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?

I’m working on short story that’s a slightly off-kilter portal fantasy where kids are sent to another world for the holidays. Having just made the very on-the-nose The Last Battle reference that will probably not survive to the final draft, I finally get to the bit where I get to engage in some fun secondary world hi-jinx.

What’s inspiring me this week?

So I wanted Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and– Nope. Can’t even finish that sentence as a joke. My dislike of Snyder films remains strong, even if I’m pretty sure I had a minor epiphany about putting together effective bad guys while comparing Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor to Hans Gruber in Die Hard.

What’s really interested me this week has been Riverdale TV series, based on the Archie comics. There’s been some incredibly weird re-interpretations of the Archie gang in the comics over the last few years, most of which have paid off really well, so it’s not really surprising this continues that trend. It’s high melodrama, as you’d expect, but the entire thing has been filtered through Twin Peaks and five years of internet commentary on intersectionality and representation.

What part of my project an I avoiding?

The portal fantasy is still more premise than plot, so I’ll need to figure out some deeper narrative issues to work through now that the introductory bits and voice are starting to come together. Still haven’t quite got my routine down either, what with everything getting rescheduled and shifted around last week, so I still need to really sit down and lock down a schedule for when writing will happen.

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?

With my day-job contract finished up I am basically back in writing-land. I’ve got a short-story to redraft and some notes for one that’s following it, which should keep me busy as I get back into the swing of things.

What’s inspiring me this week?

So I basically inhaled the first season of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries in the space of twenty-four hours, which I’ve been meaning to do for ages and bumped up the viewing list after Theodora Goss’s post about Miss Fisher and the Female Gaze. It’s an extraordinarily charming show, but also incredibly clever, and I am looking forward to tracking down all the books now as part of PhD research.

What part of my project an I avoiding?

I’ve been letting planning slip for a few weeks now, while finishing off the day-job contract. Ironically, I’ve been doing this while re-reading Work Clean, which has large chunks about putting planning in the centre of your process rather than treating it as a time-consuming adjunct, so I am both avoiding like crazy and increasingly aware how useful actually sucking it up and doing the planning will probably be..

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?

Not a lot of writing for me in the coming week, as I’ll be wrapping up my blogging gig, getting back into the rhythm of GenreCon now I’m bac at QWC one day a week, and making sure I’ve got everything I need to get organised ahead of the PhD kicking off on January 31.

What’s inspiring me this week?

I’m compiling a list of stories set in the early nineteen hundreds as research for a coming project, which has led me back to to a re-watch Penny Dreadful and Luc Besson’s adaptation of The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-sec.

Part of what I’m looking at is the use of the time period as the basis for SF/Fantasy works, without necessarily drifting towards Steampunk. The Penny Dreadful episodes do a great job with this – the most overt signs of industrialisation lie in Caliban’s backstory.

What part of my project an I avoiding?

I’ve got a checklist and seven different documents to read ahead of my PhD commencement meeting on the 31st, which covers all sorts of exciting topics like Occupational Health and Safety during the degree, and the internet code of conduct. Probably not the most arduous job of the week, given how much time it’s likely to take up, but I’ve been avoid it for a week now.