Daynote - Tue 11 Nov

Back out again this morning - a lot less damp today, but pretty muddy and grey. However I did experiment with wearing a different jacket (managing body temperature in cold, wet Scotland is a constant challenge) and I was much more comfortable, so that's a win. Lots and lots of geese overhead today too, as well as a beautiful, near-silent flight of eight swans banking in over the bay. It was so quiet I could hear their wings creaking.

ON DECK: An excellent 1,725 words this morning, in a combination dialogue/action scene that flowed really well in both departments. Dialogue and action are the two things I write that I find can really eat up the word count in the first draft, so a scene that has both is always going to go quickly.

Overall, too, PROJECT DRIFT feels like like it's starting to cohere as a story and a world, in really interesting ways. I think I've come full circle on the outlining approach here, because I'm surprising myself in really interesting ways as I draft. But I'm well on the way to my loose target of 5-8k for the week.

LISTENING: I enjoyed this interview with hard-to-classify essayist/novelist/writer Tom Cox over at Writer's Routine. He's a very interesting guy.

WATCHING: I had a dentist appointment followed by a call with some friends about a publishing thing they're working on yesterday, so we didn't watch any TV in the evening. But I did play some ARC RAIDERS, which I am greatly enjoying. This video from CohnCarnage is pretty representative of my experience mostly playing solos, which is weird, tense, fun and often strangely reassuring about human nature.

Last night I came across a guy getting zapped to death by three or four flying ARC robots right next to the extraction point and managed to keep him alive long enough to get out. It was deeply satisfying.

READING: More of THE POWER OF THE DOG last night. It's a fantastic book for dipping into, because each scene is so vivid and the voice is so strong that it immediately pulls me back in.

LINK: I got my contributor copies for the THINK WEIRDER anthology yesterday, which is very exciting. Can't wait to dig into it. If you're interested in getting your own copy, you can check out the website here.

UP NEXT: More drafting! It's really nice to be making some headway and feeling the project starting to gel. And of course there's the Denny event coming up this Saturday, which I'm also really looking forward to.

Onward!