Daynote - Tue 21 Oct

A dreich start to the day here in Scotland, with drizzle most of the night. I was informed of this fact by a wet cat first thing this morning, so I used the time I'd normally spend walking in the woods to do a bit more writing and some writing-related admin.

ON DECK: A solid 1,090 words this morning on the DRIFT manuscript, which is about 25% done at a shade under 30,000 words. Again this is a story I'm sort of feeling my way through, so it's slowish going and I'm pausing frequently to have a wee think about where to go next. But it's happening, slowly but surely.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: I'm extremely intrigued by this post from author Tobias Buckell about Glyph, his keyboard-only editing mechanism. It's a really fascinating bit of keyboard remapping that allows you to write and edit, in any app, without having to use your mouse or trackpad to move your cursor around, select text and so on.

I already use some key remapping myself. Tobias uses an app called Karabiner Elements which makes it very easy to do, but you can also use built-in utilities in Mac OS. I chose to use the built-in method because I just felt a bit nervous about giving a third party app system-level access to my keyboard (because that's how keyloggers work). My use case is very simple - I've swapped my Backspace key with my Caps Lock key, because I barely ever use Caps Lock but I use Backspace constantly, and now it's right under my left pinky finger when I'm typing, which is extremely handy.

I don't think I'll actually use Glyph, since I don't tend to do a lot of moving text around while drafting or editing and (so far) I don't have a huge amount of keyboard-related RSI issues. But it's a good thing to highlight for those who do, I think.

LISTENING: A truly eclectic episode of Adventures in Publishing-Land this week, including serial killers, universal basic income, garlic mayo marketing and more. If you're not already subscribed to this excellent collaboration between the Page One lads and Nadine Matheson, you should be.

WATCHING: We started on season 3 of GANGS OF LONDON last night and I'd forgotten how massively OTT it is. It's very fun telly - terrible people being absolutely awful to each other.

READING: More of QUANTUM OF MENACE last night and the core plot is beginning to unwind in a very interesting way. Remember, this comes out next week on Thursday!

LINK: I enjoyed this extreme nostalgia dump from Phil Gyford about his first few months on the internet. I'm a little younger than Phil, so my own first experiences of the web were mediated through internet cafes and 'the family PC', but much of this rung a very loud bell. It was a time of incredible possibility. Hard to believe how far we've come and, in many cases, how far we've fallen.

UP NEXT: More words, more walks (if the rain stays off) and hopefully I'll crack 40k on DRIFT. We shall see.

Onward!