The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

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 finally broke one of the novella scenes that’s been kicking my ass for months, largely by virtue of recognising that it should be about four or five different scenes if I want it to deliver the kind of mood and impact I’m looking for. Slowing the action down and breaking down the beats clearly really helped, and cut a lot of the chaff out of the current act. This puts me in pretty good shape for doing the same for the back half of the novella, assuming I can apply the same lesson this week.

I’m also putting together a bunch of paper pitches for various conferences, after my last supervisor’s meeting, and getting my head back into a research space for the second half of August.

What’s inspiring me this week?

I picked up a copy of Shelley Ellis’ On Pointe after it got a really strong review on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and I’ve been particularly impressed with the deft way it builds the world and sets up the arc of the novella series. It probably wont be everyone’s cup of tea, but for those who are a fan of this particular subset of the romance genre, it’s an incredibly solid read.

Thesis thinking was also fired up by the announcement of the Sara Douglas Series Award guidelines for next year’s Aurealis Awards, which raises some interesting questions about the way series are conceptualised and valued through their focus (the award is focused on series that are “finished” and have a narrative arc, which is an interesting reflection of publishing tradition but excludes a subset of series which focus on iconic characters). It’s become a useful framework for the next thesis chapter, once I start pulling apart the implications.

What action do I need to take?

I’ve picked up a bunch of new deadlines and sub-projects that need to be fit into the current quarterly plan, and August is so close that it’s frightening. Setting aside a little time to do update my checkpoints and do the August overview needs to go on the agenda, despite the general feeling that I’d rather not know how much there is to do. Ordinarily I’d do it on a Sunday afternoon, but the usual routine has been thrown at the moment, and I’ll be out during my general planning time.