Late Morning, Sunday, February 25, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire
Greetings, folks. It’s a gorgeous but chilly New England late winter day here in my corner of Madison. Currently, the temperature is 22°F (-6°C) under sunny skies. With humidity at 37% and the wind blowing from the east-northeast at 1 MPH (2 km/h), the feels-like temperature is 41°F (5°C). The forecast for the area calls for sunny skies and a high of 34°F (1°C). Tonight, the skies will be partly cloudy. The low will be 16°F (-9°C).
Weekend Update, Part the First
On Writing & Storytelling: Revising and Editing Scene Six
Well, true to my word, my Saturday saw a mix of work and relaxation. As I wrote in yesterday’s post, I needed to edit the few paragraphs of Scene Six that I managed to produce on Friday afternoon. As is often the case with my rough drafts, the copy I wrote – after struggling to find the right way to get started – on the last day of my regular workweek had a sound concept, but some of the wording was not as good as I hoped – most writers will tell you that this is the case with their rough drafts – and some of the details in the brief passage were either unclear or contradictory.
Because I didn’t have a complete scene – I think I only wrote 25% – 33% of what I hope to have when I finish it – it didn’t take me a long time to make revisions; I believe I only spent an hour working on Reunion: Coda yesterday, even taking into account a second pass I had to make when my friend Juan Carlos Hernandez read the scene and pointed out one of those bits where the writing was vague or contradictory in the details.
I also spent some time looking on Amazon for a good book on how to write love scenes. I could try to write one of those without buying a “how-to” guide, but since this is my first novel, I want to make sure I don’t, as the British say, bodge it when I finally get my two 2000-era leads together in Reunion: Coda’s finale.
I’m having a difficult time choosing, though. Many of the books are geared toward writing sex scenes, and although I’m not squeamish about that, I’m not sure that Reunion: Coda is a good vehicle for a scene that explicitly depicts, you know, actual sex. I need a book that will show me how to write something witty, sweet, and even perhaps suggestive, but nothing that would be NC-17 if it was written as a movie. (I’m willing to try for an R-rating, but nothing beyond that.)
Since I’m still not sure what book to get, I did not buy anything yesterday on Amazon. I’ll look again at possible titles, and if I find one that seems helpful, well-written, and (above all else) affordable, I’ll order it.
Leisure Time Activities: War Games and Music
As for the rest of my Saturday?
After my fruitless search for the “How to Write Love Scenes” book I needed, I followed my usual weekend routine of hanging out on social media, playing computer games, and listening to music. I chose to play a military-themed game, but because I’ve played Regiments so much over the past month, I decided to play Cold Waters instead.
I guess that my search for that writing book was very much on my mind when I chose my Quick Battle in the South China Sea scenario, because even though I was “in command” of USS Seawolf (SSN-21), the Navy’s best attack sub in 2000, I didn’t focus on the game as well as I should have, and my boat was seriously damaged by Chinese and Soviet torpedoes so early in the engagement that I quit the game in disgust.
And because I need to get away from my office at least for a while, I decided to listen to one of my CDs in my bedroom rather than on my desktop PC’s Amazon Music app. I picked one of the last physical media albums I purchased in Florida before The Big Move North: Tonight: Hits from the Musicals (Philips Classics, 1985).
This is a “various artists” compilation album that was released – gasp – when I was a college freshman and features 15 songs from such musicals as West Side Story, Show Boat, Girl Crazy, and Man of La Mancha. Featured artists include Kiri Te Kanawa, Jose Carreras, Jerry Hadley, Simon Estes, and Sylvia McNair.
To be frank, I originally chose this album just for McNair’s rendition of All the Things You Are (from 1939’s Very Warm for May) and not much else, but I do like the other 14 tracks. When I listen to the digital-only version of Tonight: Hits from the Musicals, I usually just choose Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s All the Things You Are because it’s my current “go-to” favorite song. But when I listen to the physical disc instead, I’ll enjoy the album from start to finish.
And that’s what I did yesterday. My ONN portable stereo is sitting in one of the “garage boxes” where I can’t get to it, so I had to use my TV and Blu-ray player to listen to Tonight in my bedroom. This allowed me to hear music on a device with slightly better audio capabilities than on my PC, as well as to get out of my office for a while.
(Don’t get me wrong. I like my office, incompletely arranged as it may be now, but I do tend to get into a set routine of my own making, a routine that eventually becomes both set in stone and a bit…stifling.)
As for my Saturday night? I tried watching Solo: A Star Wars Story, but (as is my habit) I started watching rather late, so I got sleepy and turned my TV off not long after young Han meets Chewbacca for the first time.
I don’t have much else to share, so I’ll close here. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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