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’m sent a story out to beta last week and got comments back, so my main goals this week are revising the story draft and getting my thesis synopsis together ahead of a meeting with my supervisor this Friday (and submitting it for assessment a week after that).
What’s inspiring me this week?
Man, so much theory and critical work could get slot right now, but let’s go with John Thompson’s Merchants of Culture. I’m barely a third of the way through Thompson’s examination of the publishing industry, but his break-down of the types of capital at work in publishing immediately got me thinking about how useful it would have been two or three years ago when I wanted to try and explain those concepts in classes. There is a strong possibility there will be blog posts in the next few weeks based upon my reading.
What part of my project an I avoiding?
Finally feel like I got a grip on everything over the last week, so I’m finally looking at the content of what I’m doing instead of my general need to be doing it in this section. In this case, I’ve got a short story revision that I’ve been doing for the last few days that hit a stall point when I realised that sitting down and revising it further would both be a) time-consumingly challenging to do, and b) increasingly likely to send it spiralling out past a usable word count where I can get the thing published. I’ve been reluctant to go back to it for about 48 hours now, and I’ll probably let it slide for much longer if I don’t actually think through those two problems.
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
What am I working on this week?
I’m editing a gay marriage of convenience fantasy romance.
What’s inspiring me this week?
I read C.S Pacat’s Captive prince trilogy again last week as its a similar tone. I have The Summer Palace (also by Pacat) set aside on my kindle as a reward for reaching my next editing milestone.
What part of my project an I avoiding?
I am in the middle of the project at the moment and there are a few scenes that need to be filled in. Its slowed everything down, which is a bit frustrating.
(Can you skip the scenes?)
Best of luck with the book! Is there any way to take those troublesome scenes from a new angle, or combine a few so all the info in the several scenes fits into one? What might make them more fun to write for you?
Good luck with the thesis synopsis Peter. Great to hear that you’re enjoying your research so much. It’s wonderful to have the time to really delve into the theorists. Keen to hear your insights.
Here’s my Sunday Circle.
Sometimes I round up some friends who have been avoiding marking/job applications/etc and make them work with me. It’s nice having other people being productive in the general area. And being legitimately bossy by prior arrangement.
There is definitely power in the group process!
Good luck with your story draft and your thesis synopsis!
My Sunday Circle is here.
What I’m working on
– Getting on top of mid-candidature paperwork and tutoring prep (which conveniently overlaps with some things I needed to brush up on)
– Some long-delayed illustration work
– Putting edits into the Regency. There aren’t even that many. I don’t know what my hang-up is.
What’s inspiring me
– I have been out every night for the last 9 days, except for last night, when I had a couple of glasses of wine and read grammar textbooks. Because I like a wild Saturday night.
– Highlights include Hidden Figures (twice! maybe more, if I’m asked); Single Asian Female; and Murder and Redemption (Sam Amidon with the Australian Chamber Orchestra). I really enjoyed the latter: eerie and lots of story ideas, but also remembering that it’s easier to listen to classical performances when you can watch all the musicians and make up stories about them.
What I’m avoiding
– Because I was out so much last week, including a salon at which I was reading and moderating, and a fairytale society meeting at which I was giving a presentation on my work, I feel less like I’ve been avoiding anything than that the dust just moved in wholesale while I was out. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon tidying and only got through most of my desk.
– Buying a car. It’s been eighteen months, I’m now at the point where I need one in order to get my work done efficiently, and I don’t want to think about it.
Ugh! Best of luck with the car-hunt. Always a stressful process, though from experience, the freedom one feels *afterwards* is totally worth it. 🙂
I so need to see Hidden Figures! It looks amazing, and the book has been on my to-read list for ages. As for the brief edit that’s giving you trouble, would it be at all helpful to assign one small edit task per day, just to move forward on it?
Buying a car is no fun 🙁 Sorry, I have no tips for making the process less painful except that if you go through a car yard make sure you negotiate hard. A friend of mine bought a recent model car late last year & got the price knocked down from $15k to $10.5k.
Sounds like you’ve been having lots of fun – almost too much fun for a solitary writer/illustrator 🙂
@Peter: Hooray for starting to settle in to the new routine and getting a chance to focus on the meat of what you want to work on. Best of luck with the challenging story revision!
My Sunday Circle is here.