On Writing & Storytelling: As Summer Weather Simmers Outside, Writer Makes Progress Inside

Late Afternoon/Early Evening, Monday, August 21, 2023, Lithia, Florida

Well, several hours have passed since my last post, and the temperature did indeed reach 93°F/33°C or even exceeded it, cos as I write these words shortly after 6 PM Eastern Daylight Time, it is now 92°F/33°C under mostly sunny conditions. Sunset is still less than two hours away, but it’s still steamy out there – the feels-like factor is 95°C/35°C. I haven’t been outside, but I can feel the heat filtering through the wall behind my desk and onto my stocking feet.

At least – looking at the satellite map on my Weather app with the projected storm tracks superimposed on the screen – none of the tropical storms churning out in the Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, or Gulf of Mexico pose an immediate threat to either the state of Florida in general or (specifically) the Tampa Bay area. The prevailing winds and the various storms’ points of origin/projected tracks seem to show that as busy as the hurricane season got all of a sudden, in the short-term scheme of things, we should be okay.

Less certain, of course, is what happens between now and the end of November, which “officially” marks the close of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. We are entering the peak of that season, when the water temperature in Hurricane Alley is high and the steering currents are more favorable for tropical systems to develop into depressions, storms, and hurricanes.

Ugh. I’m a native Floridian, so I should be used to summer heat and the uncertainties of the annual hurricane season, but I am weary of both.

Ah, someday….

On Writing & Storytelling: How Did My Workday Go?

Surprisingly, my first day of “back to work on the novel” went well.  Not spectacularly well; I didn’t write 2,000 words (or more) in a burst of creative energy. Instead, I had to coax the words out of my subconscious mind in dribs and drabs. You know…type a couple of sentences here. Pause. Then type a couple of sentences there until I have a paragraph. Pause again, then type a sentence or two, wait a few minutes, then type another couple of sentences until I have another paragraph. And so on and so forth until my tired eyes say, “Okay. That’s enough for the day. Stop.”

As I said, I didn’t write 2,000 new words on the manuscript today. Not even 1,000. According to the Word Count function on Microsoft Word, I produced 555 words, or just a bit more than the average English Composition essays I used to write when I was in college back in the late 1980s.

Still, I am content with that – 555 words is far better than 0 words.

I hope that tomorrow’s output will be better, but we’ll see what the day has in store for me – and the manuscript!