On Writing & Storytelling: August is Almost Over…But My Writing Journey Continues

Late Morning, Wednesday, August 23, 2023, Lithia, Florida

Summer is Almost Over, but the Heat Continues to Sizzle

Hi, there, everyone. I hope you’re well on this next-to-last Hump Day of August 2023, wherever in the world you are reading this. Here in the Tampa Bay area, it is a steamy late summer day: the temperature is 82°F/28°C under sunny skies. With humidity at 72% and the wind blowing from the east-northeast at 4 MPH/6 KMH, the heat index (or “feels like” factor) is 88°F/31°C. That’s plenty hot, sure, but it’s going to be hotter still: the forecast for today calls for mostly sunny skies and a high of 94°F/34°C.

Well, at least none of the tropical storms out at sea is heading this way. After my experiences with Hurricane Andrew in ’92 and Hurricanes Katrina (in its pre-New Orleans phase) and Wilma in 2005, I am relieved that so far, the TBA has been spared from a strike by a tropical storm or hurricane. That relief, though, is somewhat dampened by the fact that the Atlantic hurricane season is just entering its peak, and it won’t end officially until November 30.

On Writing and Storytelling

Yesterday I made some modest progress with Reunion: Coda despite some issues with lack of concentration, low energy levels, and a less-than-ideal word count (221 new words).  I had hoped that my Muse would smile down on me and that the words and ideas would flow like honey from my brain to my fingers and onto my computer screen, but…apparently beautiful-voiced Calliope is a member of the Writers’ Guild and is on strike, cos the words did not like honey flow. Instead, I had to strain my brain to get those 221 words onto my Word .docx file for the rough draft of Reunion: Coda.

That’s not to say that I didn’t accomplish much; I did get some writing done, and I did some revising and editing, so my Tuesday was neither a lost day nor a frustrating one that saw “no new words” added to the manuscript.

In other writing-related news, a copy of Reunion: A Story was purchased on the Amazon Spain (amazon.es) store, bringing approximately €2.00 in royalties. So far this month, five copies, all of them paperbacks, have been sold, most of them in the United States. As it stands now if I don’t get any more sales over the next few days, I’ll end up earning $14.06 – we writers don’t get the full MSRP of our books in royalties – I get about 20% of every sale, which is…not enough to live on unless I were selling thousands of copies a month.

On the other hand, the fact that (a) I have a book available for sale on Amazon and (b) it is earning royalties should end any debate about whether or not I’m a real writer.

(Yes, I’m still a bit grumpy about that, even though I realize that this notion that I’m just a “hobbyist” is just plain stupid.)

Action This Day

Since today is a working day for me, the only thing on my daily agenda after I post this on WordPress is to work on the manuscript for Reunion: Coda. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.

I still must add “new words” to Chapter 11’s second scene and perhaps even complete it. Based on my concept of the story, I believe I am either two-thirds or three-fourths done with Scene Two, but I’ll know more about where I stand on that after my rest break. If I do finish the scene this afternoon, my next task is to determine whether the eleventh chapter is complete, or if it needs to have Scene Three.

Maybe if I bothered to do the “write an outline” thing I’d be a bit surer of where I stand with the story, but…I don’t. I prefer to make the story up as I go, even though that means that I must edit and revise the manuscript to hell and back to make sure it has unity and coherence. (Also…that it makes sense!)

Anyway, that’s the plan, and I intend to stick to it.

Well, it’s almost time for my mandatory rest break, so I must be going. But before I leave, I’ll remind you that if you have not yet purchased a copy of Reunion: A Story in any format (I don’t endorse the paperback over the Kindle edition; either choice is good), please consider buying one. And if you have bought a copy, please…tell your friends, relatives, or co-workers: every copy sold not only will give the readers a good story (Reunion does get great reviews on Amazon), but it also helps me out, both financially and emotionally.

Bye for now. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.