Daynote - Fri 23 Jan

I think I'm going to slightly change how I do my daynote on a Friday. I try to always write one of these for each day that I do writing work, which is usually Monday to Friday (with the odd weekend day of writing here and there). However, since going part-time, I'm starting later in the day on Fridays and taking most of the morning to write, with the 'oh, I have to write my daynote' task sitting at the back of my brain the whole time.

So I think, on Fridays, I'll write my daynote once I'm settled at my desk, which means no word count reporting (that can wait until the next daynote) but does mean I'm not going to be posting them in the middle of the afternoon.

It's also very dreich this morning, so I think I'll skip my walk. I'll be out later in the day (plus I walked a bunch in town yesterday).

ON DECK: Two major objectives for the writing this morning - get my day's quota on Project VAULT and get the next week or so's scenes/chapters outlined. I write a little over or a little under a scene per day at the moment, so that means I'll need 5-6 scenes outlined in detail.

Drafting first, though, then the outlining.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: I'm still getting used to the idea of having a whole day to do writing things with. In practice I'll be balancing writing work with other things (I'm not intending to sit and type for 8 straight hours, especially because I have no wish to give myself RSI), but even just being able to say 'hmm, think I'll write until 11ish' is intoxicating. I'm sure, like everything, I'll get used to it. But for now it's still a heady mixture of exciting and daunting.

LISTENING: As I puttered around the house this morning I listened to my friend Lyndsey Croal on the Page One Podcast, talking about her exceptional success in the short fiction world and the challenges of breaking into novel publishing. It's an inspiring listen. Also available on Youtube.

WATCHING: More of THE TRAITORS last night, and my opinion of the deductive reasoning of the Faithful has not improved. Also, that was an extremely rude cliffhanger ending. Looking forward to tonight!

READING: I am absolutely flying through EXCESSION by Iain M. Banks (Bookshop.org, Amazon) and I'm in the last fifty pages or so. Having a whale of a time.

KIT: I picked up a Kobo Remote (once they came back into stock, they've been sold out since launch) to give it a try. I love my Kobo Libra 2 a very great deal (the library integration, annotation and now Instapaper integration is incredible and I do a lot of beta reading on it) but I also sometimes want to read in bed without risking dropping the thing on my face. I'm not sure I'll go the full gooseneck-mount approach that I see some people doing, but it'll be nice to prop up the eReader in bed or on the sofa and flick the pages remotely. It remains to be seen what that'll do to battery life, but I'll report back.

LINK: A really fascinating breakdown from the author Laura McKowen on how much she was paid for her non-fiction book. Non-fiction is a part of the overall book market that operates on slightly different rules, timescales and precedents than fiction, but I'm still absolutely fascinated by any glimpse I can get into the hard numbers of the industry.

UP NEXT: Lots of typing today, then a trip into town later. But first, time for a cup of tea. Onward!