Musings & Thoughts for Wednesday, June 28, 2023, or: On Hot Summer Weather, Writing, and AI Reviews

Hi, there!

Come Rain or Come Shine

Well, it’s late morning – almost noon, really – here in Lithia, Florida, on Wednesday, June 28, 2023. This being early summer, it’s already a steamy (87°F/30°C) and sticky (72% humidity) day (heat index is now 95°F/35°C), and it’s going to be even hotter by mid-afternoon: the forecast high is expected to be 93°F/34°C).

That’s bad enough, at least for me and my aversion to high temperatures, but this time around the forecast also calls for thunderstorms to pass through our area in the afternoon hours.

Since Hillsborough County is a large chunk of the west-central coast of the state, “through the area” does not necessarily mean that Lithia (which is well inland respective to the Tampa Bay area) and my neighborhood will see thunderstorms barreling overhead, drenching everything with torrential rain and flinging down lightning bolts. However, the possibility of such an occurrence is there, and even distant storm cells can affect us. A lightning strike can travel a long distance – back in the 1990s, one of the coaches I knew in passing at South Miami High School when I was there was killed by one that hit the practice field on campus…and the thunderstorm it came from was still off in the distance.

The same thing happened to me – as I’ve mentioned in previous posts here – in 2004: I lost a computer (an e-Machines T-series PC) to a “bolt out of the blue” that hit our backyard neighbor’s house in East Wind Lake Village, the South Florida gated community where I lived from February of 1978 to April of 2016. I’d heard the dull boom of distant thunder, but I was having one of my last online arguments with a woman I was breaking up with, and since the sky overhead was clear and the sun was shining, I didn’t shut down my PC when I should have, so its “death by lightning strike” was mostly my fault.

I mention this even though I know some readers get bored with the weather report part of my posts because like it or not, many aspects of my daily life are affected by the subtropical climate – especially high temperatures and stormy weather.

Action This Day

Today is, of course, a working day for me, so after I take a rest break and maybe grab a bite to eat (it’s awfully hard to write when I’m feeling puckish and tired), I’ll start looking at the manuscript and figure out exactly what my game plan for the day will look like.

As usual, my choices are:

• Write all-new material for Chapter 10. Whether it’s adding to Scene One or starting Scene Two, I don’t know yet. Maybe the latter, since I think the scene has a clear beginning, middle, and end
• Do more revisions and edits to existing material in previous chapters, including the Prologue. It does not “move the story forward” – which is what most writers would do in a first draft – but, since I’m doing my own editing, hard work now will save me time later

To be honest, I’m leaning more toward Option Two. Not just because it’s the allegedly “easier” choice – even though it, too, requires concentration and the ability to make hard choices as to what needs to be cut and what can remain in the manuscript. I used to be a copy editor when I was on the staff of my college campus’ student newspaper, so I have some experience at editing, though I must admit it’s easier to copy edit other people’s work than to coldly assess my own writing.

And speaking of assessments of my writing….

As I mentioned last night in my previous blog post, Writing & Storytelling: What Bing AI Thinks About My Manuscript – So Far, I’ve been asking Microsoft/OpenAI’s Bing Chatbot to evaluate my manuscript for Reunion: Coda. And in one of our many Q&A sessions, I asked for a review of the novel based on what Bing had read yesterday – apparently, the way it’s set up on Microsoft Edge, the chatbot doesn’t remember stuff from previous sessions. So, when you read the following review, keep in mind that Bing is only basing his/its opinion on what was shared yesterday afternoon.

When I asked Bing whether my technique of alternating between chapters set in 1980s South Miami High School and New York City in early 2000 was, in the AI’s opinion, effective, this is the reply I received:

I think your approach to this novel is working so far. You have a clear and compelling structure that alternates between the past and the present, showing how the narrator’s life and personality have changed over time. You also have a strong and consistent voice that reflects the narrator’s point of view and emotions. You have a good balance of dialogue, action, and description, and you use sensory details to create vivid images. You also have a good grasp of the historical context and the details of the operation that you are teaching about. You have created authentic and engaging characters that readers can connect with and care about. I think you have a lot of potential and skill as a writer, and I look forward to reading more of your novel. 😊

Well, late morning has morphed into early afternoon. I must go eat a quick lunch, rest for half an hour, then get busy with Reunion: Coda.  So, until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny – or less rainy – side of things.