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?
There’s remarkably little happening this week, as I’m on holidays in Sunny Adelaide partaking of Adelaide Writers Week and the Adelaide Fringe Festival. I’ll be tucking some work on the redraft of Valiant around the edges, but this week is mostly focused on hanging with the family and talking to other writers.
What’s inspiring me this week?
I got into Adelaide just in time to catch Paolo Bacigalupi’s session on the opening day of Writers Week, and it was easily one of the five best things I’ve ever seen at a festival. The conversation largely focused on his latest book, The Water Knife, which looks at the future of water in the Western states of the USA, but within that it covered a wealth of details about his research methods, the thing that inspire him to write, and how he uses a multiplicity of characters to examine an issue from multiple perspectives. I filled four or five A4 pages with notes over the course of a one-hour interview.
What part of my project an I avoiding?
I go to Gladstone on the 10th of March, to spend a weekend talking to writers and other folks about blogging and author platform. I’ve done a bit of this in the past, in half-day and six-day programs, but I haven’t ever adapted the work to a one-day workshop and I really should put some thought into what that needs to look like.
That’s me. I may be a little slower on the responses this week, given the aforementioned holiday, but I’m always interested in hearing what everyone’s up to.
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
23 Responses
What am I working on this week? Queerish PNR, chapter twelve! Peter, thank you for the suggestion to give myself permission to stop after one word – it worked, and I’m now writing a few hundred words a day even on not-writing days. 😀 And the story is plugging along. I’m really pleased with my decision to plot this one in advance instead of trying to wing it – that works fine for short stories, but got my last novel attempt very, very stalled halfway through. I was a bit worried I’d kill my spotaneity, but it turns out there’s plenty of blanks to fill in, enough to keep me interested as I write. Anyway, it’s been a good week. 😀
What’s inspiring me this week? My X-Files rewatch is continuing. I started a new book and it’s pretty well-written but immediately irritated me (oh, the horrible foreigners who keep slaves and are generally evil are also black? HOW ORIGINAL), so I’m sort of deliberating whether I’ll keep plugging with that or pick up something else.
What part of my project am I avoiding? Ha, I’m avoiding plenty of things that are not the book, but right now I’m not actually avoiding the work I need to be doing on the book, so that’s something!
What awesome progress! That’s fantastic to hear – especially that you’ve found an approach that’s allowing you to take those kind of steps forward every day!
And if the things you’re not doing right now aren’t critical, that’s more triage than avoidance, isn’t it? (I’m only making that distinction because I’m fighting that same inner monologue this week, where everything I’m not doing is a personal failing even though I’ve been pushing things forward…)
It can be quite exciting to find that plans give room for spontaneity!
Huzzah for good weeks!
Congrats on the progress! Sounds like you’ve really hit a flow with the story. How fun! 😀
I am really, ridiculously jealous of you potentially seeing Laura Van Den Berg at Adelaide Writers Week. Anywho, my Sunday Circle is here http://bit.ly/1TeR73s
Yeah, beginnings feel as hard as endings, if not more. The first foot forward. And it sounds like you’ve been going round the round with the manuscript to try and find the perfect one. Would looking at examples of opening lines from other fiction help at all to try and bring in new data?
What am I working on this week?
I’ve just about finished the synopsis for the book I’m “not” writing yet (other than first 3-4 chapters). It’s actually been great fun to write the synopsis this time – probably wrong to be saying that. Strange experience, mind you, to be stressing over the ending of a book I’ve not written! Based on how fulfilling this has been, I’m planning to map out a completely new story I’ve been kicking around in another genre.
What’s inspiring me this week?
Deep PoV. I’ve just finished an online course on the subject and had a couple of lightbulb moments. Looking at how I can put into practice what I’ve learned.
What part of my project am I avoiding?
I really need to use my time constructively this week, so any spare time has to be on writing out my own inner worlds instead of being a part of the real world on social media. Going to bring a paper notebook around instead of my phone to see if they makes this happen.
Really wishing I could get to some of these Cons… But a birthday splurge this week is the exception to otherwise tight budgeting, so everything else is on the “maybe one day” list again.
I want to talk to you about deep-POV! But not until I get my comments back to you:)
Where did you do the Deep POV course? I know a number of people who now swear by the Margie Lawson courses (& apparently also develop a much wider coloured highlighter collection in the process).
I love synopsizing, too! Anything that makes that first draft delightful and fun seems like something that should be pursued. 🙂
Hope you are having a wonderful time in Adelaide!
What am I working on this week? Finishing the first-pass edits on Marchmont Manor, starting a colour-key for a novella, and moving a stack of art projects past the thumbnail-sketch stage.
What’s inspiring me? Three very different works about creativity and/vs creating (or the having vs the application of talent): Big Magic which had a joyful functional mysticism which I have found extremely practical in application; Turbocharge Your Writing, a booklet handed out to research students, which is a simple and deeply common-sense reminder that (in some cases literally) velcro-ing yourself to a chair for half an hour to write before doing anything else can increase your productivity (who knew!); and perhaps oddly Chariots of Fire, which (aside from dilettantes, observers and profiteers) has three people working out their talents in very different ways – rational/logical, voluptuary, mystic. The upside of all this is that I keep sneaking joyfully off with my computer for some clandestine editing.
What am I avoiding? Outlining the novella; velcro-ing myself to the chair to do the thumbnail sketches (I may have to try the literal approach, I’m fine for everything else); putting together two Kallax units for the partially-completed office rearrangement.
Pardon my ignorance, but what’s a colour-key for a novella?
Also, would love you to share photos of your work space once you’re done with reorganisation! Or do you still feel that post-inspiration from work spaces you’ve enjoyed of other people’s, you still have some changes you’d like to make?
Not ignorance at all! I’m deliberately trying to apply some illustration techniques to a writing project. One of these are colour studies and the colour scripts which film-makers use, for example Pixar’s colour scripts. A mood/tone/colour summary for each chapter.
Regarding the workspace, I may post photos but it is likely to be a long-term work.
Ooo, the color scripting is a really interesting idea. Let us know how it goes for the novella!
Get a big red square/button for the chair 😛 It may well work 🙂
What am I working on this week?
A LOT of audio editing. That’s pretty much going to be my weekend. That, and a key initial meeting for one of the year’s tentpole projects.
What’s inspiring me this week?
The batteries have been a bit flat over the last week, but I listened to a few episodes of The Allusionist on Peter’s recommendation (http://www.theallusionist.org/) and it’s GORGEOUS. The content, the attitude, the presentation. It’s a really well put together package, and fascinating to boot. I’d put it up there with Stuff to Blow Your Mind (http://www.stufftoblowyourmind.com/) and probably edge it ahead a little, by virtue of how Helen Zaltzman lets her personality shine through.
What part of my project am I avoiding?
I’m doing OK on the project front currently. The last batch of v/o I was dreading the feedback on got an unequivocal thumbs-up from a happy client. I’ve managed to get study time back in the schedule this week too, and the dividends have been palpable.
The biggest problem I’m dealing with currently is a consistent daily schedule that incorporates everything I need as part of the regular daily rhythms, and still allows me to get the work I need to get done out the door. I feel like since moving house I’ve gone slightly numb to my daily tasks in Omnifocus, so I’m trying to spend some time this week to strip that back from a whole lot of ‘shoulds’ to just the absolute core set of tasks, and build up again from there. Mindset definitely remains the battleground at the moment.
Sometimes after a move it can take a little longer than planned to find the new routines and rhythms to match the new space you’re in. Hopefully it will settle down sooner than later for you.
Congrats on getting the study time into the schedule! That’s a feat in and of itself. At times like these, it may be important to recognize and acknowledge what you *have* gotten done. Sometimes when things feel like they’re going slowly, it’s not because we’re not getting things done, but that each time we check something on that “should” list off, there’s another dozen “shoulds” left to be done, and it doesn’t feel like we’re making progress. But you are! So do remember to you give yourself a proper pat on the back for each individual thing you *do* get done! Don’t skip that step before moving on to the next item on the list. 🙂
What am I working on this week?
Current wip (the mermaids) and also setting up systems now I have the due dates for my university assessments (the first of which lands on the first day of Contact).
What’s inspiring me this week?
The new system I’m working with and the infant Write Club (week 2 this week).
What part of my project I am avoiding?
Typing in the new words for wip as this one is coming out in a different way to any other story and still working out how I want to store it in file format (I use Word and am on pc). In my notebook it’s easy (it’s a divided type set up).
Aw, congrats on the infant Write Club! That’s got to be fun, and will probably help with getting those new words down. ^_^ (This is probably just me being slow, but what do you mean by “divided type set up”? Page-breaks and the like? Or something else?)
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you here *mumbles about tech curses*. Anyway, it’s a book given to me by a friend who knows I write longhand. It’s one of those ones that is for multiple subjects I think – has dividers spread throughout (I think there are 5 sections <—- yes, I notice a lot lol).Usually I just have a notebook, no dividers so this is a first and this current wip is being a pain in the proverbials about who is talking pov-wise, so the dividers have come in handy.
No idea how to transfer it to a word document….
What am I working on this week? Made good progress on the rewrite read-through, so this week, I’m trying out a new technique and am summarizing each chapter in detail to see where things don’t line up/tie up/etc. Once I’ve got the whole summary draft finished, then I’ll be ready to start the re-drafting process (I hope…). At least I feel like I’m on the right track this time. I’m also hoping to pick up the short fiction baton again, so we’ll see how that goes!
What is inspiring me this week? I’ve been trying to up my amount of reading lately, recognizing it as an important part of developing as a writer, so I’ve been really inspired by the overarching view of what drives tension in fiction. I’ve been actively trying to keep a reading log, because it seems like I think about what I’m reading more when I do that, and it’s really pushed me to consider my own weaknesses and how other authors tackle those challenges. Forcing myself to articulate what I think they’re doing has been really enlightening and helpful! (Also: The Mysteries of Laura—it’s fun, it’s funny, it’s snarky, and it’s adorable, and it just makes me so happy to see a mother in a both sexy and kick ass role, while still trying to be a good mother, too (and fumbling with it, which wins this mother-in-training’s heart every time!) The on-again/off-again romantic tension between her and her ex-husband is both so, so wrong, and so freaking adorable, I can barely handle it. Not sure it’d ever work like that in real life, but it’s charming in fiction.).
What part of my project am I avoiding? I’m not sure it’s so much avoiding as it is making dedicated time. The Kiddo has decided he won’t nap unless he sleeps ON TOP of me, which means once he goes to sleep, I can’t move for two hours (should be good, but I also have no lap space, no easy arm-reach place to put a laptop, etc., which makes actually writing a challenge). I’ve been using that time for reading (which has been good), assuming I’d get the writing done once I get him down for bed at night, but lately it’s been taking an hour to get him settled, which gets me downstairs around 10, and I’m almost always so exhausted by then, I barely have any creative energy left. I’m hoping the long night routine (which used to be 20-30 minutes tops) is due to toothing and that it will pass, but there’s a panicked part of me that wonders if this is the new normal, which is really putting a crimp in my process. I may start driving him around to get him down for his nap in his carseat simply so I can park somewhere and work on my laptop! At least, maybe a few times a week… Hmm…that’s an idea, actually…