Musings & Thoughts for Saturday, August 26, 2023, or: Weekend Update, Part the First (Frustrated Writer’s Edition)

Late Afternoon/Early Evening, Saturday, August 26, 2023, Lithia, Florida

Hi, everyone! As I write this post, it’s just past 5:15 PM on a stifling, muggy late summer day in the Tampa Bay area. The current temperature is 93°F/34°C under mostly sunny conditions. Today’s forecast called for partly sunny skies and a high of 95°F/35°C, but considering that it’s still almost that hot even with the sun low on the western horizon and that the feels-like temperature is 97°F/36°C, I wager that the actual high exceeded the meteorologists’ prediction.

I ventured briefly out to the front porch once or twice today; the first time was to see if I could attempt a brief stroll, but nope. It was too darned hot. The second time was to bring in a Pizza Hut delivery order I made for dinner, and even though I did not take too long to bring in my pizza, chicken wings, and Pepperoni Lover’s Melts, it was still quite torrid outside. I won’t exaggerate and say I was hit by a furnace-like blast of heat, but I also didn’t want to be outside longer than necessary.

On Writing & Storytelling

I didn’t do much writing today, even though I planned to. I wanted to make up for the low word count that I managed to add yesterday at the last minute, and when I went to bed last night I genuinely thought that I’d spend most of my Saturday afternoon making up for Thursday and Friday’s modest additions to the Reunion: Coda manuscript.

Alas, I was mistaken. When I woke up at 6:45 this morning – unbelievably early for a weekend – I had zero interest in writing. I didn’t follow my usual routine of blogging in the morning, novel-writing in the afternoon, then relaxing in the early evening. I was tired and unmotivated, plus a frustrated attempt to order a new taco-flavored pizza from the Hut (it was on the online menu, but the store that services our area does not carry it) soured my mood more than it already was.

So, I not only ended up having to make a second order from Pizza Hut (I got stuff that I’ve ordered before, so no problem with that), but now I feel somewhat annoyed that I’m not making as much progress with my novel as I’d like.

At least yesterday I was – thanks to a great catch by my friend Patti Aliventi – able to undo a literary faux pas in Chapter 11, Scene Two by deleting a passage that unnecessarily repeated information presented just two or three paragraphs earlier and replacing it with something that made more sense. It wasn’t a complicated fix; it only took me about a minute and a half to delete the offending paragraph and replace it with a better one. So…yesterday wasn’t a total bust, writing-wise.

I think the wisest thing to do is to simply take it easy over what’s left of today and tomorrow. As much as I’d like to finish this first draft ASAP, I shouldn’t push myself so hard that a job that I love – writing – becomes a barely tolerable chore. I’m also not as young as I used to be, so I can’t pull off “all-day writing marathons” as frequently as I used to when I was a college student in the mid-to-late 1980s. I get tired more easily, and coaxing the ideas out of my head sometimes feels like I’m pulling teeth rather than feeling them flow like nectar from my brain to my fingers and onto the computer screen.

Since I don’t have anything else to share with you, I’ll close for now. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.