It’s been a long, complicated week, as they tend to be at this time of the year. New Years is coming, people go on holiday, and managing your focus is a necessity if you want to get things done. If you’ve been feeling the drag on you projects this week, come join me for this week’s instalment of:
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 hit the halfway point on my conference paper this week, which means I’m in pretty good shape to get the second half done by the end of December and allow myself a nice rewriting window before it’s due. The main goal this week is doing a re-read of the sample books I’m talking about, making notes with reference to the key things I’m arguing.
I also broke the deadlock I was in with the final act of Warhol Sleeping over the last few days, largely by doing rough scene sketches of the new scenes before I try to write them. This week’s goal will be writing a “this is not my beautiful house” chapter, leading up to a big action sequence in the next chapter.
What’s inspiring me this week?
It’s that time of the year where I re-read productivity and process-based books, familiarising myself with the a basics. Work Clean has featured prominently, and I’ve been revisiting The Weekend Novelist for its approach to storyboarding a novel, which is great when I get really stuck on something and just want to get down a rough draft of the bad version before I do the good one.
What action do I need to take?
With the Short Fiction Lab series running and using a unified design, I’ve been debating whether to re-brand the existing short story collections to fit in with the style. I’m running through different iterations of the original design (pictured below), trying to find something that fits, but I feel like I’ve been staring at it for too long.
At some point, I need to pick one and go for it–especially since I’m working on the print edition in the coming weeks–but overcoming the decision paralysis is hard.
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
12 Responses
The lowest design is beautifully classic. It feels like an old Penguin or Pan Piper.
What am I working on this week?
– Getting stationery and other projects together for Patreon supporters.
– Writing a grant acquittal for the US trip and sending follow up thank you notes, portfolio links, etc.
– Throwing a dart to pick a project to start working on, since the novella has been edited and sent out!
What’s inspiring me this week?
– Anything that encourages closing one’s eyes and jumping in boots first, because after all the travel and inspiration and everything else, there’s both an urgency and a despair around actually making things again. Today I finally snapped, carved stamps out of old erasers and made myself a stack of bookmarks with offcuts from another project, just to do and finish something.
– Dickens’s commitment to the story he was telling, and how far he’d lean into it. We saw a play of A Christmas Carol on the weekend, and in terms of theme and character it does not even pretend to start subtly.
– Ruth Schwartz Cowan’s More Work For Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave, one of those apparently narrow studies that just breaks open the construction of society. I think it would be a fascinating book for anyone interested in world-building, and the forces that create the ‘self-evident’.
What action do I need to take?
– Remember it’s December and cut myself some slack.
– Throw some small fun projects into the mix, in the interests of getting things done.
– Celebrate good things, of most varieties.
Congratulations on getting the novella out – what a great feeling! And to be in a position to be able to follow your heart with a new project – fantastic!
It’s understandably self-publishing focused, given the interests of the podcasts, but I found this interview with Bella Andre really useful on the jumping-in-and-making-things front.
What am I working on this week?
Now that I’ve finished my last V/O gig on the books for this year, this week is mostly time on the day job, and random odds and ends before heading to Brisbane for Christmas. The key things I’m trying to get done for me are:
* Finishing the Peak Performance Formula
* Getting Christmas cards out for key contacts
* Preparing for heading to Brisbane.
I’m working through the tail end of Story, and about to start on Bonnie Gillespie’s Self-Management For Actors as well as circling back on John Truby’s Anatomy of Story. I’ve got to go through my notes on year-end reviews and figure out what I’d like to re-read over the break once back Melbourne-side.
What’s inspiring me this week?
We’ve been watching Star Wars: Rebels and I’m still finding it incredibly tight writing for 22 minute episodes. I’ve got to sit down at some point and really pick apart how it uses its time.
Other than that, jamming on Nordic pop with Aurora and Royskopp, but looking for something new.
What action do I really need to take this week?
Plan thoroughly for heading to Brisbane so I’ve got what I need.
Get those Christmas cards out.
OH. Holiday newsletter, too. Gotta get that done. (you can see I’m a little scattered)
Peter: I’m a fan of either the second or third design. Probably the third due to the lower emphasis provided to the “& Other Strange Tales” part of the title.
I think I like the third cover best too. I agree with Kevin on the sizing of the second line of the title.
What am I working on this week?
Editing. But I think I’m going to switch back to the novella. Some of the feedback coming in is that it’s not as stand-alone as it could be. An Amazon review (gulp) pointed at the halfway to two thirds section and I think that’s where I start indulging in some world-building not so relevant to the story. I think I can tighten up the second half without too much work.
As the novella is my reader magnet. It needs to work as intended, so I’m making it my top priority.
My work Christmas party is on Thursday and who else knows what December will devise to distract me, so that’s probably where I should call it for the week.
What’s inspiring me this week?
Mainly just music, I think. I came across the group Pvris a couple of weeks ago, but only started adding their stuff to one of my Spotify playlists last week.
But I also read the sample of Arthas this week, which is a World of Warcraft tie-in novel. I haven’t played the game in years, but it was a fun world to run around in. Arthas is written by one of their better authors and the sample is promising. I think the novel will serve as a way to re-experience a fictional world I really like.
What action do I need to take?
I need to think about next year.
The planned opening of the Elizabeth line, which was supposed to happen a week ago and was going to take a lot of time and stress out of my commute, is now not even going to happen in 2019. I already had a busy year, but it looks like I’m going to get a promotion in the day job soon.
All of which means it’s going to be a lean year for my writing. I have writing, editing and marketing to do, plus upskilling in these areas. I’m going to have to be realistic about what I can achieve in 2019 and work towards that as efficiently as possible.
Is there any way to claim the commute of doom as space for creative time? Mine proved to be pretty rubbish for actually sitting-down-and-writing when I was heading into uni this year, but I got some pretty good milage out of using it as structured thinking time (ie: “On this trip, I’m going to think about potential solutions to the problem of XXX between this stop and the stop before my destination…”) and up-skilling research.
There’s about half an hour of usable time in it while I’m on the DLR. Most of my thinking time is accompanied by writing in notebooks though, and the DLR is the bounciest of the Tube lines, in my experience. My commute is also most of my valuable reading time.
I can do some things, like reading non-fiction or listening to podcasts. But I also need to find time to apply whatever I learn.
Is there anything you can prioritise for the commute time that might free up more writing time elsewhere? I don’t have to deal with daily commute admittedly, but every time I do commute into and out of town (about 50 minutes each way) the time is prioritised for catching up on email, or reading articles.
I’m jealous of Peter’s ability to use the time for structured thinking – I’ve not been able to write when commuting, but that sounds like a great use of the time too. Structured daydreaming with that wonderful onslaught of external stimulus to keep the brain moving.
Also, NOISE CANCELLING HEADPHONES, if you don’t have them – this might help create some personal space while commuting.
It’s hard to imagine doing any structures thinking without writing notes, which isn’t really an option on the DLR. My brain would just wander off into a dark forest without my notebook to focus me.
I’ve only recently bought my first pair of noise-cancelling headphones. They’re fantastic. They definitely reduced my stress levels and I can listen to podcasts for about two thirds of the journey.
That could make the DLR a great place for deep thinking practice–it’s ostensibly mindfulness/meditation practice turned to a writing bent, building up focus like a muscle so you can deploy it in other circumstances and wire up the subconscious brain to start working on things in the background.
The goal isn’t just coming up with answers, but to get into the habit of noticing when your attention has strayed and bringing it back to the problem you’ve identified at the start. It can take a bit of practice to shepherd your attention like that in adverse circumstances, but once you get there it’s a lot easier to switch from not-writing-focused to writing-focused when you do get an opening to write.