The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

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 done a pivot on all my plans at the moment, on account of an ongoing medical thing with my partner that means my schedule is all topsy-turvy. This means less first drafting and more rewriting, which is easier to get done in shorter blocks of time. This week my goal is to finish redrafting the second sequence of Bad Dog: Origins, which has been kicking around my redraft queue for a while now.

What’s inspiring me this week?

We’ve been teaching A Game of Thrones in classes this week, which has meant taking a close look at George RR Martin’s doorstopper of a book and paying close attention to the craft. And, let me tell, you the craft in that book is meticulous as fuck – the way he’s building metaphors and imagery is incredible, and his capacity to use mirroring scenes to show transitions is great. It’s incredibly easy to overlook all of those in writing because his prose is so clean and unadorned, but that whole book fits together like an incredibly sturdy brick wall.

What action do I need to take?

There’s a handful of things I need to take care of in the Not Quite The End of the World layout before it goes through a final proof, including an acknowledgements page that has, somehow, been slipping my mind for the last three weeks despite being on my to-do list. I’m on the official countdown now – there’s just two weeks until the files are uploaded to hit the pre-order deadlines – and it’s better to do them early so I don’t try and get things done in a rush.