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 got a few minor tasks to do for the thesis prospectus, but my attention gets to drift back to fiction this week. Current plan is to put together a short story draft together.
What’s inspiring me this week?
I’ve read a lot of Joan Didion’s essays over the years, but somehow I’ve managed to miss The White Album until now. This is incredibly unfortunate, since it’s fantastic essay and I immediately wanted to a) go and write things after reading it, and b) annoy everyone I know by posting quotes to Facebook and Instagram.
What part of my project an I avoiding?
I’ve stopped paying attention to refilling the well over the last few weeks, with a lot of my reading being either thesis-focused or me falling back on well-worn comfort reads.Necessary for recharging, but not great at actually pushing me into work, so I’m pulling together a small pile of books and starting to track my research-reading again.
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
16 Responses
@Peter: Hooray for getting a chance to focus on fiction again (and for getting the prospectus wrapped up)! What books do you have on your to-read pile, currently?
My Sunday Circle is here!
I’ve got the rest of other essays in The White Album collection and book on architecture to finish. After that, I’ll probably work through my pile of unread Years Best collections from the last decade or so and get familiar with a certain style of horror story that I’ve largely forgotten.
I’ll try and remember to post a full reading list next Saturday.
Love the knitting – so keen! And the cake you made is something truly to be proud of. For the bean’s third birthday, we were up in Brisbane without a fully kitted out kitchen, and the improvised icing we put together on her cake was, well, Lovecraftian.
A giant HELL YEAH on Stranger Things, too. Did you hear that David Harbour has been tapped to play Hellboy in the franchise reboot?
Oh man! I hadn’t heard, but that’d be awesome! 😀 (And oh my–I’m so over fondant! Bug’s getting a pudding cake next year, haha! XD)
Peter: hope the shift to filling the well goes… uh… well. How’d you go last week with getting back to broad strokes planning as well?
When you say track your reading, do you mean to say that you don’t always pop your reading on Goodreads? Or are you referring to more involved systems?
More involved systems. I’ll do a blog post.
What am I working on this week?
Continuing to record pickups on the film project, hopefully getting the new commercial demo and then chasing up leads with that, progressing video projects (hopefully) and spending a chunk of time on research (currently On Directing by Harold Clurman). Also some financial reworking to make accounting clearer for voice over and prepare for the EOFY.
What’s inspiring me this week?
The podcast Invisibilia for sure. The first of the two parter on emotions is HUGE in its ramifications, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. (it talks about how emotions actually work, and how much control we have over the process) The point it makes about visual cognition: that we literally DO. NOT. SEE. something that we have no concept for is just… wow. Touches on so much – the importance of language and semantics, Lovecraftian horror…
The podcast in general is great too, because it’s talking about how our mind works, and how we process information and reach conclusions – so touching on stuff like confirmation bias as well. I find that sort of stuff so valuable in getting less anxious about the current sociopolitical climate – much more so than touchy-feely mindset changing.
Also, I spent the greater part of two days last week sitting, reading through On Directing and taking notes. Even though chunks got taken out of both days dealing with other stuff, it was pure bliss, and felt so indulgent. I’m going to make more of a practice of this, because with a similar chunk of time this week I’ll be through the book, and I’m conscious of the fact that it’s actually a super-effective habit to improve overall, as otherwise I take in information in dribs and drabs (except with audiobooks) and there’s only so much time to Get Good.
Music-wise, I’m digging Fiona Apple’s Tidal reeeealll hard at the moment, while being conscious that it came out in 1996. It’s so… well, as pretentious as it sounds, lush and heady is the phrase that comes to mind, evoking so much of the early messiness of adult relationships, temptation, longing and regret.
What part of my project am I avoiding?
Apart from tinkering around the edges, video projects are stalling at the moment. While I’m back to consistent 5:30 starts, evenings have seen less energy overall.
Also, have been focusing on communication in current projects by necessity, and not sending out more cold call lead generation emails at the moment.
Kevin, you always manage to fit so much into every week. Hope your evening energy picks up so you can get into those video projects.
It’s a lovely sentiment – so thank you! But I often don’t get everything on my list for the week knocked off, so I’m probably just better at listing things. 🙂
Phew! With a 5:30 start, I’d be drained in the evening, too! 🙂 Best of luck on the energy pick-up in the evening. It’s always a balancing act to figure out how to fit in everything that needs to be done while also not overextending to the point of needing a chunk of recovery after several productive weeks. Is the lack of energy in the evening a sign for some self-care?
Invisibilia sounds great! I’ll have to check that out!
Let me know how you go with Invisibilia!
The lack of energy in the evening is *possibly* a flag for needing downtime (which is what I end up using the evenings for at the moment rather than pushing) but it’d be nice to be able to get more done in what is effectively the 2 1/2 hour block that is there. Maybe I need to keep it aside for consistent research reading.
I feel like the fact that I’ve never read any Didion a massive gap in my reading tbh. Would The White Album be a good place to start?
My Sunday Circle is here.
The White Album or Slouching Towards Bethlehem are the two iconic books. You can’t go wrong with either.
Are you travelling down with peeps, or alone? I always find transit time can be great for smaller stuff (like maybe spurts of editing or thinking) if you’ve got control of the time.
Hope the EWF is a blast for you!
I second Maggie’s “yay” for getting back into fiction writing Peter. Have fun with it.
Here’s my Sunday Circle
Hope the rewrite goes well, Ree. What a wonderful impulse to be dragged back into a story!
Looking forward to hearing how things are going next week.