Today I’m in the middle of editing–not one of my favorite tasks. It’s much easier/more fun to edit when it isn’t your own work that you’re ripping to shreds. I’ve been looking at synonyms for “turn” for so long that I’m beginning to wonder if “turn” is really a word or if “t-u-r-n” is really how you ought to spell it. “Turn” has begun to gain a quality of unreality about it.
Happily, we’ve been rereading “My Life and Hard Times” by James Thurber. (I highly recommend it if you haven’t indulged before!) So now, anytime I’m tempted to grind my teeth in the frustrating search for just the right word, I can remember James awakening his father in the dead of night, wild-eyed with monstrously tousled hair, demanding that his father “Name some towns in New Jersey quick!” 🙂 Now I can laugh rather than rip my hair out. 🙂
