Sunday Circle

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

PETERMBALL Sunday Circle ,

And lo, we have made it to the end of 2018, navigating the wasteland between Christmas and New Years where time seems to lose all meaning due to the disruption in our routines. We aren’t sure which days are public holidays. We aren’t even sure what day it is today.

Rest assured, today is a Sunday, which means it’s time for….
Sunday Circle Banner

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?

This week is going to be be nearly 100% thesis time, locking down the conference paper I’m going to be delivering on the 22nd of January. It’s a major source of stress in my life at the moment, so I’m throwing approximately 20 hours of work at it in the name of having a draft down with plenty of time for refinement.

There’s some light writing work going on around the edges–mostly blogging work–but I’m setting aside fiction projects until the paper is done.

What’s inspiring me this week?

Part of me is very tempted to say Aquaman here, since most of my reading this week has been non-fiction oriented, but in truth it wasn’t the film that really blew my mind. I loved it in all it’s glorious, over-the-top idiocy, certainly, but what really got me excited this week was discovering the concept of Maximalism while looking up a soundtrack song from another film entirely.

It turns out that Maximalism is a pretty good description of Aquaman’s appeal–something I’d previously been referring to “this film gives no fucks about subtlety”–and for the appeal of James Wan’s work in general. And, having given it a name, it becomes something that can be explored within the context of a particular aesthetic philosophy and applied to fiction.

What action do I need to take?

I blogged about my new time-tracking habit yesterday and the process continues to be going really well, but part of it involves sitting down and transferring the data into an ongoing archive where I can really take a close look at where my time is going.

I’ve been really good at the tracking of half-hours, but I’m yet to actually devote a few minutes to the task of transferring all the details into a spreadsheet (and fear that may be a point of resistance for me, based upon my current reluctance to actually do it).

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

PETERMBALL Sunday Circle

‘Twas the week around Christmas and New Years,
and all through the land,
self-employed artists were fretting,
about their families Holiday demands…

If this sounds familiar, come join me for this week’s edition of the Sunday Circle, where we’ll set some intentions for the coming week and talk about the stuff that’s a little too knotty to get finished right now.

Sunday Circle Banner

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?

My partner’s on Holidays and there’s commitments on both Xmas and Boxing Day, to say nothing of the upcoming New Years. I’m keeping my expectations low on creative projects this week–whatever progress I make on Warhol Sleeping and the Space MMA story are the progress I make for the week. The wordcount goal is around 9,000, based upon my “work” days.

What’s inspiring me this week?

I read the first three novellas in Mark Dawnson’s Beatrix Rose series and really, really loved them.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Mark Dawson’s John Milton series–it’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I already have more Jack Reacher books to read and I’m not really looking for a character to supplement those.

Beatrix Rose doesn’t fit as neatly into the paradigm. Dawson’s done a couple of interviews where he’s referenced the fact that Beatrix Rose is his homage to Tarantino’s Kill Bill, and that subtle shift in focus makes an incredible difference in the tone of the story. 

What action do I need to take?

I need to take another look at how I’m ordering my day, both within the microcosm of this week and the larger framework. I’ve been spending the last two hours of my work day in the local foodcourt, but the combination of a Queensland heatwave and ongoing construction there have made it untenably hot for a long-term workspace. 

It’s been a good prompt to start looking for other ways of using that two-hour block, and maybe picking a venue where I’ll be required to do a little walking given that exercise has largely fallen by the wayside in the last two or three months. 

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

PETERMBALL Sunday Circle

It’s been a long, complicated week, as they tend to be at this time of the year. New Years is coming, people go on holiday, and managing your focus is a necessity if you want to get things done. If you’ve been feeling the drag on you projects this week, come join me for this week’s instalment of:Sunday Circle Banner

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 hit the halfway point on my conference paper this week, which means I’m in pretty good shape to get the second half done by the end of December and allow myself a nice rewriting window before it’s due. The main goal this week is doing a re-read of the sample books I’m talking about, making notes with reference to the key things I’m arguing.

I also broke the deadlock I was in with the final act of Warhol Sleeping over the last few days, largely by doing rough scene sketches of the new scenes before I try to write them. This week’s goal will be writing a “this is not my beautiful house” chapter, leading up to a big action sequence in the next chapter.

What’s inspiring me this week?

It’s that time of the year where I re-read productivity and process-based books, familiarising myself with the a basics. Work Clean has featured prominently, and I’ve been revisiting The Weekend Novelist for its approach to storyboarding a novel, which is great when I get really stuck on something and just want to get down a rough draft of the bad version before I do the good one. 

What action do I need to take?

With the Short Fiction Lab series running and using a unified design, I’ve been debating whether to re-brand the existing short story collections to fit in with the style. I’m running through different iterations of the original design (pictured below), trying to find something that fits, but I feel like I’ve been staring at it for too long. 

At some point, I need to pick one and go for it–especially since I’m working on the print edition in the coming weeks–but overcoming the decision paralysis is hard.