And Now We Are Forty-Eight
18/03/2025
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It’s the eighteenth of March here in Australia, which means I’ve just turned another year older. We’re still fixing things up after
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 hit a thorny bit of the Wail draft last week–a plot choice I thought was right turned out to be wrong, and the story ended up being a bit stuck as a result. Rather than grind my gears against a narrative that wasn’t moving and getting frustrated, I switched my focus over to a short story project about flying cities, the town-based proletariate who live below them, and the relationship between former partners who now find themselves on either side of the social divide as they search for some stolen goods.
The interesting thing about this project is that it’s part of the 138 unfinished story drafts that have been haunting my to-do list for ages. I started it back in 2010 or so, and largely got moving by applying some of the insights from John Truby’s Anatomy of Story to pull apart the original concept and rebuild it around a narrative core instead of a voice and an idea.
What’s inspiring me this week?
Seanan McGuire’s Deadland’s novel, Boneyard, which I devoured in the space of three days in the early parts of the week and really should do a post about here on its own terms.
It’s an intriguing beast: probably one of the best narrative works I’ve seen come out of the RPG source material, but it achieves this by largely discarding the conventions of the RPG session and character archetypes and simply building a compelling story out of the core DNA of the world.
The result is a novel that is recognisably set in the Deadlands world, but rarely feels like something you would replicate in a game session.
What action do I need to take?
I’m slated to deliver the first conference paper of my thesis in January, which is one of those experiences that makes me twitchy because I don’t yet have a good understanding of how to put one together in an efficient way.
My supervisor has recommended a rough outline structure I need to populate, but every time I look at it I feel an enormous sense of resistance predicated on the gaps in my research that would need to be filled…
It’s the eighteenth of March here in Australia, which means I’ve just turned another year older. We’re still fixing things up after
I’m writing this from an apartment packed down for impending cyclone/hurricane due to hit Brisbane some time in the next 24 hours.
I recently offered GenrePunk Ninja subscribers a list of options for a series of deep dive entries, and got them to vote
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What am I working on this week?
This week is lead generation, narrative skills development, and a productivity course I’ve just signed up to.
What’s inspiring me this week?
On a personal note, having a conversation with a dear friend who is doing a PhD in an area that touches on geopolitics, nuclear annihilation, hard and soft power and related topics, and being able to talk cogently about some areas due to the reading I’ve been doing recently. On a stimulus note, the re-read of Robert McKee’s Story is proving a lot more directly applicable than Anatomy of Story, while at the same time I’m finding Story is reinforcing points made in Anatomy of Story in a way that’s really helped.
For some reason, I’ve had a hankering for ‘infotainment’ movies recently. Just finished watching Moneyball and will be making time to watch The Big Short as well. There’s something in them my brain’s tickled by right now.
What action do I need to take?
Keeping consistent with the lead generation that’s been building up. A few more marketing activities prior to PAX. The biggest thing though is general consistency, which is part of why I signed up for Ron Friedman’s course. I’ve been feeling a little unhinged lately – loose and unstructured, as well as recognising that my actions don’t reflect a few core goals – so building a daily rhythm ground up and knowing it represents the most effective approach is a big goal right now. I’m comfortable with the work I’ve done at the macro level, but I need some refinement on the micro level to have things working at their best.
Peter: I hear you on the mental resistance based on how daunting the work to get to the other side of that feels.
I’m not sure if this’ll work to combat the resistance or if it’s too esoteric, but would it be worth trying the “Give Yourself An A” exercise from Art of Possibility specifically with regards to your conference paper?