Sunday Circle Archives - Page 11 of 64

The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

PETERMBALL Sunday Circle May 5, 2019

The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who follow this blog to weigh in about their goals, inspirations, and challenges for the coming week. The logic behind it can be found here. Want to be involved? It’s easy – just answer three questions in the comments or on your own blog (with a link in the comments here, so that everyone can find them).

After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all.

Then show up again next Sunday when the circle updates next, letting us know how you did on your weekly project and what you’ve got coming down the pipe in the coming week (if you’d like to part of the circle, without subscribing to the rest of the blog, you can sign-up for reminders via email here).

MY CHECK-IN

What am I working on this week?

The current project has been dubbed “Project Rad,” and it’s been progressing at a steady clip since I kicked it off back on Tuesday. The past week has involved weapons deals in comic book stores and desperate fights in stairwells, and I’m currently heading into the chapters where mentor figures appear and significant events teach the hero what will happen if things go wrong.

What’s inspiring me this week?

I’ve started reading MMA biographies ahead of the Cerberus Station Rumble redraft, and it’s been interesting to see the default narratives at work in the genre. For example, both Forrest Griffin and Ronda Rousey set out to establish themselves as underdog outsiders in the early stages of the narrative (and Griffin, under the conceit of talking technique, points out that presenting yourself as an underdog is a strategic choice in MMA).

My notebook is filled with small details to take back to the redrafting process, and at least one minor problem that I’ll need to account for in terms of fight procedures, but this is why we do research in the first place 🙂

What action do I need to take?

There’s a good chance I’ll need to adjust my expectations for the coming week, as the CPAP machine I used to breathe while sleeping has started to make weird noises and deliver far-less-effective pressure over the last few days. It’ll be going to a repair place after the public holiday is over, but it means going without a machine for a stretch. Since I’m already slipping back into the fall-asleep-while-typing, slow-to-get-up, and constantly angry territory associated with apnea, this is not going to be my best week at the keyboard.

I’m not quite ready to give up on my daily word-count quotas just yet, but I need to be mindful of the point where they stop being a goal to keep me moving forward and start being a tool for anxiety-driven self-flagellation.

The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all.

MY CHECK-IN

What am I working on this week?

I’m thinking this will be my final week on the novella draft–there’s six scenes left that need to be fleshed out, maybe three days work at the current pace. Another two scenes that will need big rewrites due to choices made elsewhere in the story.

Depending on how things go, I may start the next project on the list–an urban fantasy thriller–while letting the finished draft lie fallow before the fine-tuning edit.

What’s inspiring me this week?

I could refer you back to my post about Damon Suede’s Hothead from Tuesday on the fiction front for the book that’s got me most excited about writing at the moment. I keep dipping into a chapter here and there, breaking down the techniques employed–Suede spends a lot more time on the interiority of his characters than I tend to, and I’m intrigued by the way he keeps me interested as a reader.

What action do I need to take?

I’ve been slowly adding things back into my daily routine of late. first, getting into a groove with fiction writing. Then I added a little thesis writing on top, and them some blogging /online writing after I’d established a thesis chain.

This week I think I’d like to start adding a little editing/redrafting to the daily routine, but I haven’t got any firm idea about how to track redrafting and build up a chain of successes. Figuring out how to do so is going to be a priority, if only so I can make a call about the sustainability of editing one project while drafting another.

The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

PETERMBALL Sunday Circle April 21, 2019Sunday Circle, The Sunday Circle

After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all.

MY CHECK-IN

What am I working on this week?

I’m on the tail end of a novella draft at the moment–there’s three chapters left to right, then the “go through and fill in all the gaps” sweep where I’ll start tinkering with everything that needs to be done. Very much the tricky stage, because it’s wrapping up all the things that have been set-up in earlier chapters (I prefer set-up to conclusions. It’s more fun)

I’m also fleshing out some details for the project that will follow this novella, henceforth going under the working title Project Adelaide. At this stage, that largely means continuing my experiments with Damon Suede’s Verbalise approach and locking down a suite of tactical verbs for the major characters.

What’s inspiring me this week?

Designer Mike Monteiro appeared on my radar around a decade ago, courtesy of his Fuck You, Pay Me speech (which spoke to every freelancer’s heart). He’s a forthright, funny guy with a firm sense of belief in the value of his work, and now he’s written a book about the ethics of design–specifically User Experience design–and the ways in which bad design is currently fucking up the world.

Ruined by Design isn’t the first book about the problems with social media (among other things), but it’s one of the first I’ve read where their problems are tackled by a professional whose been immersed in the field and knows how the problems begin. Montiero’s ire is wide-spread, but of-focused on Twitter and CEO Jack Dorsey, courtesy of the fact that Montiero’s studio and Twitter were housed across the hall from one another in early days.

The book is terrifying, but also eye-opening and brilliant and occasionally touched by hope that sometimes seems hard to come by when processing the state of the world. I will, no doubt, be writing a full-length post about the book eventually, but for now…oh my god, just read it

What action do I need to take?

I’m rebuilding my ongoing process at the moment, after the long break after my dad’s death. The first stage was getting rough drafts back into my day, reigning in the impulse to “write all the thing right now” and get back to trusting that steady, regular work will add up faster than binge-writing and burning out (and it has. That novella up top? Little more than a zygote of an idea two weeks ago, and now it’s 20,000 words).

In process terms, this is the easy part. Now, after finishing my marking, I need to start grafting research, editorial, and business processes onto my day in order to start pushing things past the first draft stage. And this is where the so-much-to-do, so-little-time impulse really kicks in and encourages procrastination. Also, the part where I can’t rely on routine as much and need to make actual, hard decisions.

Which means I need to sit down and do a plan that is not 90% madness and ambition, but instead creates a to-do list from that final 10% that is actually achievable and necessary and actually-what-needs-to-get-done-around here. Take the decisions away, so I can just work my way along the list and be done with it.