Musings & Thoughts for Friday, March 15, 2024, or: A Tale of Rain, Snow, and Storytelling Decisions

Late Morning, Friday, March 15, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

Hi, everyone. Friday has arrived, but it is not a “lovely early spring morning” here in eastern New Hampshire. Currently, the temperature is 34°F (1°C) with light rain and snow falling. With humidity at 100% and the wind blowing from the north-northeast at 4 MPH (7 KmH), the feels-like temperature is 37°F (3°C). Today’s forecast is, in a word, yucky. We can expect more light rain and snow throughout the day, and the high will be 43°F. Tonight, the skies will be mostly cloudy – but no precipitation! – and the low will be 31°F (-1°C).

It’s so dark now (10 AM EST) that I had to turn on the light in my office. I usually don’t need to do that during the day because this room has a nice window that lets in a lot of sunlight when I have my curtains open. It’s not nighttime dark, but the cloud cover is total, and the sun is not breaking through the veil of grey-black clouds, so….

At least it’s not a thunderstorm…no lightning or thunder. That’s good, right?

On Writing & Storytelling: Tweaking What I’ve Written…and Preparing for the Next Chapter

If you’re a regular reader of A Certain Point of View, Too, you might remember that I finished Scene Seven of Goodbye, Farewell, and Adios earlier this week, thus ending both Jim Garraty’s South Miami High School arc and Reunion: Coda’s 13^th chapter. (I don’t like numbering chapters; I give them titles instead.)

Now, when I finish a chapter in the manuscript, I usually do one of two things, depending on how clear the plot of my novel is in my head. If I have a solid idea for “what happens next” in the story (especially in the Present Day chapters featuring Jim in his mid-30s), I can and sometimes will start the next chapter right away so I don’t lose either momentum or a good grip on the story.

(In other words, if I can easily answer the question “Well, what happens next?” after I finish a scene or a chapter, I don’t pause for one to three days to review, revise, or edit what I’ve just written. If I can’t, even if I have a vague idea of what I want my characters to experience – either good or bad – then I devote a huge amount of time to tweaking the stuff I’ve written so far. I focus more on the newer material, but I also go over stuff in the previous chapters to ensure that everything is consistent and…makes sense.)

One thing I’ve learned about writing fiction (especially in a story that has elements of romance fiction) is that if you write a story that doesn’t have complications – or “dramatic conflict” – your readers will get bored fast. Sure, most aficionados of “kissing books” want a happy ending, and while Reunion: Coda is not strictly a romance novel in the style of those published by Avon or Harlequin, it is a love story (with a soupcon of coming-of-age story added for good measure).

So, as much as I want to rush to the finish and give Jim Garraty (my “I-guy”) his rendezvous with true love, I need to give his Present Day story arc a bit more dramatic tension, otherwise, I’ll get bored  with the “kissing book” elements…and so will the reader.

Today being a Friday, I do not believe that I will press ahead with Chapter 14. I have a vague concept about the plot twists that are coming; I’ve already set up one that is related to Jim’s job as a professor of history at Columbia University in Chapter 12 (the one with the emails), but I also need to think about Maddie’s return to NYC after her work-related trip to her hometown of London, England. The two plot twists are connected, but I haven’t figured out if I’m going to set Chapter 14 immediately after the events mentioned in The Chapter with the Emails or do a time jump to the week after Maddie’s homecoming.

Also, I don’t want to start working on a new chapter on the eve of my weekend break. Suppose that I did start Chapter 14 this afternoon and wrote a kickass opening scene. Well, even if I didn’t end the scene with a “cliffhanger” (either a happy or sad one), I would spend Saturday and Sunday fretting about whether I should stop resting my brain (and eyes and typing fingers) and go ahead and work on the novel instead.

Accordingly, I will devote some of my time today to…you guessed it…reading, reviewing, editing, and – if necessary – rewriting existing copy.

I’ll also read from one of the three “how to write romance fiction” references that I bought recently to learn…how to write effective “kissing book” scenes. I want to avoid writing a boring conclusion to Reunion: Coda, so I need to, as my younger self might have said back in high school or college, do my homework first.

Well, I don’t have much else to say, so I’ll just close this post now. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.