27 September 2019

I’m largely offline today, so here’s a glimpse at the planning document for a future Brain Jar series. This is poking at a story idea that sits about halfway through an 8-book run.

My grandmother passed away yesterday morning, and today I’m running on too little sleep and a fresh hit of grief in a year that’s already been heavy on grieving. I’m going to be paring back expectations on the writing front for a stretch, trying to winnow down process to the bare minimum of things that need doing right now.

Snoots and Roundabouts

I snapped this photograph while waiting at the door before Write Club yesterday. The snoot is donate by Lulu, a regular feature on the inimitable Angela Slatter’s Instagram.

Today I’m off to the sunshine coast, where my grandmother is in hospital. She’s in her nineties and hasn’t been in great shape the last few times we caught up. She went into palliative care for a bit, but rallied later in the day and moved back into regular care.

Regular blogging will resume at some point, but it’s fairly clear at this point that 2019 is not a year where regular anything is possible.

On the plus side, it’s also a year that’s taught me the value of appreciating dog snoots, toe beans, good friends, and the rare moments when everything has been running smoothly and you’re free to put your focus on a single project.

Movable Objects

Over the last few weeks my laptop has taken on an increasingly stationary role. I’ve pulled it away from the current set-up exactly twice–once for Write Club and an afternoon at the university, and once when it was necessary to write away from the desk due to other things going on in the flat. the rest of the time it’s sat in the same spot, with the same peripherals plugged in or attached to the bluetooth. Surrounded by the same tools, the same books, the same project notes.

After two or three years of migrating around the flat two or three times every work day, the steady routine of being able to just sit and write is surprising.

Of course, give that it’s Wednesday as this post goes live, I’m probably engaging in my once-weekly ritual of carting the computer across town to get work done.

On the downside, I’ve been in a stretch of letting my phones get smarter again. More notifications, more access to distracting stuff. Just as making the laptop less movable has had some surprising benefits, it may be time to dumb down the tools that get used for jobs that aren’t writing.