On Writing & Storytelling: A Writer’s SITREP for a Busy Tuesday in June

“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.” ― Muriel Rukeyser

It’s late afternoon in Lithia, Florida, on Tuesday, June 27, 2023. Outside, it is a scorcher of an early summer day in the Tampa Bay area; as I start this, my second post for today, the temperature is 92°F/33°C, although with mostly sunny skies and humidity at 57%, the “feels-like” temperature is 101°F/38°C. When I was younger and more “outdoorsy” in the 1970s and 1980s, late June afternoons weren’t so steamy; in South Florida, it wasn’t till mid- to late July that the thermometer would reach the low 90s/30s, and even then, hot days like today were more common in August.

Of course, this means that as I’ve grown older, I don’t tolerate hot weather as easily as I did as recently as the early 2000s. Back home – funny how I now tend to look at South Florida as home, even though I’ve lived in Lithia for seven years now – I still went out for walks, especially in those difficult times between March of 2010 and July of 2015, but usually either early in the morning or right around sunset to avoid the stifling mix of heat, humidity, and mosquitoes.

And, of course, since I moved here in the mid-spring of 2016, I gradually became reluctant to leave the house at all. Partly because I don’t feel like I belong here – especially after the summer of 2020. Mostly, though, it’s the oppressive heat, which seems to come earlier and with more intensity with each passing year.

Action This Day

“I don’t write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don’t, everything feels even worse.” ― Lily King, Writers & Lovers

Anyway, today was a busy day on the writing front since it’s Tuesday and a working day for me. I started the day’s activity by writing a music album review of John Williams: Greatest Hits 1969-1999. I’ve had that album since Sony Classical dropped it in November of 1999, and it’s been a favorite of mine for 23 years. I still remember buying it at one of the two now-closed music stores at the Miami International Mall, and how I felt when I heard Prologue from JFK or Main Title from The Reivers. I used to listen to that 2-CD set more frequently than I do presently, but I’m still fond of it nonetheless.

I also worked on the manuscript for Reunion: Coda, although today was strictly “revising and editing” instead of “adding new scenes for Chapter 10.” I hoped that my brain would produce all-new stuff rather than going into “let’s fix stuff now instead of making revisions and edits later, but…it just didn’t work out that way this afternoon.

First, I went back to a “South Miami Senior High School” chapter and fixed some issues I knew existed but hadn’t quite figured out how to correct. That took about an hour or so, and even though I think some minor adjustments may be needed, I’m happy with how that chapter reads now. I’ll review it again before I quit for the day to confirm that the revisions work – just to be sure.

Next, I went to Chapter 10 and made a few revisions to the existing scene. There were a few typos and incorrect tenses scattered throughout the text, but otherwise, it’s okay as is.  

If you read this blog every day – whether it’s because you enjoy my writing or are stalking me – you know, or should know, that I don’t do outlines or have a mental map of Reunion: Coda or, really, any story I write. I tell the story to myself every time I write a new scene, basing the new additions to the detail on, of course, what came before and what I think will logically happen next. So far, it’s worked really well, although my storytelling techniques sometimes get me in trouble when I say “Okay, if X happens, then Y must follow as a consequence.” Or, like in Chapter 10, I’ll get stuck on such details as “Do professors at Columbia University have their own offices, and if they do, do they have administrative staff to assist them?”

This, of course, means that if I don’t know something about a specific story-related topic, I must do research online. Thankfully, I can do that, and that’s what I spent quite a bit of time doing before I started this post. But…it did take me longer to find the information I needed, and now it’s too late to start writing Scene Two, Chapter 10. I’ll do it tomorrow, I guess.

And on that note, Dear Reader, I’ll close this, my 256^th post of 2023 and 1,155^th overall, here. I’m tired and need to get up and move around a bit, so…until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.