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?

This week is all about getting You Don’t Want to Be Published released on Wednesday and getting set up for my first week of tutoring at University come Thursday, but I’ll be getting some work in on Hell Track (and, hopefully, restarting the project diary) around the edges.

What’s inspiring me this week?

My partner picked Dear White People as our Saturday night viewing and we ended up mainlining the entire first series in one fell swoop. It’s a show that excels at complex characters and the writing is incredibly good.

What action do I need to take?

After firing up the pomodoro app yesterday morning to tackle some housework stuff that I’d been ignoring for weeks, I’m largely inclined to say start using the fricken’ Pomodoro technique to track writing again. I’d been doing pretty well with it until the week leading into confirmation, then forgot to pick it up again after the anxiety receded and my focus edged back towards normal levels.

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 bulk of this week is given over to finishing the first act of Hell Track and getting started on the second act. This means I’m well behind on my six-week project sprint, but getting through my PhD confirmation saw me running at high anxiety for three straight days and I struggled to step away from that state once the confirmation was done. In the end, I declared much of last week a wash so I could focus on my mental health, with the goal of re-starting the sprint on Monday.

What’s inspiring me this week?

So Black Panther is pretty phenomenal, and a great example of making an action movie that’s about something other than the action. Just a gorgeously realised bit of SF with a strong, beating heart running underneath it, and easily the kind of story that you watch and aspire to make. The nice part about the last week has been the number of articles about how it was done – not just from director Ryan Coogler, but about the costuming and design that play a big part in the setting.

What action do I need to take?

There’s ten days until the scheduled release date for You Don’t Want To Be Published and I’ve got a list of final proofing notes, in addition to finalising all of the meta-data details that get entered and re-entered at every sale site.

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 first half of my week will be given over to finally preparing and delivering my PhD confirmation presentation and doing the associated meetings. That’s on my plate after Tuesday, which means my primarily focus shifts back to Hell Track and trying to move into the third and forth sequences.

What’s inspiring me this week?

If you missed Mary Robinette Kowal’s 47th Birthday post, in which she breaks down the process of drafting a story from idea to execution, I’d strongly urge you to go and check it out. There’s little things to pick up at almost every stage that Kowal is writing about, from breaking an idea into a story (which I’ve rarely seen handled in such an efficient, procedural way – it’s something I’m going to steal and start modifying for my own process) through to scene-planning process that she’s using.

As a bonus, I’m also going to mention a specific episode of Writing Excuses season 11 where they talk about the Elemental Genre of Humor. I’ve mentioned season 11 as being a particularly great run of the podcast on this blog and in my newsletter, but this episode has fundamentally changed the way I watch comedy shows by giving me terminology and analytic tools that gives me a way of breaking down and understanding what they’re doing.

What action do I need to take?

I’ve got a bunch of paperwork to fill out and training courses to book into ahead of teaching in a few weeks, and I’ve got two reports to review and prepare responses to ahead of my confirmation meeting on Tuesday. Mostly, this is a symptom of a larger problem with doing the six-week project sprit – because I don’t plan my day and make project decisions in the morning as a default, I haven’t really figured out how and when I do basic maintenance tasks like answering emails and processing inboxes.

This is rapidly becoming something I need to address.