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 lost my way a little with the second act of Float over the last week. Lots of forward progress, but not a lot of direction. Will be spending today trying to re-plan a little, so that I can hit the ground running on the latter half of the second act when I head to write club on Monday. With luck, I an make it to the end of the second act.
What’s inspiring me this week?
I went to see La Boite’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire on Friday night and it copletely blew away pretty much everything I’ve seen at movies and in theatres over the last twelve months. I thought I knew Streetcar pretty well – I’d seen the movie, read the play, and gone to two or three other productions of the play – but this production basically turned everything up to eleven. It was an absolutely intense, visceral exerpeience, and it took me a good three hours to calm down afterwards.
This wasn’t helped by discovering an academic journal about Tennessee Williams’ with a bunch of papers that pretty much blew my mind, starting with “hey, lets take a look at Stanley’s character through the filter of PTSD and how that’s present in the play without ever being mentioned.”
Nor was it helped by the person I saw the play with reminding me of the Simpsons’ episode about Streetcar turned into a musical, when I was suddenly reminded by exactly how dark the Simpsons’ humour could get.
It’s nearly 48 hours later and the production is still being processed, and it still lights me up with electricity every time I think about it. So incredibly good.
What part of my project an I avoiding?
I fell out of the habit of putting together scene notes before writing last week, returning to my habitual pantser approach, and it immediately made the whole process much, much harder than it should have been. This week’s goal is to get back to the habit of planning scenes out a little before I write them, since it does seem to speed up the writing process immeasurably.
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
37 Responses
La Boite’s version of Streetcar sounds amazing. Wish I’d had time to go and see it. Live theatre is something I rarely go and see – always on the to-do list but never gets ticked off. Maybe in 2017 I’ll make more of an effort.
I avoided it for years, largely on the basis that when theatre is bad, it’s *really* bad, but the last twelve months have seen a run of really great shows in Brisbane. There’s a bunch of locals who are just hitting their stride and kicking goals every time.
Good luck with the second act of Float!
My Sunday Circle is here.
Good luck on your wordcount this week, Sophie. Hope you can find somewhere with enough a/c to combat the humidity! (Pretty much the only thing I don’t like about Brisbane!)
Completely understand procrastination due to the onset of heat. Brisbane’s summer is just ridiculous.
Hope the wordcount goes well this week, Sophie!
I hope the outright pleasant weather today helped! I really enjoyed the first episode of The Crown and am keen to see more.
The Crown sounds awesome. I’ve been eyeing it on Netflix, and now I think it’ll probably be my next show to check out. And yeeeeeah…I commiserate on the political scene…. *sigh*
Best of luck getting the energy to dive back in and go for it!
Here’s my Sunday Circle for this week..
Hey Ree, glad the quote helped. If you have time to read Leigh Bardugo’s ‘Shadow and Bone’, it really is a text-book study of a compelling villain – attractive and yet so very wrong all at once.
thanks for the recommendation 🙂
So glad the advice helped, Ree! Most of the time I feel rather at sea around your learned writery selves!
Your approach to first drafts makes complete sense to me, too – and sounds like a really productive approach. Get it down, map out the issues, then fix with a complete map in place.
Hope the week treats you well!
I hope you are having fun writing your villain – it sounds like it! I’m particular fond of villains who are obviously animated by the author’s glee.
Hooray for finding quotes that help clarify a tricky spot! I love it when that happens. It’s like finding little keys to unlock part of the process. ^_^ Best of luck pushing forward on the first draft! Plot holes are definitely for draft two! 😀
Good luck with the scene planning, Peter. Does this work as an outline, GMC or by stage blocking for you? Excellent theatre is an unmatched visceral experience. Bad theatre, however, *shudders*.
What am I working on this week?
I’m in a better mental state this week but time is running away from me. I’ve just hit the parental point where the kids and I now have an activity EVERY weeknight. My writing hours have dropped accordingly. So it’s all about getting the B Story down in this draft of the Fun Flimsy asap.
What’s inspiring me this week?
Like so many others, we’re now hooked on The Crown. How weird for Lizzie and her fam to be the subject of so many films and shows in recent years. Can’t imagine what that must be like. Otherwise, exercise. Back into karate and it feels like coming home. Being fitter is making me generally feel better as well.
What part of my project an I avoiding?
Word count, word count, word count. Got to lift my game here. I’m going to put in to a competition which has deadlines for fulls because my internal deadlines runneth continuously over.
balancing writing with kids is tricky Karina – been there & done that! Depends on your circumstances but sometimes I could fit in writing by doing some while my kids were at swim training etc. Every little bit helps.
Kudos for getting back to the karate – glad it’s treating you well! (Cardio fitness is SO important to mindset and general productivity, I find!)
Glad you’re enjoying The Crown, too! Netflix seems to just keep knocking it out of the park time after time.
I hope you have some mental downtime occasionally, Karina – the pace sounds relentless!
All the sympathies with the busy kiddo schedule! I know how that goes! ^_^ Just remember that even a tiny bit of forward momentum will absolutely add up. 🙂
Ooo, karate sounds fun. I used to do Kung Fu, and there are days when I miss that discipline and focus on pushing one’s body to reach new heights of strength. Have fun! 😀
Very exciting about Streetcar! I miss going to local theater. I saw a stage version of Arsenic & Old Lace a couple seasons ago that was pretty surprisingly good–and the guy who played Dr. Einstein was insanely fantastic. Stole the show, but it was so much fun. Something I’d like to get back into someday! Best of luck getting back on track with Float!
My belated Sunday Circle is here.
I’m being slow on comments, but I’ll get to everybody tomorrow! 😀
I found post-convention week that the thing that really helped me reset the daily schedule was inching back from where I was to where I wanted to be in increments – in terms of wake/sleep times, and stacking practices back on the deck one by one. Maybe that’ll help sneak past the inertia?
Sound advice, and I’ll definitely try to incorporate it! So much had to be left on the table last week, that it really will take slowly building back up to the normal routine. At least it makes me realize how much I actually *do* get done most days! ^_^
I’m still processing The Arrival, too! Good luck with overcoming inertia. I find 80s Movie Training Montage playlists helpful.
Ooo, that’s a fun idea, too! I’m going to have to put one together!
What am I working on this week?
Client work is taking the focus this week. Juggling a 4 day training workshop for the day job with a couple of video game gigs, a long form narration gig and a recording for an audio drama. So the key ‘me’ stuff is getting pushed to the side a little.
What’s inspiring me this week?
In the wake of the US election, the intersection between myth and reality that the United States has had, since its inception. This On Being piece really spoke to me: http://www.onbeing.org/blog/vincent-harding-is-america-possible/9030
On the top of that, I’ve started re-reading Stephen King’s The Gunslinger, and it’s just delicious. Alongside continuing to play Red Dead Redemption for pure pleasure, a Western video game set at the dying of the frontier, I’m finding that fading of the Golden Age story note really tickling my brain at the moment.
I’m realising more and more that making a meal of a video game or show’s setting and finding other media – music, non-fiction – around that genre really bolsters my enjoyment of the whole experience, and makes it a more informed perspective. That probably seems tremendously obvious, but it’s something I’m only just fully appreciating now.
What part of my project am I avoiding?
Still website work and the commercial demo.
That intersection of the eternal decade of the Western with US history would be fascinating. Keen to know if anything comes out of it.
Thanks to a commute during the week (as opposed to working from home) I’ve since inhaled Stephen King’s The Gunslinger, so we’ll see. 🙂
Loved Red Dead Redemption. It’s such an interesting game, and even long after, its aesthetic and mood lingers. Interesting thought about multimedia approach to deepening one’s experience with games and shows. I can completely imagine how it enhances the experience!
The “Is America Possible” article looks fascinating, too–I’ve only read the first stretch, but I’m definitely going to have to read the rest later today because it’s a question very much on a lot of minds. Thanks for sharing!
It’s definitely a game that’s aged well. To my shame, I never finished it first time around, so I’m enjoying trucking through it now immensely!
Peter: SO envious of the lingering after effects that Streetcar had on you. PLEASE tell me you’ve told Colin as much, because there’s no greater compliment as an actor. And WOW. That’s exactly what great art is meant to do – set up shop in our hearts and minds.
Have you thought about putting a note on the whiteboard about scene notes before writing? (Or making the scene notes a specific task in the bullet journal so they’re completely visible?)
We tagged him into the conversation a friend and I were having afterwards. Peeps specifically asked to be tagged into a facebook conversation, so they could tell him how much the play affected them.
And the problem with planning isn’t process. Near as I can tell, it tends to be brain chemistry and panic 🙂
I’d be interested in hearing more about how scene planning works for you at some point.
Mostly, it consists of working out what changes in a scene, what the conflict is, and how various characters tactics will bring them to new points of equilibrium over and over.
What am I working on?
– Catching up on art, including redoing some finished art to accommodate a redesign and preparing an illustration on-spec for a project I’d really like to be involved with.
– NaNoWriMo, and I’m hating the manuscript but promising myself that I can hate it really comprehensively if I just wait until it’s all written. I hadn’t pushed the planning quite as far as I should have before the month started. Lesson learned!
– The Business Development checklist, but I actually worked on it today. The wonder of half an hour with a timer.
What’s inspiring me?
– Harriette Wilson’s Memoirs, and the long loving Lesley Blanch introduction to them. They’re just… ridiculously effervescent, frothily scathing – that whole side of Regency Life that Austen was perfectly aware of (cf Lady Susan and Lydia Bennett), and wired in to so many bits of history.
– The language Frances Hardinge gets away with in her novels.
– I’ve watched 9/10 of The Expanse and am committing to space noir. Actually, it reminds me far more than it should of Valente’s remarkable decopunk alt-Hollywood space opera Radiance, and makes me like it more in consequence.
What am I avoiding?
– The Usual. Although possibly I’ve overcommitted (moi?). Hiding out in the a/c and trying to drag writing friends into it with me has helped with some momentum.
Kevin, you asked last week about Illustration Masterclass/the IMC. ( http://www.artimc.org ) It’s a week-long residential intensive illustration workshop in Amherst, Mass, led by some major artists and art directors in speculative fiction illustration and fine art.
This year John Jude Palencar is one of the featured guest teachers, which I’m very excited about, and Donato Giancola, Boris Vallejo, Rebecca Leveille, Irene Gallo and Greg Manchess are core faculty.
I’ve been watching it longingly for years (especially with the Frouds and Mignola having been recent guests) and feeling that I didn’t know enough about art, I didn’t know enough people, I wasn’t good enough, etc. This year, though, I thought exactly the same except that I felt quite comfortable signing up anyway. The Iceland experience helped!
Hey! You’ll be a stone’s-throw away again! If you ever get time to swing through Worcester, MA, let me know! 🙂 Sounds like a really amazing class.
The Expanse sounds so fascinating. I’m just about through with Gotham, so I think that’s on the docket along with The Crown next! 🙂 Writing with friends can definitely spur the productivity. Best of luck with NaNo!