Daynote - Tue 16 Dec

Woke up a bit late (it's so dark in Scotland just now as we approach the winter solstice) but still managed some writing and a walk. And I'm glad I did, as I saw several hundred geese going over in vast skeins. Seems like they may be winding up to finally fly south. If there was any doubt that winter was here, it's gone now.

ON DECK: A solid 1,051 words this morning. Starting a new book is an odd one for me. Many of my writer friends tell me they embark on each project with great gusto and excitement because it's the Shiny New Idea that they've been thinking about and have lots of ideas, that the doubts and the slow, doubt-filled work comes later.

It varies for me by project, but most of the time the first few thousand words are quite tentative and rambling as I figure out how the book is going to feel on the fly. And no amount of outlining seems to change that. I find it'll usually take me 5,000 to 10,000 words before I really settle into a book and get rolling.

LISTENING: The excellent Coode Street Podcast has been doing short episodes every day in December as a kind of podcast advent calendar. Today's episode with Kim Stanley Robinson is a bit longer, but really, really good.

WATCHING: We broke the seal on the Christmas movies last night, watching A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS for openers and then KLAUS on Netflix as we finished decorating the tree. The latter is excellent, if you haven't seen it.

READING: More of my friend's book yesterday, which is a really interesting vignette style book.

KIT: I was singing the praises of my buckwheat pillow to a colleague the other day who's had shoulder issues from working out and I realised I'd never talked about it on here. I found Brow Farm Buckwheat Pillows (affiliate link) a few years ago and have never looked back - they're affordable, incredibly supportive and basically eliminated the persistent sore necks I started getting in my thirties. Highly recommended. If we're going away within the UK and have a car, we take them with us, they're that good.

LINK: I greatly enjoyed this video by Any Austin about places in Cyberpunk 2077 you were never meant to go. I do love a good, weird, liminal space and this video is chock full of them.

UP NEXT: I'm on track to hit 5k for the week, which is what I wanted to do. But the last week of work is always a busy one, so there's a lot on. I can taste the mince pies in my future though.

Onward!