Daynote - Tue 2 Dec

Once again I stayed up too late (working on crit reading) and didn't get up in time for my morning walk, which was a shame because there was a corker of a sunrise and clear blue skies. At this time of year it's a bit of an extra effort to get out regularly and I find myself resisting, but I never regret going out when I do make it. Ah well, there's always tomorrow.

ON DECK: Just as I was drifting off last night, something occurred to me that tied all of the disparate threads and plot points and key scenes I've been wrestling with together. I was so worried I'd forget it that I actually went and got my notebook and wrote it down. Thankfully, this morning, I can read my handwriting and it still makes sense!

So I've cracked on with the outline this morning and got the third very high level outline pretty much done. The next step, I think, will be to start working on a Scrivener file so I can see the shape of the chapters and the order of the points of view. And then probably a timeline.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: This morning my Microsoft 365 subscription finally expired and I was able to switch over to my Office 2024 standalone licenses. Finally, no Copilot inserting itself into my documents, no OneDrive getting in the way and an office package that just... lets me work. Radical concept. It came at a steep price (the licenses are per device, so I need two, which is 4 x the annual cost of MS365's 'classic' option) but I'm very glad to be free of it.

LISTENING: The Incident Room podcast has an excellent Christmas special up, featuring Chris McDonald, Mark Edwards and Chris Willocks of Serenity Books. Looking forward to seeing all of these folks at Stockport Noir in January!

WATCHING: We caught up with PLURIBUS last night and it was excellent. The mix of cold dread and slapstick drone-based humour was fantastic. Being an extra on this show must be an absolute trip.

READING: More of DARK WATERS by Marco Rinaldi last night. It's really amping up as I head into the last hundred pages or so.

LINK: Edinburgh SFF is doing an advent calendar of member's work on Instagram. Follow them to see a huge range of writing from the members of this excellent group.

UP NEXT: My favourite thing ever - setting up a new Scrivener file. I'm not even kidding. It's a field of dreams moment, before I have to do all the actual writing. But I'm hoping to start the writing pretty dang soon.

Onward!