Hi, folks.
It’s evening here in Lithia, Florida, on this hot, humid 22nd day of June 2023. As I write this, it’s still quite torrid outside: the temperature is 85°F/29°C, but with humidity at a whopping 81%, the heat index is 96°F/35°C. That’s too darn hot, especially when you consider that the sun is going to set soon. Ah, well. It’s Florida after all.
Anyway, I am writing to let you know that I solved my writer’s dilemma about whether I should go back and write a better version of Chapter Eight, Scene Three or work on Chapter Ten and move forward before revisiting the earlier part during the revisions and edits process of self-publishing Reunion: Coda.
It might sound counterintuitive, but I decided to double back and fix the problem with the last scene in Chapter Eight instead of waiting till the first draft is done and then making revisions. I think one of the reasons – other than the kerfuffle over trying to get permission to use a few lyrics from West Side Story’s “Somewhere” – why I got stuck first on ending Chapter Nine, then on starting Chapter 10 was my dissatisfaction with how I ended the eighth chapter. It was rushed and not very well-written, for one thing, plus it didn’t really deliver on its promise of a dream sequence.
So, since that section of the manuscript was bothering me so much, I decided to fix it on a day when the weather wasn’t as bad as the forecast had predicted, and when my energy levels and enthusiasm for writing were reasonably high. And even though it took me over eight hours to do, I rewrote that troublesome scene.
Here’s a brief excerpt from Chapter Eight, Scene Three (The Dream):
This is what I dreamed:
I am 18 years old and back at South Miami Senior High, sitting alone in my 12th grade English classroom, Room 203. I’m sitting alone at my old student’s desk – front row, third one from the left, not far away from either the blackboard or Mrs. DeVargas’ desk. I’m reading from a dogeared copy of Macbeth – or at least, trying to.
Part of me – the part that knows I’m not 18 years old anymore – recoils at this familiar scene: I’ve had this dream hundreds, if not thousands, of times over the past 17 years. I know that Jimmy Garraty, the boy I used to be, is attempting to memorize Act Five, Scene Five of Shakespeare’s “Scottish play.” You know, the scene where the protagonist delivers the “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” soliloquy.
I also know that at some point in the dream – sometimes it’s just before I get to that scene in the play, sometimes it’s after I finish reciting it – I will suddenly smell the scent of orange blossoms mixed with jasmine, Marty’s favorite perfume, and that, inevitably, some version of Marty herself will make an appearance – sometimes wearing the black dress she wore the first time I had The Dream, and sometimes clad in the outfit she wore on the last day of school back in 1983: Levi’s denim jeans, a South Miami High Chorus T-shirt, and Keds tennis shoes for girls.
The other part of me – “Jimmy the Kid” – focuses on Macbeth as if my life depends on it. And, for what seems to be an eternity, the only sounds in the dream-memory version of Room 203 are the rustling of pages, the ticking of the round black Lathem wall clock, and my whispered line reading of Shakespeare’s commentary about the futility and shortness of life:
Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
The clock ticks loudly in the almost sepulchral silence that envelops the classroom. Hell, the whole school, all three floors of it, seems to be deserted. No one – not a student, not a teacher, not even a custodian vacuuming the carpet or turning off lights – comes by.
That’s just a brief selection, and of course, there’s not really a lot of context to hang your hat on, but readers of Reunion will see a connection between the original novella and the upcoming Reunion: Coda – or whatever the final title of the novel ends up being.
I am, of course, not terribly objective, but I think that even in rough draft mode, the scene now works a hell of a lot better than it did before I revised it. It is more complete, for one thing, plus it has some nice bits of dialogue and surrealistic details – it is, after all, a dream sequence – and it ties both of the Reunion stories together.
Well, it’s already past sundown, and I’ve been writing all day, so I’ll take my leave of you. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things. (Unless, of course, it’s raining!!)
A Certain Point of View, Too 
Comments
2 responses to “On Writing & Storytelling: Today Was a Good Day to Rewrite”
I hate when I get stuck on something like that. Sometimes I can’t write for days after that because I’m so fixed on something I couldn’t get to where I wanted it to be. Glad you got past it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Patti,
I fret over these details for several reasons:
1. I’ve read only a few self-published books, and most of them are…sloppily written and not edited well at all.
2. I set lofty standards for myself. Do I always meet them? No. The fact that I needed to redo “Reunion: A Story” is Exhibit A. The basic idea was, and still is sound, but if I hadn’t been in a rush to self-publish it in ’18, the execution might have been better
3. With that in mind, I promised myself when I caved into the notion of “Okay…I’ll do a continuation of ‘Reunion’ as my first truly serious attempt to write a novel,” I’d be more careful with everything, from the structure of the novel to editing and revising. (Originally, I wanted to write a WWII historical novel, but when I revised “Reunion” in March, it just made more sense to follow that story up…I wasn’t enthused at first, but here we are, on June 28, 2023, and I’m on Chapter 10.)
4. Right now, the novel is the focus of my entire being. And, of course, I want it to be as good as anything you’ll read from a big-name author…. You know, like Stephen King or Jennifer Egan. Will it be THAT good? I don’t know. We’ll see, though.
LikeLiked by 1 person