I was a bit under the weather over the weekend, so I had a bit of a lie-in this morning instead of going for a walk. My usual cure-all seems to have nipped whatever it was in the bud, but I'll be going to bed early tonight, since I really don't want to miss Bloody Scotland (which is this week!) by getting sick. Can't believe how quickly it's come around.
On Friday, I put out my first edition of The Sitrep, my weekly newsletter for paid subscribers, and on Saturday I celebrated two years as a published author with a pair of posts, firstly a retrospective of the last year and then a re-publishing of the essay I wrote for Goldsboro Crime Collective subscribers On Possibilities and Sacrifices. Bit of a trip, looking back over that time and seeing where I started versus where I am now.
ON DECK: 263 words this morning on DRIFT - I went back and edited a scene because since I last worked on this project, a better idea had occurred to me, so I needed to swap two characters in a fairly frenetic action scene. But I got it done and now I can go forward, knowing all the characters are in the right (or very wrong, from their perspective) place.
TOOLS AND PROCESS: It's been some time (end of July) since I touched this book, so it's feeling a bit fuzzy. And it's a fuzzily outlined book to start with. And I'm about to take a week off in between Bloody Scotland and Braemar Literary Festival. So I think I'll use the next week or so to consolidate what I've written so far, address some of my crit partner's notes and lay the foundation for some fast drafting when I come back from my week off.
I'd hoped and planned to finish this draft by the end of November, before diving into a completely different book. But I think I'd need to reliably hit 2,000 words a day for all of October and November, which is not really on the cards. I'm going to a wedding and having a holiday in October, which is going to knock out the better part of three weeks, but even without that it'd be a big lift to consistently hit 2k per day. I can and have done those kinds of numbers in the past, but planning on them is a mistake, in my experience. So I'll extend my deadline out until some time in the first half of 2027 (!) and get there eventually.
LISTENING: I was doing a bunch of housework over the weekend, so I got through a fair whack of podcasts, including this excellent episode of The Q&A with Charlie Brooker about Black Mirror. Great stuff and a fascinating insight into producing that kind of anthology series.
WATCHING: We watched MAYDAY over the weekend on Apple TV, which looked like a fun Ryan Reynolds vehicle. It turned out to be a lot more fun and inventive than I was expecting, with a great script and some excellent visual work that I'd describe as almost 'Combat Wes Anderson' - lots of whirling cameras and static shots and interesting compositions. Hugely enjoyable, I recommend it.
READING: Closing in on the final quarter of JOE COUNTRY by Mick Herron (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) and still having a great time.
LINK: My Bloody Scotland event is this Saturday!
UP NEXT: Editing and drafting, slowly, on DRIFT, for the remainder of the week. I used to try and write while I was away at festivals, but I've learned mostly that's a way to get some really lacklustre words and make myself late for things in the morning, so I won't be doing that. Fret not, though, subscribers, I'll have this week's issues of The Sitrep and The Vector lined up and ready to go before I head to Stirling.
Onward!