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 have to get all the confirmation documents into the university by 4:00 PM Monday, which means the rest of this week will be spent putting together the 20 minute presentation that’s due on the 31st of January and carefully proofreading You Don’t Want To Be Published. I’ll also be doing a little pre-planning on a couple of stories – throwing around ideas, thinking through the speculative elements and the consequences of putting them there. I’ll need a new story or two by the end of February, at this stage, so I’ll want some options that seem fun.
What’s inspiring me this week?
I’ve been listening to season eleven of the Writing Excuses podcast on my evening walk this week, and their ongoing discussion of elemental genres and how they can be used is brilliant. I’m a fan of the WE crew at the best of times, given that they’re not afraid to talk about writing beyond the advice-for-beginners stage, but this is probably the best season they’ve done in terms of actual, useful ideas about writing for folks who already have the basics of story down.
What action do I need to take?
The most pressing is sitting down with the full list of things that I’ve got to get done for the confirmation submission Monday and making sure I’ve got them all. I caught one thing I’d overlooked this afternoon, while double-checking formatting, and there are so much paperwork attached to this thing that I’m paranoid.
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
2 Responses
Peter: how are you looking at structuring the 20 minute presentation? I’ve been doing some side-tinkering with an idea for short information videos, and I found that starting with Pecha Kucha as a template (20 seconds x 20 slides) was useful – then I cut that in half. It’s probably basic stuff that’s assumed, but I found allocating a number of information blocks with a time for each helped start structuring the overall spine of something. (spoilers: 3 minutes 20 seconds is too short for anything but a basic introduction to a topic)
Godspeed on the logistics for the confirmation submission, as well.
What am I working on this week?
This week is GDC trip preparation, a whole bunch of time going to volunteering at Global Game Jam, and lead generation.
What’s inspiring me this week?
I’ve been finding that concepts from Work Clean have been really resonating over the last week – in that way that one book feels like the solution to EVERYONE’s problems. I’m finding it influencing everything from how I work in the kitchen, to working in the booth, to playing video games. The biggest concept that’s on my mind at the moment is (re)discovering the sense of hustle while you’re working. Not to work yourself into the ground, but to work with intent while you’re there.
Other than that, we watched S4E1 of Black Mirror last night, and the performances were wonderful. Great cast, great (horrifying) premise.
What action do I really need to take?
Making sure that I’m priming more meetings/conversations at GDC to get the most out of the experience. That, and completing my ESTA.