Late Morning, Tuesday, August 15, 2023, Lithia, Florida
Hello, there, Dear Reader.
Well, it’s going to be another scorcher of a midsummer day here in the Tampa Bay area; as I write this, the temperature outside is 85°F/29°C under partly sunny skies. However, when you factor in 80% humidity and a slow 3 MPH/4 KMH breeze from the south-southeast, it feels like 95°F/34°C. And since noon is still quite a while away, it’s bound to get hotter still. Today’s forecast calls for mostly sunny skies and a high of 95°F/34°C.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that 60-year-old me is less heat-tolerant than 10-year-old or even 40-year-old me, so I’ll just say that once again, the oppressive Florida heat will keep me indoors today.
Action This Day
I did not sleep well last night. I went to bed at a reasonable hour – 11 PM – after watching the first 30 minutes of Star Wars – Episode II: Attack of the Clones. It’s a decent film even though it’s not my favorite in the entire nine-part Skywalker Saga, but I started watching it well after 9 PM, so I dozed off while I was still in Act One. I woke up once just enough to turn the TV off and promptly fell asleep again, only to wake up feeling anxious at the ungodly hour of 3:25 AM.
I tried, really tried to fall asleep again, but after three hours of tossing and turning and trying to find a comfortable position, I got up, turned on my PC, and lurked around Facebook and X (the site formerly known as Twitter) for a while. I played a football-themed game there (CBS Sports Franchise Football), then I did my daily challenges on Microsoft Solitaire and waited till it was a decent time to go have a cup of café con leche.
I’m still a bit tired from waking up so early, so I honestly do not know how my working day is going to go. I plan on working today, yes, and I hope that by my usual 1 PM start time my brain will be “booted up’ more than it is now. I’d hate to have to take a day off from work – yes, writing a book is work if you plan to publish it and offer it for sale on Amazon, no matter what petty arguments against that concept some people might utter.[1] I’m already a bit behind my planned schedule, so I’d rather not lose another day of creative writing.
That having been said, I can’t and won’t push myself to write if I am physically and mentally exhausted. I’m writing now because I am still experiencing the caffeine rush from my cup of café con leche, but that’s going to go away in a bit. So if I’m still tired after my mandatory rest break, I’ll have to either call it a day (which I don’t want to do) or do more editing and revising. There are no other realistic options, folks.
A SITREP (Situation Report) on the Manuscript
Per Microsoft Word’s Word Count function, I have come a long way in my novel writing odyssey since I started working on Reunion: Coda. As of this writing, the first draft is 111 pages long and contains a total of 47,649 words, just 2,351 words shy of the 50K mark. (I don’t have a stated word count goal, but I have never written a single project, either for a paying client or for me, this long before.)
Since early March, I’ve written 10 complete chapters, including a prologue, and started writing the eleventh one earlier this month. I don’t bother with outlines, so I don’t have a fixed number of chapters in mind, but I think I will have between 15 and 20 chapters when I finally type THE END at some point in the future. I do know how I want the story to end, but I don’t have a specific “closing scene” in mind – yet. I do sense that an endpoint draws near, so…hopefully I’ll finish this first draft by mid-September.
We’ll see what develops, won’t we?
[1] I’m a writer. I have been a writer for a long time. I may not be commercially successful yet, but I have two published books on Amazon, and I have gotten paid for my work on various websites, and my blogs both bring in ad revenue. But…for those people out there who insist otherwise, here’s the definition of my job title:
Writer
Noun: a person who writes books or articles to be published:
a travel/sports/fiction/crime writer
She is a well-known writer of children’s books. – Source: Cambridge Dictionary
A Certain Point of View, Too 
Comments
6 responses to “On Writing & Storytelling: My Tentative Plans for Writing Today…and Other Related Matters”
Sounds successful to me, Alex. I was speaking to a friend about being a “success” in the music world. We’re not all going to be Led Zeppelin successful. I said, hey, if a musician in Chicago (one of the great music cities in America) has a paid gig 5 nights out of 7, is (s)he not successful? It’s all perspective. You’ve written two longer pieces which have been read/consumed by a number of people you’ve never met. To me, that’s success! Keep up the good work!
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It’s just so damn annoying to be told that I’m just a “hobbyist” because I have not landed a contract with a traditional publishing company or have an NYT bestseller out there. Traditional publishing makes it difficult – intentionally, I believe – for most aspiring writers to get published the “old-fashioned way.” Self-publishing, on the other hand, is far more democratic, but it’s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff there. Plus, if you don’t have deep pockets and can’t afford to pay for Kindle Direct Publishing’s advertising services, you’re on your own with the marketing side of the biz.
That’s why I find it insulting when someone says that I write as a hobby. No, I write with the hope that a published book will generate sales. If I gave my stories away for free, yeah. Then it’s a hobby. But I don’t. So…..
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To some people, “success” can only mean they’ve “heard of you.” I say “fuck ’em.” You know what you do, what you can do, and what you will do. Keep doing what you’re doing and you ARE a success. Peace, Alex.
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Thank you, Paul.
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A hobbyist? Really? Nice hobby.
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An incredibly expensive hobby at that. And a stress-inducing one. And an exhausting one.
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