And Now We Are Forty-Eight
18/03/2025
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It’s the eighteenth of March here in Australia, which means I’ve just turned another year older. We’re still fixing things up after
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’d hoped to be finished with the first act of Float this week, but alas, I was mugged by sadness a few days ago and that has thrown my schedule off. So I am hoping to get the first act finished this week, and make up some ground on the second act when I get to send my axe-wielding, mildly-psychotic protagonist to work killing a whole bunch of very bad people.
What’s inspiring me this week?
So the best thing I read this week was Kameron Hurley The Geek Feminist Revolution, which I love so hard that I am basically recommending it to everyone.
However, for sheer I-shit, this-is-awesome-and-I-want-to-use-it-in-stories, the most raw inspiration for the week has come out of Geoff Manaugh’s The Burglar’s Guide to the City. Manaugh looks at the spatial dimensions of architecture/town planning and how it’s transformed through the act of burglary, and it’s one of those books that will have you looking at the world in a whole new way at the end.
What part of my project an I avoiding?
There are a three half-written scenes in the first act of Float that need to be turned into something not-bitsy, as well as being brought into line with the narrative voice. I am dragging my feet on it because it will be hard and it’s less fun that writing new beats and moments, but it needs to be done before the second act will settle into its rhythm.
It’s the eighteenth of March here in Australia, which means I’ve just turned another year older. We’re still fixing things up after
I’m writing this from an apartment packed down for impending cyclone/hurricane due to hit Brisbane some time in the next 24 hours.
I recently offered GenrePunk Ninja subscribers a list of options for a series of deep dive entries, and got them to vote
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I’m really keen to see how Float develops, based on the underpinning ideas. Hope it provides some compensatory joy, too.
What am I working on:
– The Big Illustration Project. Which has moved forward, but not to any great degree of completion. I worked out I needed to do more prep work so finished refining the pencils for the main illustrations, and they have been approved.
– Other commissions due before I go.
– Doing early outlines to capture novel ideas for later use.
– Running around seeing everyone I can before I leave the country for 6 weeks (somewhat curtailed due to having a cold).
– Working out how to run a 40 minute art workshop. Any resources?
What’s inspiring me this week:
– Friends! Including some who put my art in an exhibition in New York without telling me in advance!
– Cold and flu medication.
– Dunnett, who is combining two plotlines around individuals who affect everyone around them: One a crazy-brilliant, dangerous, remarkable, chess-playing international man of mystery, the other a naive, inexperienced, desperately ordinary 15 year old girl afflicted with endless common sense and not a romantic bone in her body. Both chasing across the 16th century Mediterranean for the same prize. It’s charming and pre-emptively devastating, and never sufficiently sentimental.
– Dear Genius: I only get to be read this when driving my mother to and from hospital, so it’s taken us a year and a half. It’s interesting and educational on the history of publishing but the main thing about it is the endless joking and encouraging, bullying and chastising, inspiring and coaching that a really good editor can do.
– Again, the measured-pace of the Morseiad, as I work through my art projects.
What am I avoiding:
– I spent a bit of last week working at the hospital while my dad was there, and now I am sick and have deadlines, and mostly I want to go to bed and cry, but I can’t because (a) deadlines and (b) I can’t breathe when I’m lying down. So I want to avoid everything, but I can’t, and the chiropractor finally did something which means my hips aren’t aching anymore so I don’t even have that excuse.
Congrats on the exhibition!
40 minutes for a workshop is tight… if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that less is more, even if the participants want more.
Been years since I watched Morse–something my mother and I could do together. I heard the Lewis spinoff wasn’t as good–have you watched any of it?
I watched all of Lewis, and loved it, then watched the first two seasons of Endeavour and loved it more. I’d only had general cultural exposure to Morse previously – this is my first dedicated trip through it.
Definitely agree on Chris’ point about less being more for workshops. From all the corporate training I’ve run, the most interesting conversations happen at the edges of any formal material, so leave plenty of space for that rather than rushing. This came up in a section of Essentialism, where Greg McKeown talked about building in buffers for the unexpected. Not sure how helpful that advice is. Other than that, condolences for everything you’re working through at the moment. That’s a fuller load than anyone should have to carry, and I’m amazed you’re still on your feet.
Well, it’s self-imposed – and I’ve just spent the last two days in bed, ill.
The workshop is for the other artists at a retreat (we take turns) and so impostor syndrome is taking a hand. One day I want to try being an *actual* impostor at something, just to have a basis of comparison.
Glad to hear The Burglar’s Guide to the City is good–added it to my to-read after reading a great review in LA Review of Books.
What am I working on this week?
Plugging away at collating and editing old haiku. Doing 10-20 most days. Wrote a poem and started another.
Did a slight cleanup of my long-ignored website this week, which got me thinking about my identity as a writer–both being a writer (as opposed to a teacher or whatever), and the kind of writing I do (poetry vs other stuff). I always imagined myself as a spec-fic novelist, but poetry is what I keep coming back to. Write whatever’s coming and all that, I know, but still–am I better poet or a better fiction writer? Does it matter? Where should I be putting my energies? Possibly just going through one of those deflated phases where you realise again how good other people are, and how much work you have to do to become as good as you want to be.
What’s inspiring me this week?
Acceptances! Yes from three poetry markets I’d never subbed to before.
The Embarrassed Colonialist, a paper by Sean Dorney about Australia’s relationship with PNG.
Also saw Young Jean Lee’s play ‘Straight White Men’ on Friday night, a fantastic dissection of privilege–see it when it comes to Brisbane. Thinking about it lots.
What part of my project am I avoiding?
Actually getting back to the writing of the second poetry manuscript. Distracted by the need to find a day job very soon. Also had some new thoughts on my non-fiction book, so should probably count it as something I’m avoiding again. Writing systems have never really worked for me, but thinking I might try Peter’s trick of pen and paper for the non-fiction book, and schedule time in the library.
Finding myself being pulled back into social media. Was happy enough playing occasionally on Instagram; not sure whether I’m going to land back on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. More than one platform at a time and I start to get too scattered.
Hmm. Time for a run.
You’ve probably run into this before, but I always find this the perfect anecdote when feeling that gap between skillset and where you want to be. (not saying you’re a beginner in either form of work at all!)
Kudos on the acceptances, too!
One question that might help between choosing those paths – do you feel more comfortable with poetry because it gets honed more regularly because you enjoy the process more? Which of those two forms, if you had to choose, feels the more satisfying?
I feel you on the social media confusion, too. If it’s any help at all, I’d be more than happy to talk sometime about a few things I’ve done to make social media more streamlined (with platforms posting to other platforms) It’s a lot of work, but I’ve found putting together a rough strategy for what I want to post where (not a douchey marketing ‘how to get more followers strategy’) very useful.
Thanks, Kevin–yes, love that quote, but hadn’t seen this video of it. Nice. A good reminder.
As for your questions, I remember reading that poets are word geeks and (fiction) writers are story geeks. I’m both, but a perfectionist, so yes poetry leaves time for that honing, which I definitely enjoy and feel more comfortable with. First drafts of fiction are hideously painful for me–I’ve only ever got to ~25000 words on a novel draft, and most of my completed short stories are short. But if I had to choose, I think I’d be more satisfied by a novel than a poetry collection in my hands. I find non-fiction a lot easier to write, so I’m sorta hoping the non-fiction book, once I give it my full attention, will get me more comfortable with bashing out lots of prose.
Would definitely be interested in talking about social media use and hearing how you approach it, though more from a general work/life balance POV than a writing strategy POV.
Yeah, the work/life balance side of social media is definitely the angle I was thinking of – how to make some things just a little bit easier, and get a little more bang for buck.
Congratulations on the acceptances! Regarding deflation, are you affected by what you read, when? There are some authors I can only read when I’m writing and mustn’t touch when I’m editing (inspiration vs comparison).
Thanks! It’s not something I’ve noticed before, but that could be it–I am reading a lot of poetry at the moment, as well as books about poetry. I find I also go through phases where I suddenly start noticing techniques and effects in other people’s writing I’ve never noticed before, as well as their absence or imperfect use in my own writing. But noticing is the first step to learning, so I just have to remind myself it’s actually a good thing.
Will have to check out Lewis sometime.
Hey Peter! Sorry to hear you came down with a bout of ennui… Are you getting enough sleep/ your C-PAP gear working okay? Just read an article on how quickly sleep deprivation causes anxiety and other mental strains (not always the other way around) and it can be as little as one very bad night.
Kathleen, you’re braver than me! I read the first three chapters of Pawn in Frankincense and shelved the book for the time being. It’ll get read some time when I’m on holiday, have no interruptions, and have access a forest nearby to go cry and recuperate in. The foreboding in that book is something awful. I also have an issue with the whole Oonagh situation (namely, the noble whore trope where it’s practically certain she will need to die and die horribly – especially as Philippa is so clearly being primed to be “the one” for Lymond).
But this is probably not the place to go there….
What am I working on:
Same same only different. Fun Flimsy – kicked past the physical halfway and now hitting the last Fun & Games scene before the Midpoint. Didn’t make my 7k target, but did make about 80 new friends this week and the admin to get them all onto Facebook was a little intense.
What’s inspiring me this week:
Wanting to get these scenes written. I’m the opposite to you, Peter, writing new beats and moments is hard yakka for me – I love the rewriting into the narrative voice.
We went to a, well, I suppose “History Festival” is kind of close, yesterday. Basically the life and times of rural folk 100 years ago from steam and oil threshers, butter churns, morse code machines, shops, schooling, postal services, and more. All recreated in a number of fields outside Athenry. Over 50,000 people participated (!), which I find extraordinary. Between this and the Earl next door, I have all the content I need for either a Regency or an Edwardian historical novel. When I get around to it.
What am I avoiding:
Getting the last of the new beats and moments down. I know what they are. I just have to put them on paper (to screen) and then I can have fun with them! Still aiming for 7k this week. If I can manage 1k per day until the end of the month, I’ll finish this book!
Love your source of inspiration this week. That sounds utterly fantastic. G’luck for the 7k this week!
Good luck finishing the book, Karina–the home stretch!
My sleep is definitely broken at the moment – winter and CPAP are a bad combination – but recent weeks have been full of the kind of heavy-duty life stuff that I don’t deal with terribly well under optimal conditions.
Since I ended up sick in bed, I finished reading the book and it… wasn’t as damaging as everyone made out? I can see how it *could* be, especially if you have maternal feelings and aren’t currently on drugs, but mostly I just got peeved at everyone who wasn’t a Somerville, a mongoose or a Scottish mahout. So yes, moderate for your sensitivities, but I was much less cut up by this one than the last. And the next is in Russia!
Thanks for the additional Film Crit Hulk recommendations (you and Peter both, I think), by the way. Very helpful.
What am I working on?
Workshopping an audition for a video game project I really want to land, because I love their text!
Working on sales/development avenues for a tentpole project
Developing concept for a possible monthly podcast project
Video game recording session
Beating some websites back into shape, and creating a new one for a venture
Playing with a side project that I’ve soft launched over here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLomnAJWBfjTcxKDwhbIPAB523cs2DaaB9
What’s inspiring me this week?
While it might seem like the opposite of inspiring, the overwhelming volume of tangible options for making progress and moving forward professionally that are out there. I’ve had a week of building a progressively larger and larger unsorted list of to-dos as a result of sitting and thinking about particular problems. For example, following up great advice about improving text analysis by going and reading Ivana Chubbuk’s book Power of the Actor.
Following up the advice in Essentialism. Honing down to what’s really important now.
Tangible signs of progress. Got a compliment from acting coach today, and it almost made me break down into tears. It sounds a bit melodramatic, but it always feels more than a bit lonely slogging away at developing your skillset – like you’re in a vacuum. Also, having signs of my work out in the wild for once! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmCcExZzzQw
Media-wise, finished up playing Uncharted 4 (pre-YouTube project) this week, and was blown away by the performances and the narrative. Great rollercoaster ride that still explored some universal themes along the way – family first and foremost.
What am I avoiding?
Another week, another monthly checkpoint avoided. It feels like the key, strategic work isn’t getting done currently, even though the time-critical work is getting out the door. This week was only a 2 day week for voice, so going to set targets small for the week to come and look to do a weekly checkpoint, and HOPEFULLY finish the checkpoint for June even though it’s way overdue, simply to finish the ritual. I’m in a quantum state at the moment somewhere between feeling that a lot is getting done (auditions out the door, fun side projects) and feeling that the key work is being neglected.
Apologies for the rambling, and thanks for reading this far!
Also, Chubbuck. Apparently I can’t spell.
No apology needed! Love hearing about the acting stuff. Used to be in theatre–I’m doing a course at the moment with Impro Melbourne. (Brisbane peeps, would highly recommend Impro Mafia’s 8-week introductory course for getting creative juices flowing–a downright fun mix of spontaneity, character creation, and narrative. I had Dan.) Got inspired to get into it a year or two ago after reading Keith Johnstone’s Impro.
Well done on the compliment. What sort of things do you do with your acting coach? Is it one-on-one?
Will check out the links!
“always feels more than a bit lonely slogging away at developing your skillset” – it is so nice when that feeling is overturned.
Burglar’s Guide to the City sounds like pure magic. Anything that can make you look at the geography of a city in a different light… looking forward to Geek Feminist Revolution too, on the other side of some reading for specific skills. Your fiction recommendations are always the best. (have you read The Sea Comes in At Midnight, BTW? Saw that pop up on Orbital Operations and was intrigued)