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?
Still eking my way forward on Float, although I’m keeping my goals small courtesy of antidepressant weirdness. As long as the document gets opened and there is some forward momentum, I’m calling it a win.
What’s inspiring me this week?
I went and saw Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople with no real preconceptions about what the film was going to be like, and it was goddamn glorious. Heartfelt, beautifully shot, and utterly willing to engage in the little bits of meta-text that acknowledged its sources. Go see it, if you get the chance.
What part of my project an I avoiding?
Mostly, some stuff I need to catch up on for work.
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
14 Responses
I really love Taika Waititi. I haven’t had a chance to see Hunt for the Wilderpeople yet but am super keen. I’m also getting progressively more excited for his Thor!
My Sunday Circle is here.
ME TOO! And What We Do In The Shadows is just gorgeous throughout.
The other commitments that have been getting in the way of writing for you – are they still creative and/or producing forward momentum? Only asking because I’ve not been recording much this week save for auditions, but I figure that the less fun bean-countery back office stuff (like updating the performance resume) is a necessary evil at the moment…
I’d love to hear about the dystopian cult project when it’s something you can talk about! I loved-loved-LOVED Millenium, particularly the Morgan & Wong stretch of the show during S2. Being a 90s kid, millenial doomsday cultishness is something near and dear to me, and there’s something fascinating about cults in general. Listened to an interesting podcast episode of Stuff To Blow Your Mind on cargo cults last week.
Well they say a change is as good as a holiday, Sophie… Hope next week we’ll hear you’re all sparks and flow again.
What am I working on this week?
* Skills prep for a couple of big narration projects that’re coming in – looking at optimising editing workflow and improving the quality of the end product.
* Working on a website update for the v/o consulting company
* Possibly attending Webfest
* Continuing work on Now Playing (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLomnAJWBfjTcxKDwhbIPAB523cs2DaaB9) which is proving to be a lot of fun
What’s inspiring me this week?
I watched Moon last Monday night, and it really blew my hair back. Sam Rockwell is just… jawdropping. I don’t want to say too much about the film, but if you’re on the fence about it, the trailer’s here, and doesn’t reveal too much: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twuScTcDP_Q
It’s a really great example of a film with some big world-building, but a really tightly constrained scope in terms of the slice of the world it shows, and it has an almost meditative pacing.
Also, while I was too busy while turning 40 myself, a friend’s turning 40 triggered a bit of a melancholy episode, which lead to binge-listening to 90s music for nostalgia. The results of that recorded over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY89Yzjpb0w&list=PLomnAJWBfjTc2RLx-EGch0xSPzHDZAVl7
What part of my project am I avoiding?
Work steps forward for the animated series took a back seat this week to back-office work.
Also, getting more sluggish on emails at the moment than I’d like.
AAAAH! Forgot to mention that one of the things that’s really inspiring me at the moment from a navel-gazing point of view is that the YouTube video project is showing me the benefits of iteration and getting things in front of eyeballs on a really tight loop, whereas the feedback loop for content I produce otherwise is typically much more sluggish.
I’m holding out hope for all the office & admin work getting under control for you, soon!
And oh, I remember loving Moon, and not at all expecting to.
Exactly how I felt about Moon – and, Kevin, it blew my hair back, too! Struck me as excessively well-crafted.
Peter: Glad to hear that there’s still forward movement with everything going on in your neck of the woods. That’s a giant fucking victory in and of itself.
Exactly! Peter, moving is good, and anything forwards an absolute win. Some days it’s like being Dory: “Keep on Swimming” without exactly knowing where you’re going.
I’m so glad you got to see The Hunt for the Wilderpeople!
What am I working on:
– I’m living on a sofa in LA for three days, so not putting too much pressure on until I’ve recovered from the travel and moved on to NYC. But I do need to:
– Finish the digital portion (cover shading, cleaning up scans of internal illustrations) of the big illustration project.
– Internalise and understand critique and edits on some uni documents.
– Do some basic work like putting in colour flats on the August calendar.
What’s inspiring me:
– I’m staying with friends in LA who love story and film. She is a writer (trending literary/experimental), he works in games, we sat up last night playing Star Wars mad libs, and sat up late tonight discussing sequel stakes, inventing idioms for an alternate history, and working while she read extracts from some lovely blended pieces she is working on, and it is all wonderful. We were meant to be having downtime and not expecting each other to entertain us 24/7 but we haven’t stopped talking.
– How lovely it is to experience strange things when the person who is introducing you to them is genuinely and thoughtfully excited about them.
– Discussions about light installations and the sensation of going unexpectedly against or with popular art opinions, games to play to get through experiences you don’t yet know how to appreciate, the history of Hollywood…
– The Museum of Jurassic Technology which is an experience I can only explain by saying that it is the sort of museum that should and does have Borges in the gift shop. Halfway through I realised I was very possibly in an Umberto Eco novel.
– Four middle-aged ladies excitedly and unselfconsciously describing to each other what was happening in a short silent Russian film.
– The Dressmaker: I watched this on the plane out of a sense of obligation (relevant to uni) and it was so beautiful. Visually pale velvety, even the outright awfulness is aesthetically gorgeous. Effective and fairytale-Gothic. Chocolat meets those S.A. tourism/murder ads.
What am I avoiding:
– Not too much (due to enforced downtime). I do need to remind myself occasionally, though, that this is a working trip, not a holiday, and that it will be fine to excuse myself and work. Fortunately museums with dovecotes and models explicating Jesuit theories on the effect the construction of functioning tower of Babel would have had on the place of the earth in the universe are technically work.
I do have a question about whether you-all have techniques for getting through experiences you can’t necessarily count on enjoying for their own sake. Games which make the experience bearable (if it might not have been) and make you appreciate it more.
Eg:
-“What sort of movie would play this song over the end credits?”
-“Imagine this movie in this genre/with all actors gender-switched/in a different era.”
-“What book would pair well with this wine?”
-“Human or vampire?”
-“If you could afford any one picture in this exhibition, which and why?”
-“What sort of religion would be founded around this object?”
-“Let’s make up detailed and entirely spurious backstories for these displays.”
-“At least this will make a good story.”
What am I working on:
Guys, I don’t know what happened, but I clocked over 50,000 words on the Fun Flimsy this week. As the target is 55-60k, the end is in sight. Don’t know how that happened. I was at 30k last I checked…
Plus, a couple of train trips yesterday gave me the leisure to run alternative dot-point plot scenarios and I think I’ve fixed my structural hiccup with this one. (Should only have to rework only two scenes to do it, too!) Never had a project roll like this one. It’s scary-exciting.
What’s inspiring me:
To be honest, I’m rocked by Brexit. Utterly utterly shocked over the decision and still emotionally reeling. I couldn’t vote but I’m in Europe on a UK passport (guess I may need to apply for an Irish one soon) so I will be directly affected at some point. Mostly though, it’s like watching your favourite cousin wreck their life with drugs and blame their dealer. On a happier note, I hung out in Dublin with fellow writers yesterday, drank gin cocktails from a teacup, and enjoyed the fabulous colour that Pride gave to the city.
What am I avoiding:
Have to finish this MS in fairly good shape by Wednesday night. Not only is it the husband’s big birthday on Thursday but the kids finish school for the “year” (back in September – I’ll never get used to that) and we’re up to the in-laws for a couple of live gigs with fave musos. I think I’m avoiding the reality of there being very little bulk, dedicated writing time on my horizon.