‘Reunion: Coda’ Writer’s Weekend Work and Novel Update

Late Morning, Saturday, July 27, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

Hi, everyone. It’s a sunny and cool (but gradually warming up) summer day here in what for now is my corner of New England. I’ve been up since just past six in the morning and I’ve already had a light breakfast, so now I’m in the blog-writing phase of my day, and soon I’ll be deciding whether today will be either a workday or a relaxing Saturday.

Ideally, I should take today off and rest. I somehow managed to sleep well for two nights in a row, and yesterday I wrote a rough draft of Chapter 19’s second scene. (More on this in a moment.) I’m still tired; I’m stressing over my impending move back to South Florida – I don’t have the exact move-out date yet, but it’s at the end of next month – so even when I “sleep well” I still wake up an hour or two before 7 AM. And today, not surprisingly, I feel the symptoms of a cold, thanks to a slightly weaker immune system.

But as much as I’d like to enjoy the summer weekend up here in the New Hampshire mountains, I am also mindful that if I want to publish Reunion: Coda before I move, I need to work on the manuscript at least two hours a day, otherwise I’d have to put the novel on hold until I arrive in Miami and get settled there. I lost about a month of writing time when I had to get ready to move from Lithia to Madison; I don’t want to do that again.

I’ll be working this weekend, even if it’s only for a partial “writing shift.” I’m not exactly thrilled, but my social calendar isn’t full either.

A Writer’s Progress in His First-Novel’s Journey

Yesterday, after several days in which my well of creativity was bone dry, I produced a reasonably well-written first draft of the second scene for Chapter 19 (The Storm Breaks: New York City, March 2000). It wasn’t easy. Even though I didn’t start the afternoon shift too much later than usual  (I shoot for a 2 PM start time; yesterday I was at my desk at 2:45 PM), I stared at my PC’s screen for almost an hour before I typed “The office of Henry Townsend, PhD, is a stark contrast to the bustling energy of Columbia University’s campus outside, where the chill of an early spring day in Manhattan lingers in the air. It’s just past noon on St. Patrick’s Day, and the weather is as uncertain as the mood that hangs over the city….”

Once that first line was on my Word document, the words started flowing again after being blocked by recent stress. By 5:30 PM, I managed to write 792 words across 22 paragraphs. While I didn’t reach my daily goal of 1,000 words for what I believed was the final day of the workweek, I completed the scene in a ‘revised draft’ form, which exceeded my expectations considering my distress over yet another move in less than nine months since arriving in New England.

Based on some of the (bad) self-published works of fiction I’ve bought over the years, some indie writers would be satisfied with their barely revised (or unrevised) copy if it even barely resembled Scene Two as it reads now before I revise it. Not me, though. I like most of Scene Two; the worldbuilding is decent, the characters are well written and aren’t behaving inconsistently with how they were established, and the dialogue sounds realistic and flows naturally.

But I think the scene is still a bit too short, and there needs to be more dramatic tension in the conversation in Prof. Henry Townsend’s office between the three characters in Scene Two (Townsend, Nicole Boisvert, and Jim Garraty). I’ll work on it when I return to my desk after my midday lunch and rest break.

As for the latest stats on Reunion: Coda, here is where things stand now:

• Number of Chapters (including the Prologue): 18 completed, one in progress (two scenes written – yay)
• Number of Pages: 421 (6″ X 9″ size paper)
• Number of Words: 105,049

I’ll wrap things up here since I don’t have much to add, especially nothing cheerful. But if any of my old friends or connections who buy books are interested and can afford it, please think about buying Reunion: A Story in e-book or paperback. A boost in sales would brighten my spirits and the royalties would really help me out. It’d also motivate me to continue with Reunion: Coda.