Daynote - Thu 27 Aug

Extremely autumnal vibes this morning, with geese flying over in skeins the whole way along the foreshore. It's still 15°C and muggy, the last dregs of August heat are still lingering, but I can feel the autumn in the air.

ON DECK: This morning I hit page 300 on Project VAULT! I was hoping to hit that milestone and I did, which is very satisfying. And it means I've got a hundred pages or so to go, then a polish pass, then I'll be done. Last Friday I did 150+ pages, so I'm reasonably sure that I'll get this edit done tomorrow. Which is well within schedule. I love it when a plan comes together.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: The immediate question is what to do next, of course. I'd blocked out another couple of weeks for this edit, so I (theoretically) now have a bit of time to spare. I could jump straight back into DRIFT (very tempting) or work on a secret side project I've been noodling with (also tempting) or spend a bit of time writing pitches for future contracted projects (time-sensitive and also tempting). I think I will do a bit of both of the latter two, then return to DRIFT once I've cleared the decks a bit.

LISTENING: I really enjoy a podcast called The Town, which is a very industry-focused show all about Hollywood and the movie and TV industry. It's almost entirely focused on the economic and business side of those sectors and I kind of love the cigar-chewing bullishness of it. This week, they've done an episode with a live panel at the Edinburgh TV Festival and it's a fascinating look at the differences between the US and UK sectors.

WATCHING: More of THE TESTAMENTS last night - definitely a show that's using voiceover really well to get across the fraught nature of undercover work. It's actually a pretty taut spy thriller, at its heart?

READING: More of JOE COUNTRY by Mick Herron (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) - I'd forgotten how leisurely Mick can be when he's setting up a story. When you're used to the crash, bang, wallop pace of more action-orientated thrillers it can feel delightfully languid.

LINK: I enjoyed this piece by Kirk McElhearn on the Scrivener blog about the role of 'incubation' in writing, i.e. letting an idea or complex set of knowledge cook in your subconscious a little before you get going on a project. I think it can definitely help to build in time for this to happen, rather than just hoping it will.

UP NEXT: A full day of writing tomorrow and I'll hopefully square away Project VAULT and maybe even make a start on the above? We'll see.

September is looming and with it a bunch of events and a bunch of writing goals. I'm really looking forward to it.

Onward!