Musings & Thoughts for Thursday, July 18, 2024, or: A Sad (Ninth) Anniversary Poses Challenges for Newbie Novelist

Midday/Early Afternoon, Thursday, July 18, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

It’s a typical hot and sticky summer day here in eastern New Hampshire, and it also happens to be nine years since I last talked to my mom. She was thankful that I was there to help her take a couple of tramadol pills for her back pain. It was super-hot and muggy that day in South Florida, and it looked like it might pour any minute. Between the day’s heat, how tired she was, and the calmness from the meds, my mom quickly fell asleep—and that was the last time we ever talked because she didn’t wake up to chat with me again.

I’ve talked about this event before and don’t want to go back into it. I’m bringing it up now just because its anniversary gets to me every time, reminding me how much I dislike those overused sayings like “time heals all wounds” and “everything happens for a reason.” These feelings aren’t just mine; they’re also shared by Jim Garraty, a character in my next book Reunion: Coda.

You know, I’m really set on getting Reunion: Coda done and out there because I want to keep a promise I made to my mom when I was just 15. Back then, I didn’t really get how tough it would be, but I told her one day I’d write a novel that she’d love and be proud of.

So yeah, there’s more to it; Peter C. Townsend, the journalism teacher I had back in the day and someone I looked up to, pushed me last year to not let my writing skills gather dust. Plus, fans of Reunion: A Story (you know, the one that brought James K. “Jim” Garraty into the picture) have been on my case for a follow-up. And sure, I made good on this other vow to my mom when I was just a know-it-all teenager – said I’d write a movie script that would get produced. But by wrapping up Reunion: Coda, I’ll be fulfilling a promise I made to both my mom and myself 46 years back.

(Obviously, I’ve got a couple more reasons to wrap up and self-publish Reunion: Coda. For starters, I’m stoked to read the final version as if I’m not the one who wrote it – a lot of writers say they write stories that they wish other people would come up with. That’s totally me. Also, I’m not expecting this to be my breakout hit like The Hunt for Red October or Carrie, but a little bit of recognition and some cash wouldn’t hurt. Nothing wrong with dreaming, huh?)

Action This Day

I’m aware that staying steady, emotionally, is going to be tough today. But, like always, I’m aiming to keep to my normal work schedule. Given how I’m feeling and the time, I doubt I’ll get to writing the second scene of Chapter 19 today. If anything, maybe I’ll just draft an outline after my lunch break, which I’m already running late for, and get to the actual writing tomorrow.

I’m not really into outlines, and for the better part of Reunion: Coda‘s creative process since March 2023, I managed to dodge them. But recently, a few things have made me switch up my approach, and these days I find myself sketching out scenes before diving into writing them.  

I’m not really into it, and yeah, it slows me down a lot, but given that my surroundings play a big role in changing how I write, affect my mood, and mess with my creativity, I ended up having to use outlines to put together new scenes.

No matter if I go with a more freeform style of winging it as I write, or if I stick to a tight outline before diving into each scene, I’ve come a long way since I began working on Reunion: Coda, especially after going back and tweaking the novella that turned into the first book of my unexpected Reunion Duology.

So here’s the scoop on where I landed in my adventure as a newbie novelist as of yesterday evening:

• Number of Chapters, including the Prologue: 18 completed, 1 in progress
• Number of Pages, Based on a 6” X 9” Page Size Format: 417
• Number of Words: 104,252

It’s funny, I used to stress over writing those 500-word essays or those massive 20-page research papers back in my college days.