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?
Starting in on sequence four of Float this week, which will take the rough draft up to the midpoint of the story. Aiming for five scenes every week seems to be the sweet spot, in terms of keeping momentum going, so I can make a reasonable prediction that I’ll hit the end of this draft by close of November.
I’m also off to teach a library workshop next Saturday and trying to clear another short story out of the redraft folder. If I time it right, I’ll finish that backlog about the same time as the Float draft.
Also, for those who are curious: resolving the weekend writing trigger problem from last week seems to be getting up and doing a quick lap of the block.
What’s inspiring me this week?
I went on a tear of really good fiction and films this week, but the real surprise in terms of things that got me thinking about narrative was Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I’m not generally a fan of Burton’s work, outside of a handful of films, but I’d forgotten how exquisitely he captures the strangeness of suburbia and that’s used to really good effect here.
The story is also packed to the gills with visuals and story elements that I loved, but it’s one of those films that is just very nearly as good as you want it to be instead of nailing things. Mostly, the problem is the final act, which is annoying flat and loses all the tension. I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours trying to puzzle out why that is, and I expect it’s largely one of those things where the finale makes a bunch of choices that break your suspension of disbelief and makes for a bunch of really unsatisfying choices. .
What part of my project an I avoiding?
I really need to sit down and look over the notes for the workshop that I’m teaching next weekend, then figure out how it’s going to affect my writing hours this week. There’s also a blog post about writing hours that I’ve written, but haven’t yet gotten around to typing up, that really should get posted in the coming week.
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
30 Responses
Good luck on Float! Plus I loved the book of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, but haven’t gotten around to seeing the movie yet. I was a bit cautious given Burton, but it sounds like it’s worth checking out!
My Sunday Circle is here.
Balancing projects is always a tricky thing. With the writing work on your plate at the moment, is it possible to move things forward using smaller chunks of time (say blocking out a 3 or 4 hour period) or does momentum require more time put towards it? Also, is there any differentiation between projects at the moment in terms of priority in needing to get out the door?
Good luck on your short story… sounds intriguing!
All the best with rebalancing! And yes, it was an enjoyable movie – not perfect but more fun than expected!
Congrats on hacking the weekend routine! A great way to start the day and to feel productive right off the bat.
This week, I’ve got my Sunday Circle up on my blog, found here!
Crossing fingers as well that you’re going to get a healthier week than the last. I LOVE The Incredibles, so if you found Big Hero 6 to be similarly awesome, I really need to get around to watching it.
Love your recap of how it felt to pick up the old story and start tweaking – it’s so fantastic when you realise that you’re better than you give yourself credit for, isn’t it?
It’s one of those magical feelings, for sure, like the mystical “Zone” that periodically comes along. ^_^
And yes! Big Hero 6 is definitely similarly awesome to The Incredibles–I’d say it’s a teeny-tiny bit more busy plot-wise (The Incredibles is *cough* incredibly streamlined), and BH6 has a few extra characters/bit more mystery involved, which just makes it a tad more complicated to weave together in a perfectly fluid way, but it does an amazingly good job of it, just leaving a residue feeling that they maybe almost tried to tackle too much–but only almost. It’s very fun–if you liked the Incredibles, you’ll probably really enjoy BH6. ^_^
Oh, BH6 was so much more fun than I expected – and some of the design was gorgeous. All the best with the tweaking/editing!
Peter: The lap around the block sounds like a great trigger – I wonder if that’d extend to regular time on the exercise bike? Cardio’s a great way to start the day and kick the metabolism off. Oh, regarding your oat energy tweet today, too – if you haven’t tried steel cut oat porridge as a breakfast routine, can’t recommend it enough. Can cook up large batches for reheating, and it takes near zero time.
Have you got a good low energy period where typing up the blog post would automatically fit in?
What am I working on this week?
Now that things aren’t on fire any more, focusing on business development and the things that need to be in place before Melbourne International Games Week, which I’m heading along to for the first time this year as an attendee. So that means lead generation and website work, along with returning to regular routines. This is a short week for v/o, so that’ll likely be it for me.
Week has started on a high note with a very helpful two hour powwow with my awesome change strategist mentor, and some strategy planning.
What’s inspiring me this week?
I devoured Leigh Alexander’s Monitor novella set in the Netrunner universe, and loved it. As per William Gibson’s observation of his own fiction in the non-fiction work Distrust that Particular Flavor, a lot of what Monitor explores is slightly shiny trappings on current societal issues. The pervasiveness of data capture, people’s complicity in it, and the saccharine messages we’re often given as ‘consumers’ to encourage excessive information sharing, even by our governments. I’ve always enjoyed Leigh Alexander’s writing, and I really dug Monitor. It’s a good link back to the Big Ideas episode I referred to a while back talking about the commercialisation of silence and space to think.
What part of my project am I avoiding?
Particularly after chats with the change strategist, the commercial demo is becoming an area of focus for the last stretch of the year.
Monitor sounds really interesting–I’ll have to add it to my read list! And hooray for starting the week on a high note! ^_^
I’m really interested in how you’re finding the experience of working with the change strategist mentor.
I worked with Kristine for a year back in 2013, and it was amazing. It really did help me shift to the next level. There’s a short interview about the experience here that’s 12 minutes total: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUCSmHHmquc She’s wonderful, warm, and I’m proud to call her a friend now as well as a mentor – really enjoyed catching up with her when I swung through LA.
This time around was a 2 hour checkup as an investment after a bountiful period, to sanity check where my time and head is at at the moment, and it was equally fantastic. Kristine leaves people in a state of self-sufficiency at the end of working together, but this was about leveraging all of that (and the growth in the meantime) for some new lessons and insight.
Can’t recommend it enough!
Hi Peter, I’ve been reading your Sunday Circle for a while and I’ve finally decided to take the plunge and have a go myself. My first effort is here https://reekimberley.com/2016/10/09/the-sunday-circle-9-october-2016/
Welcome aboard.
Ah the blank page… Sometimes it helps to write a sentence or two on the general flavour for your next scene or story – as if you’re telling a friend the gist. That gets something down and then (for me, anyway), I can start expanding into a snapshot of a piece of action within a scene. After that, it’s game on!
The avocado set story sounds awesome! Good luck with it! ^_^
As for the blank page, have you tried setting a timer for just five or ten minutes? Sometimes I find that I can bring myself to sit down for five minutes, knowing I can stop at the end of five minutes if it isn’t going anywhere (though often that’s enough to break the inertia and plunge in). I’ve also found that spending some focused time just thinking about what’s coming in the next section and how I can make it exciting to myself has really helped generate the energy I needed to sit down and hammer out a chapter. Darn that blank page! It’s a menace! ^_^
I’ve never used a timer, though it’s worth investigating. Usually I tell myself I can have a little reward after 250 words, 500 words etc. But the timer idea might help me settle into things faster – thanks 🙂
Welcome aboard.
Hello!
Endemic sounds fascinating – I’d be interested to hear more. The most recent book even semi-related I’ve read is Microbe Hunters which is… not contemporary (although I love de Kruif’s style).
I really want to read more but because it’s an academic book it’s a bit pricey – $80US for the ebook version! But you can buy individual chapters for $30, so I might do that.
Can you get it through a library? If you have SLQ membership, some academic texts are available as free ebooks.
That’s an idea, although it’s only just been released so they might not have it yet. But I’ll check it out.
Great to have you as part of the group, Ree!
Dark Zones sounds absolutely amazing, and I envy the academic context to devour both the visceral and the intellectual parts of what’s going on there.
Have you tried stream of consciousness writing at all to get the engine going and settle in? Or possibly, as a daft suggestion, transcribing something from a previous edit to flow into what you’re working on next?
Hi Kevin, I use stream of consciousness quite a bit, but working on a sequel seems to constrain that a bit. But maybe I should just let go of that and see what happens.
I’m so glad we saw Miss Peregrine, it would have been easy to skip and forget Burton can do genuinely powerful visual imagery. And I support morning movement, horrible as it is. I live further from a cafe than you do, which is a valuable incentive.
What am I working on this week?
– Confirmation for uni is scheduled for this Friday (huzzah), so that is occupying a fair bit of space.
– Outlining the novel to work on over November. I’ve got most of the characters and relationships worked out, and some key events (and an educated pig), at about 7k words of scraps and trial scenes, so I’m ready to start the formal outline.
– Art for a show and a few commissions due this week.
What’s inspiring me?
– Frances Hardinge, who has managed to write a YA supernatural gothic that feels exactly like Matthew Arnold’s poem “On Dover Beach” (not accidentally, either). And it’s one of those books where you feel like enough has happened that the book will probably end soon, and realise you’re barely halfway.
– Neal Stephenson’s Some Remarks, particularly “Mother Board, Mother Earth” (1996 book-length article on the laying of the FLAG cable), and now Nick Robins’ The Corporation that Changed the World, about the East India Company and the history of corporate social responsibility. I wasn’t sure what use to make of the peculiar sense of urgency that Neal Stephenson’s opinions on history always create (other than by reading Cryptonomicon), but the Robins (although drier) is creating a lot of resonance: personality and conflict, communication and empire, politics and monopolies and distance. They’re both about times before our current information age (how long ago 1996 seems!) but that shape our world, and I want to try extrapolating from that.
What am I avoiding?
– Putting together images to apply to illustration agents.
– Anything website related.
– Stretching.
You really shouldn’t avoid stretching! Especially if you’re preparing for confirmation. It’s a big day. Hope it all goes brilliantly.
Oh WOW! Definitely snagging The Corporation That Changed The World for my reading list – thank you SO MUCH for the recommendation. East India is rail barons of the piracy age – the closing noose of corporate interest closing a wild frontier.
I feel you on the applying to agents thing. I’m going to kick myself in the bum by proxy to say GO TO! Even if you can carve out a tiny part of the daily schedule for that, it makes a good frog to eat in morning to get that revenue generation out the door.
Hope the week treats you well – sounds like good things ahead, and a busy plate!