Daynote - Tue 1 Jul
The second half of the year, allegedly.
It's currently 14°C and cloudy in Scotland. I hear from various friends and colleagues down south that it's... a lot muggier. Haven't quite re-established my morning walks yet, still shaking off the last of the cold that we brought back from Stockholm with us.
It's quite hard to find stock photography for July that doesn't feature stars, stripes, fireworks and hotdogs. But I found the above. Very functional.
ON DECK: One of those mornings where I stared blankly at my outline trying to work out where the story is actually going. Added some stuff, deleted some stuff, got 32 aggregate words. Which goes to show, sometimes word count tells you absolutely nothing.
TOOLS AND PROCESS: I'm doing a 'big beat' outline at the moment - a low-resolution runthrough of the main plot points. Inevitably, as I write, I get more and more granular and then I have to stop, back up and take it up a level so I can actually get to where I want to go (which is the end of the story).
This is always an interesting part of coming up with a book and probably the least consistent part of my writing process. Sometimes its a list of bullet points, sometimes its a bit like a film treatment, sometimes it's a single paragraph of text that I then just keep extending. Occasionally I start with a timeline. But mostly I've become more comfortable with just sort of... fiddling for a bit until something emerges. Still not quite at that point on this one.
LISTENING: Really, really enjoying the new Balancing the Books Podcast by Cailean Steed. This week's episode with Ben Davies is excellent, and last week's with Heather Parry was also a belter.
WATCHING: A couple of episodes of THE BEAR last night (this season is great) followed by the penultimate episode of THE HANDMAID'S TALE. June's plot armour continues to function, but I think it is actually sticking the landing. Wild to think this show has been running for nearly a decade.
READING: Still on THE POWER OF THE DOG. It's quite the exercise in voice and POV, routinely breaking the received wisdom (lots of 'head-hopping' in scenes, for example) but pulling it off admirably.
LINK: Very excited to see the trailer for PROJECT HAIL MARY, which I really enjoyed as a book. Utterly baffled by the decision to spoil a MAJOR plot twist in the trailer, for no apparent reason? Why.... would you do that? Don't watch the trailer if you haven't read the book and care about spoilers, fair warning.
UP NEXT: Reminder - tomorrow I'm in conversation with Iain MacGregor, author of THE HIROSHIMA MEN, in Dunbar, East Lothian. Hope to see some blog readers there. Please do say hello.
Onward!