Sunday Circle

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?

As the tenor of my blogging may have suggested, a lot of plans went out the window over the last week–one member of my family got diagnosed with cancer, while another fell over and broke their hip, had surgery yesterday, and now have a lengthy hospital stay while they heal and rehab. Given that it’s the family member who has advanced Parkinsons and dementia, said hospital stay and rehab is going to be all kinds of tricky. 

So my main task for the coming week has moved away from “getting writing done” and towards “be part of people’s support network,” with a schedule of hospital visits and getting-people-to-specialists that cuts into th larger blocks of writing time.

I still have goals on the writing front, but my focus is pretty much lowered to “get some writing done every day.” I’m less worried about which projects I’m working on, and more worried about keeping my practice as active as I can during a week high in distraction and stress. I tote my notebook containing my thesis draft with me when I’m on the move, so it tends to get the bulk of my attention by virtue of being the easiest to access.

What’s inspiring me this week?

My reading took a big hit over the last seven days, but we finished the second season of The Dragon Prince on Netflix. This show remains a glorious experience, taking the very familiar tropes of a D&D style epic quest fantasy and quietly updating them so they’re fresh and new. The second season has some great fantasy action sequences–the dragon vs castle fight is brilliant–and the way the narrative pushes characters to make choices they don’t want to make is just great, great storytelling.

What action do I need to take?

I cancelled a lot of stuff that was easy to cancel when my dad went into hospital, but there’s still a couple of more complex commitments that were both not-so-easy-to-cancel, but also not-high-on-my-priority-list-now that need to be rescheduled. Beyond that, the coming week is one where I get done what I get done. 

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?

I spent a large chunk of last week working on a single scene in the novella that I’m writing for my thesis, breaking down the conventions that exist within the genre and how I’ll be fulfilling them and delivering a few surprises that showcase the things that make this story its own thing. More work than I’ve done for a single scene in years, and largely invisible to the reader, but I’m starting to get a handle on how to make this particular story work.

This week will be typing that scene up after hand writing a rough, then thinking about the implications that ripple out through other scenes I’ve got written.

What’s inspiring me this week?

So, years after it was one of the hottest books on the planet, I finally got around to reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It’s a really good whydoneit book that, where the who is kinda secondary to the uncovering of why everything takes place, and I spent the day reading process scribbling notes as I pulled apart the way it did things.

What action do I need to take?

Editing. There’s a big chunk of redraft-and-editing work on my todo list that I’m largely ignoring at the moment, but needs to get its time in the scene. May be time to break out the kitchen timer and track pomodoros for a bit.

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?

I finished the draft on my ghost story last week, so it’s sitting fallow for a few days before I start redrafting. In its place, I’ve slotted a new story about Los Angeles, loneliness, and kaiju into the parts of my week where I work on short fiction, while my long-form block continues to be devoted to the first draft of a thesis novella.

The latter is giving me some issues, though–it’s ostensibly a Aliens-esque space marine story, but I’m not yet convinced that I’ve found the twist that makes it an interesting take on the genre. Since this tends to govern the voice I’m using, I’m going to be spending this week trying out several options. 

What’s inspiring me this week?

I’m a huge fan of Elizabeth Bear‘s work in general, and Katherine Adderson’s Goblin Emperor has been one of the best fantasies I’ve read in years, so I sat down to read their co-written novella about Kit Marlowe with a great deal of interest. The Cobbler’s Boy proved to be a pleasant surprise–no fantasy elements, despite the background both writers have in the genre, but rather a historical crime/thriller with a young adult protagonist. 

It’s not a book that’s going to leap out and surprise you with pyrotechnics, just an incredibly solid and subtle tale that’s incredibly well done, and an absolute pleasure to read. 

What action do I need to take?

Exercise has swung back onto my priority list, along with the reminder that I’ve got a trio of health issues that will adversely affect my ability to get work done and all of them are exacerbated by inactivity and being overweight.

After a few weeks of trying to fit it into my evenings, I found myself walking in the mornings this weekend and kicking off the day with an hour of walking around the block before all the distractions start fraying my attention. Not sure how it will fit around the morning routine in my household, but I’m going to give it a try for the next week and see if I can find a solution that doesn’t disrupt my partner’s mornings or mine in adverse ways.