'd still like to take a week off and go home - just by myself. Doubt I'll get to do that anytime soon, but it's nice to dream.

I did do some work on my novel - my grandmother very obligingly answered tons of my questions about the 1940s. I took a lot of photos and video of Fort Robinson and should be able to incorporate it all into my novel.

I also read quite a bit of Dwight Swain's Techniques of the Selling Writer. He discussed the use of the word "had" and as soon as I finished reading it, I went through my first chapter and circled all the times I used "had." It wasn't pretty! But it reads so much better now that I made the changes.

We have our chapter meeting tonight - I still have to get "organized" for it! I think I need a vacation day to recover from my vacation!

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:13 PM

    Isn't that the oddest thing? I always want a post vacation ease back to work. It would be better if I could come back part time and work up to my pre vacation stress levels.

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  2. I am glad you are back, its about time. lol

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  3. Oh, how nice for you. I bet you got to talk to a lot of old people. That must have been like a day at Disneyland in your eyes. LOL

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  4. Glad you had fun and did some research!! Two birds :)

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  5. Sounds like a productive trip! I have the same problem with the word 'as'. I usually highlight it after I finish a chapter. Scary...

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  6. Anonymous7:06 AM

    Dwight's book is great, but it can make your eyes glaze over. Glad you got some good research over the weekend!

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  7. Anonymous7:09 AM

    Great work on the trip. I bet your grandma had a blast telling you about the 40s. FYI, Ywriter (http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter.html) has a function where it counts words used most often. It's free software.

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  8. Melissa - cool! Glad you had so much fun at the weekend and the you could do some primary research. Nothing like eye-witness reports to add veracity to your work :-)

    Will have to check out the Swain book!

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