A Week in the Writing Life, 16 September 2023

Chugging along as summer slowly limps out of view.

Photo by Constantin Andrei on Unsplash

I’m on the road this weekend, but let’s talk.

Home Front Stuff

It’s starting to get closer to classic Iowa early fall weather, which means you have to wear your coats to school in the morning and leave school with them tied around your waists in the afternoon. Eventually I might be able to turn off the air conditioners, but not yet.

Our family is headed back to Muscatine this weekend to attend the celebration of life for my brother in law, Rick, who passed recently. I hope everything goes as well as can be expected, especially for my sister in law and her kids. My wife Laura is quite close with her sisters and I appreciated my kids having a chance that I didn’t have, growing up near an extended family.

What I’ve Been Writing

I’ve finally gotten past the infamous sequence in The Yank Striker 2 I’ve talked about for the past few weeks where my main character makes his debut for his team. I’m also going to have to write the after party, which I think is going to be a proper night out when it’s all written down. All I have to say is the revising process will be at best an interesting process and at worst a brutal one. I’ll probably end up cutting the pre-match activities I portrayed in the rough draft by as much as two-third. Now, however, is not the time to reduce my word count, heh heh.

Many authors look at their rough drafts and want to write as much as possible. In my experiences with fan fiction, for example, there’s a tendency to write for as many words as possible, especially since there’s no cost to making your stories bigger than others online. However, I often found, even in fan fiction situations, it is a benefit to make your chapters shorter so the story doesn’t drag on forever. Breaking your story up into bite-sized pieces can help keep interest in your story. It also gives you an advantage of having a whole series of books, potentially, rather than just one big book.

(This Next Bit Could be Considered My Writing Advice for the Week)

Although this is a book based in the world of sports (specifically, the world of association football/soccer/football), one of the good questions about sports fiction is how much sport you should actually show in the story. If you base your story inside the world of sport, with athletes as main characters, it stands to reason some of this story needs to take place during either games or training for games.

However, as my friends from my writing group in Des Moines, the Iowa Writers’ Corner, put it, we read stories for the people and who they are, and not what they do. The majority of athlete’s lives are not spent either at the stadium or on the training ground, so it’s important to see them in other environments as well. One of the things I concentrated on during the revisions for The Yank Striker was trying to make the main character, DJ Ryan, into someone who was something more than just another athlete. I’d like to think I managed that from the feedback I’ve received so far, and I’d like to continue this throughout the series. So, finding a blend between all sport action (people can just watch television if they really want to see games) and no action is a delicate mix.

[HERE THERE BE SPOILERS FOR THE YANK STRIKER, SO WATCH OUT IF YOU HATE THOSE THINGS (I DON’T)]

I counted up the sports action in The Yank Striker. There’s about five different scenes of football (the gridiron/handegg kind), including both games and practices. There’s also about five scenes of games and practices involving soccer/football, as well. Most of them aren’t lengthy scenes, so that’s an advantage. So, ten scenes in all.

For the sequel (The Yank Striker 2), I’m thinking the number of these scenes needs to decrease slightly. For one thing, (BIT OF A SPOILER HERE) with one exception, all of the sports scenes will involve soccer. Another factor is the difference in time covered in both books. The Yank Striker’s story ran over the course of more than a year. Its sequel will cover somewhere between six and nine months, so I will have less room to leisurely cover soccer action in Part Two.

After all, I can always add scenes in the revisions if I really want to.

What I’ve Been Doing Having to Do With Writing

Does anyone else on this platform feel pressure to post on Substack Notes all the time? I mean, it is useful to get the word out, even if it might not have the same reach as Twitter in the old days or even Threads¹ nowadays. However, I don’t think I need to be on there every day. It’s not like I have profound thoughts to write about at all hours.

I might get used to it someday. Sometimes I just need to kick back and get on a Substack Notes binge. But I need the writing time, especially on days when it takes me a while to get a hard 500 words written before heading off to bed.

What I’ve Been Reading/General Recommendations

I’ll get back on this more eventually, but I saw this interesting three-part series starting on the On Substack page about how to create a consistent writing habit. I believe I’ve done a far better job with this than I did as a younger man, but I’m curious to hear what advice they have.

How to create a consistent writing habit

Where I’ll Be and Where You Can Find my Books

Here’s my upcoming appearances:

• From 12-6 p.m. Sunday, Oct 1, I’ll be at the Windsor Heights Book Fair, 1141 69th St., Windsor Heights, and it is their second annual event. I’ll be joining 20 other local authors appearing there. I also need to mention this is also going to be a fund-raiser as well, as there will be a free-will donation to one of the local food banks in the area. I talked about this on Wednesday, and I’d love to see people there.

• From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at MERGE, 136 Dubuque St., Iowa City, as part of the Iowa City Book Festival that week.

  I really should mention this fair is going to be part of a week-long festival throughout Iowa City from Oct. 8-15. Among the authors and artists hosting events throughout the week are John Irving, Jonathan Lethem, and Werner Herzog. I’m a bit chuffed I won’t be able to make it to many of the events because A, it’s a school week for the most part, and B, I’m far to far away in south central Iowa just to bop on up to Iowa City. I’d urge anyone who might be able to make it to Iowa City that week to click on the link in this paragraph and check out all of the different activities throughout the week.
  I will be there at the book fair, and I do look forward to seeing all of you who are able to make it.

• And from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, I will be at the Elwell Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds as part of the 8th Annual Indie Author Book Expo. Shockingly, this will be the first time I’ve spent any significant time at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. After more than 40 years of living in Iowa, I’ve only really driven past them a few times. I’m not sure if that makes me a bad Iowan or a contrary one.

More events will be here if they come up, although they’ll likely slow down during the winter months.

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I’ve got links to my books in paperback and ebook format in the sidebar here, but you can get them in person at these fine Iowa bookstores:

• Beaverdale Books, 2629 Beaver Ave # S1, Des Moines

• Pella Books, 824 Franklin St, Pella

• The Book Vault, 105 S Market St, Oskaloosa.

I highly recommend all three places.

Writing Quote(s) of the Week

This week, how about we go with a couple of inspirational writing quotes, in a general sense. You may be familiar with them, or you may not. Here they are, anyway.

My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.
― Ernest Hemingway

And…

Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Final Thoughts

I always love hearing from people in the comments or by DMs, so say hi or let me know what made you push the subscribe button or what might tempt you to do so.

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1. By the way, every time I think of the word Threads, I think of the 1984 film shown on BBC television about the effects of nuclear war on Britain in a World War III situation. If you’re the person who thinks Cormac McCarthy is a bit too cheery, this is probably the movie for you. Personally, I think they should screen this for any world leader who has access to nukes.