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?

Everything in my life ground to a halt while I focused on clearing marking of decks this week, so this week will be spent reconnecting with the three major projects on my plate: Hell Track, the current short story draft, and my thesis chapter. I’m keeping my new word goals relatively low – I’ll be happy if I get 500 to 1000 a day – but I’m aiming to spend about two hours a day on each re-reading what’s already been done, making notes, and generally getting back up to speed after a few weeks of heavy distraction.

What’s inspiring me this week?

I’ve just marked a whole bunch of student essays where they analysed aspects of craft in the novels we’re reading this semester, and there’s some of them that have sent me back to The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gone Girl, and Venetia with fresh eyes to take a really close look at the minutia of the craft. More and more, I find myself fascinated with Gaiman’s craftsmanship, in particular – there’s a real care with the way he builds his novel and the images used within.

What action do I need to take?

The aforementioned feeling of things grinding to a halt has taken it’s toll. It’s largely the result of the mid-semester break at uni disrupting routines and the aforementioned marking eating up time (both in the actual hours spent marking, and in the energy spent managing the stress around it). I’ve been setting the goal of “get back into a routine” for weeks now, without being specific for what that means. In hindsight, I should be specific: I really need to do a thorough weekly plan, instead of just reviewing specifics on a Sunday, then be mindful of where I want to spend my time. From there, I really need to do a half-hour daily check-in to kick off my weekday mornings and make sure everything is running in sync.