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?
The white-boards are basically running my life at the moment, keeping me focused on shifting priorities. I’ve got an application going in Tuesday and my thesis synopsis going in Friday, but I also want to get some short fiction moving again. Top of the list is a rewrite of a story that kinda started out as a version of Hills Like White Elephants on Mars, took a left turn through Film Noir, and now seems to be heading somewhere else entire.
What’s inspiring me this week?
Abstract, the Netflix documentary series about design and designers. 40 minutes at a time, with an individual designer as the subject paired with a different documentary director, with results that range from the brilliant (the episodes of illustration, architecture, photography, and typography) to the interesting (the episode about Nike shoe designer Tinker Hatfield) to the blah (the episode about Chrysler and car design), but it’s always got something in the episode you can take away as a creative.
And, honestly, if you can watch the episode about Bjarke Ingels without wanting to move into his figure eight apartment complex (or, at least, write a story set there), you are doing far, far better than I am.
What part of my project an I avoiding?
I’ve got two papers that need to be summarised for the PhD, which I’ve been putting off because they’re dense and complex and not as much fun as some of the other theory I’ve been reading. I really need to set aside a couple of hours to struggle with stuff that’s going to be much harder to understand and get it clear in my head.
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
16 Responses
Peter: Abstract sounds awesome – thank you for the recommendation!
Is there a good spot in your week you can slot those hours in chunks to get cracking with those papers?
Not easily 🙂
I’m back! Last week was a combination of battle stations + hungover, so I wasn’t able to cram the Sunday Circle into a very full day following up the mocap course. Missed you lovely people!
What am I working on this week?
Closing out the current long-form narration gig, which is under control but still asking extra hours of me. Also any follow up work for a video game gig I’ve been working on intermittently, as well as this month’s chat with the QUT student I’m mentoring. Started spinning up the wheels on the producing/directing voice over gig that hasn’t been getting enough attention, too.
What’s inspiring me this week?
I’m slowly working my way through Tom Waits back catalogue, and this week will be Blue Valentine. Finding the evolution (and reaction to individual albums) really interesting. Closing Time was a bit eh, whereas Small Change was still very much of that era, but much more catchy.
Started reading Aurora after reading this article by the author. Grabbed me right from the get-go with its way of framing the technological challenges through two filters to start with – the more limited understanding of a young untrained mind, and the reticence of an adult to burden their child with details. Looking forward to devouring it during travel time this week for meetings.
What part of my project am I avoiding?
There’s a lot of back-office, less urgent stuff I want to get to at the moment that I don’t have time for – essentially marking milestones. Resume updates, website updates, and setting up a robust mailing list for voice talent that I’m working with. Sadly triaged for the moment.
OOH! Also, if it’s not inappropriate, I wanted to share the trailer for the current video game project I’m working on, because I’m super-excited to be a part of it! I’m voicing a couple of the ‘monsters’ as part of a fantastic cast (I’m in love with the female narration *and* monster screams you hear) but if you listen carefully at about 1:02, you’ll hear a couple of seconds of my work. 😉
Here’s hoping the embed works:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSED8wRnOSI&w=560&h=315%5D
As usual you have heaps on your plate Kevin. Doing the voiceovers for games must be heaps of fun!
I’m a bit of a Tom Waits fan, too. Gotta love that gravelly voice, and his lyrics are compelling (for me anyway).
No word of a lie, it is the best job in the world. Although this gig has seen me end up vomiting in my mouth, as well as realising I can choke/trigger my gag reflex with my own saliva while making disgusting noises. Perks of the job!
You’re absolutely right on Tom Wait’s voice and storytelling! It’s really interesting seeing him start to lean further into both of them, and really hard to have the patience to wait for the Tom Waits we know and love now as he grows into it through his own creative development.
Hmmm, you may have crossed into the TMI side of the street here 🙂
Oh, I completely forgot, too – another inspiration I’m still basking in the glow of is hanging out with a dear friend and fellow voice actor during the free time around the mocap course we were doing. It is *so* rare to get time to talk with someone whose Venn diagram circle is so close to your own, and just fucking gets it. It’s why I envy you lovely people opportunities like GenreCon.
Wow! That game looks fantastic! Very cool. Thanks for sharing! 😀 And I’m definitely going to need to read this article in full–I’ve only just scratched the surface, but it sounds amazing, and both challenges and compounds some of the sci-fi thinking I’ve enjoyed wrestling with in recent years.
Best of luck with juggling all the current projects. Would it be helpful with the small administrative things to set a timer or just pick one thing to do first thing in the AM each day?
Peter, I found that when I was struggling with some of the more complex literature during my studies, a highlighter was my best friend (of course this only works if you own the book/journal in question or have a photocopy). There were some papers that took me hours to read – not because of the length but because of the time it took to get my head around them. But I found that if I persevered then the key points would eventually come to me, and I could link them into other ideas. I can’t stress this enough: make sure you keep a record of everything you read, and attach a precis of the reading to the paper/article/chapter. Endnote lets you do this, along with most other similar software. It will make your life a whole lot easier down the track.
Highlighters don’t really work for me as a process. Anything that’s dense or complex enough that I can’t immediately connect it to the field of knowledge I’ve already got usually requires a much more annotated approach – going through and summarising the key points of every paragraph, breaking down the way the argument is getting built, recording definitions, making my own notes about where it can connect to parts of my argument or spin me off into new directions.
I can usually get through a chapter or paper a week doing this, but its slow and taxing, and the start of the semester has meant the university is laying claim to larger chunks of time for things like orientation and networking events.
Here’s my Sunday Circle.
I’d totally take you up on that banana bread / dishwashing deal. Washing dishes is my zen time nowadays, when I can listen to podcasts or audiobooks.
I hope the writing and editing goes well this week!
Deal!!
I’ve been really keen to see Abstract! I might have to bump it up my list.
Good luck with your applications, thesis and stories too!
My Sunday Circle is here
I’m glad the Lost Boys article has spiked your interest from a creative point of view! A few murmurs around the traps have discredited it as an analysis of Milo or his crew, because apparently Laurie Penny used to be more of a colleague to Milo (so the piece, and the last she wrote on Milo) are more of a soft pitch. I don’t know much more beyond that, although it’s interesting to hear the opinion that Laurie Penny has moved from being a credible firebrand to something less useful…
Do you find it challenging to keep momentum on the last legs of a project? That’s where I find my momentum can suffer personally, as the gains become far less immediately evident (although much more important than the first big striding steps)
@Peter: Best of luck with the papers and summaries! Would it help to do the 20-off/40-on time split while working on these, to keep the momentum up?
My Sunday Circle is here!