Musings & Thoughts for Monday, May 6, 2024, or: Weekend Update, Part the Second…and a New Workweek Starts!

Late Morning, Monday, May 6, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

Hello and welcome to another blog post from my corner of Madison. It’s a gray, even moody spring day here. Currently, the temperature is 53°F (13°C) under cloudy skies. With the wind blowing from the south-southwest at 2 MPH (3 Km/H) and humidity at 83%, the feels-like temperature is 61°F (16°C). Today’s forecast calls for scattered light rain showers and a high of 75°F (24°C). Tonight, we can expect mostly clear skies and a low of 41°F (5°C).

Yesterday, of course, was Sunday, which is usually a day off from working on Reunion: Coda and one when I try to rest and relax so I can start my workweek with at least a semblance of a rested and creative mind. Accordingly, I spent most of my day watching Star Wars: Andor, listening to various digital albums on my Amazon Music app, and playing several computer games, including Regiments.

However, yesterday wasn’t all about rest and relaxation. Late in the evening, I opened the Google Drive document file with a copy of the Reunion: Coda manuscript that I share with Denise Longrie, my Beta Reader. I’d added  most – but not all – of Chapter 15 to that file last week (I still need to do that for the last scene!), so before I logged off last night, I decided to check if Denise had had time to read and evaluate what I’d written for that chapter before last Tuesday.

As it turns out, Denise read the first five scenes of Chapter 15 and left me her assessment. Here it is in its entirety:

This is nice and sweet. I enjoyed it. The only thing I would change is to make the phone call with Mark a little shorter. I’d let Mark bitch about his real estate business for a sentence or two, just to remind the reader that he has a life independent of Jim and high school connections.

Normally, I would have waited until the workweek started – in this case, today – to act upon a recommendation to revise a passage in the manuscript. However, this suggestion was straightforward and not difficult to act upon; the passage in question wasn’t terribly long, and the bit that could be edited out easily wasn’t necessary for this particular chapter.

So, even though Sunday was (mostly) Fun Day – or as much of a Fun Day that I can have here in rural New Hampshire – I did work on the novel yesterday, even though it only took 10 minutes or so…and it was at night, which is usually not my best time for writing.

On Writing & Storytelling: Action This Day

Today, of course, is the first day of a new workweek, so I will be sticking to my Monday-Friday schedule of blogging in the morning, which I’ll follow ASAP with a two-hour break for self-care, lunch, and rest. It’s not a good day to think about going outside, but I’ll keep my eyes on the weather so if there’s no rain here in Eidelweiss District, I can at least step out on the front porch and get some UV rays through the cloud cover.

After that, of course, it’s Novel Writing Time. I usually strive to work an average of four hours a day on Reunion: Coda; whether or not I stop at the four-hour mark depends on whether I finish a scene (I usually try to write a scene per day) early or late. If I complete a scene before, say, 6 PM (assuming I start writing at 2 PM), I quit for the day, even if it’s 4:30 or 5 PM.  If it’s past the four-hour mark but I’m close to finishing or still have good energy levels, I’ll keep working until I reach the scene’s end.

Sometimes, though, I’ll write…and write…and write…through a complete shift and end up with half – and, many times, less than that – a scene. When that happens, I’ll just stop writing and resume working on that part of the story the next day.

Today, my Action Plan is to begin Chapter 16 and move Reunion: Coda onward. I want to publish the novel – at the earliest – between mid-July and early August, so if I can finish the next few chapters between now and late June, I might meet that deadline. Thus, the sooner I start the new chapter, the better my chances of reaching the finish line.

As for where I stand, statistically speaking, on the novel’s progress as of May 6, 2024:

• Number of Pages (6 x 9 paper size): 363
• Number of Words: 91,703

I’m happy with the progress I’ve made so far, but I know there’s still a lot of work ahead of me. I hope today will be a productive day and I’ll be able to write at least one scene for Reunion: Coda, the second and final book in my coming-of-age/romantic duology. Thank you for following my journey as a writer and for your support and encouragement. If you haven’t read Reunion: A Story (Book 1) yet, you can get it now on Amazon and other booksellers in paperback and Kindle, or check the free preview on the Amazon Kindle widget at the foot of this post. I wish you all a good day and happy reading!