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’ve finally chained together a couple of consecutive writing days, which means I should finish a short story draft this afternoon. Once that’s done, I’ve got a different short story that I want to get redrafted into submission-ready form by the end of the week.
What’s inspiring me this week?
I’m about half-way through China Mieville’s short story collection, Three Moments of an Explosion, which is one of those collections packed full of stories that make me want to sit down and write short stories. The Dowager of Bees is probably worth the price of admission alone.
What part of my project an I avoiding?
I’ve got a couple of applications for projects I want to do next year, but I’ve been putting them off while things were crazy. Time to start double-checking deadlines and requirements, then start getting the various supporting documents together.
I’ve ended up taking a short, unscheduled break from writing newsletters over the last fourteen days. Regular GenrePunk Ninja transmissions will resume
Like many of you, I have good weeks and bad weeks on the writing front. This week has been rocky, and if
Welcome to GenrePunk Ninja supplemental, where I occasionally post foundational essays written before I launched the GenrePunk Ninja newsletter, especially if they’re
21 Responses
Huzzah for consecutive writing days!!
I’ve been meaning to check out China Mieville’s stuff for ages too. I might try and get my hands on a copy of Three Moments of an Explosion – it sounds pretty up my alley.
And hey, my Sunday Circle is here.
You might be aware of it already Sophie, but if you love messed up documentaries, have you listened to The Dollop‘s podcast at all? They explore the strangest and most disturbing parts of American (and sometimes Australian) history with a wonderfully irreverent tone. (I hope I haven’t mentioned it before – I recommend it to anyone who’ll stand still long enough!)
Regarding the plot work – is there a way you can potentially abstract out the information you need to massage from the plot so you can treat that plot rejigging as an intellectual exercise, and not dread the downstream work it’s going to create for you?
Oooo, I haven’t listened to The Dollop before! It definitely sound sup my alley though, so thanks. 🙂 I’ll check it out.
I can potentially abstract the information? It’s just something that has a lot of ramifications on characters emotionally, and I guess I worry that the effect won’t come through as felt enough, if that makes sense. It’s worth a shot though!
Yeah, I probably phrased that poorly – thinking abstraction in terms of getting it intellectually/emotionally far enough away from the mental exhaustion triggering at the thought of having to make the changes happen, so you can enjoy the intellectual/analytical challenge of solving the problem of rippling those changes out.
Let me know how you go with The Dollop – it’s one of a few podcasts I listen to religiously.
What am I working on this week?
Hustling on one long-form narration work while waiting for another to land.
Progressing website for voice over consulting services.
Building a comfortable backlog with Now Playing so it’s not constantly just-in-time creation.
Skills development on photographic composition, sound editing tools and learning Russian.
What’s inspiring me this week?
I’m falling down a piratey rabbit hole thanks to the lore explored in Uncharted 4. There’s something about the intersection of mavericks and rogues setting their own destiny outside society’s rules, and the cruel lawlessness of those lonely wild spaces. There’s a couple of books I’m particularly keen to get in my hot little hands:
David Cordingly’s edition of A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates and Under the Black Flag
These two episodes of the Lore podcast really fed into that, as well:
23: Ropes and Railing and 29: The Big Chill.
@tanaudel/Kathleen: I was reminded of your interest in cities last week thinking about Libertalia. (the apocryphal pirate city created by pirates for pirates. It’s up there with Tanelorn in a way – a mythical city founded on a set of ideals by larger than life characters that may or may not have existed.
What am I avoiding?
My projects are moving forward at the moment, but the thing that’s suffering is new reading. That time is going to processing notes from old reading more thoroughly, which is making sense to me at least for the moment.
Other than that, because I’ve got a full plate of gigs cold-calling and auditioning is slower than it could be due to time constraints.
Ooo, Russian is fun! I don’t know much myself other than “I don’t know how to speak Russian,” but my husband speaks a bit. It’s a cool language. You may be way beyond the beginning stages, but if not, have you heard of Pimsleur? It’s audio-only, but despite being a visual learner myself, I’ve found it really helpful for pronunciation at that early stage. My husband’s gotten some compliments from native speakers on his pronunciation because of it.
Ah! The inevitable reading challenge! I’ve found e-books on my phone’s Kindle-app pretty helpful when I need to squeeze in some reading during the day, and audio books while doing other “must do” household chores can be a helpful way to sneak in a little extra reading, too. And just carrying a physical book around with me helps in those brief moments waiting while out and about (or if the kiddo falls asleep in the car!).
I’m still very much at the learning stages, so Pimsleur is a great recommendation – thank you very much for that!
In terms of reading, the issue at the moment is more that study time is dealing with a backlog of notes, because I don’t want to just create a digital exhaust fume of random thoughts from the notes I take, rather than organising them into something useful – does that make sense? I’m almost caught up, and once there, I’ll be able to hit the Kindle again. Completely agree with how useful ereaders and audiobooks are – thank you for the very useful reminders!
Digital exhaust fume of random thoughts! That’s perfect! It describes that I’m-thinking-about-this-but-not-in-depth-yet feeling to a T.
My mother also used Pimsleur German to perfect her accent–she’s probably about 85% fluent, but even then, it helped pinpoint some tricky sounds. Pimsleur is fantastic (have used it myself for Swiss German some and Mandarin). 🙂 And I think they have a trade-in program, so you can return one lesson set for a new set in the same (or a different) language for a steep discount. May work only for the CD versions, though…
Oh, I love that idea of Libertalia! Have you read On Stranger Tides? (Tim Powers was a GoH at Readercon and *this* time I did not rave about OST, but I love it).
I haven’t, but it’s on my reading list. Thank you for the recommendation – that’s getting locked in as my next fiction reading while my head’s all piratey!
(also, super-jealous that you got to meet Tim!)
It was great:)
So great to hear you sorting and sifting the stories in head to figure out what’s next on the writing schedule again, Peter. Hope the logistics work around the applications treats you well.
So glad to hear things are working out, Peter! And congrats on the consecutive days! ^_^
What am I working on?: Pulling myself back together after several weeks of travel & holiday weekends. I’m thrilled to say I finagled my own first “Write Club” get together with a friend last Thursday at 9PM-11PM (which is when the little guy is asleep) and made a major breakthrough with the novel WiP outline, which is hugely relieving. This week, I’m going to continue to flesh that out and determine what needs to happen before I can sit down and start tackling the prose draft.
What’s inspiring me this week?: Amazing ReaderCon panels, particularly the one on writing while parenting. I think it’s given me some realistic expectations of what writing with a 2 year old looks like, but also some hope that things may get a bit more manageable (if always chaotic). Also the ReaderCon interview with Catherynne M. Valente was enlightening. Just getting a little glimpse into her writing process and the way she approaches stories (she often treats her short stories as labs where she can experiment with elements and see if there are novels in there, though she’s proud when she writes a short story that is self-contained and doesn’t need more). I also got to meet Samuel R. Delany and he very kindly signed my old Triton and Nova copies! Very cool. Got lots of great reading recommendations, too, though I need to compile those somewhere…. Looking forward to a few more panels today (and maybe get to see Kathleen’s reading, too!), though boy am I out of socializing shape. 🙂
What am I avoiding?: Short story edit. I reworked the ending, which needed to happen, but UGH, it’s so not right yet, and I can feel it in the gut, and it’s driving me nuts, because it’s just…eluding me right now. But I need to do a full read-through again. Maybe that’ll show me a holistic sense of what the overarching emotional/tone arc is and where it needs to land on that final note.
Readercon was wonderful! and so good to see you!
Awesome to see you, too! 😀 And the reading was fantastic!
What am I working on?
– Prospectus document for uni, mainly.
– Once that’s done, polishing up the presentation for the residency.
– Answering emails (goodness, how is that done while travelling?)
– Laundry.
What is inspiring me?
– Readercon! So good. I met maggiedot! All the best parts of a convention. So much sitting and talking and meeting people I still sort of thought only existed on the internet.
– Roadtrips and writing dates and people marching you to dinner and requiring you to have conversations with select other people for their entertainment.
– So many working writers and artists.
– Trees and trains.
What am I avoiding?
– Sleep, apparently.
– Packing.
– Western Massachusetts is very conducive to getting work done. I’ve been unexpectedly productive.
Bravo for working while traveling! That’s always a challenge, but Western Mass is definitely the place to write. ^_^ Hope the trip goes well, and that the uni prospectus wasn’t too painful to get through!
Thanks! I spent this morning reading Freud and splicing bibliographies. One must be firm with oneself. Fortunately the sky isn’t dark until after 10 here, so I don’t feel as if I am LOSING THE DAY.
“The Dowager of Bees” is a Wonderful title. Huzzah on short stories, and also applications.
it is. The story totally lives up to it, too.