Daynote - Wed 4 Jun

Windy and occasionally rainy today again, so a bit more time to plot and plan. Which sounds vaguely sinister, but is basically me typing a sentence, staring out of the window, then typing another sentence, for about two hours.

ON DECK: I've finished two pitches and I think they're ready to roll, at least on the pure pitch side. I haven't done a synopsis for either yet - that's the bit that takes a lot longer. That's because I want to run the core ideas by some folks before I spend the day or two each it would normally take me to write up a basic synopsis. But I think they're both pretty strong ideas.

Also, my paperback author copies arrived!

TOOLS AND PROCESS: A random aside on blogging - a couple of people have asked me recently how I do a near-daily blog post. And the answer is mostly (like all writing) habit. But I also make heavy use of templates. Ghost has a built-in piece of tech called 'Snippets', which you can use to turn literally anything into a reusable chunk of text/images/whatever. So when I start a new Daynote, I just type /daynote and it prefills all the headings etc for me. From there it's a 5-10 minute job to write it up and post it.

The other answer is that I have a fairly low bar for what's worthy of inclusion. TV shows, games, things I saw on my walk, cool stuff that's happened recently. It's intended to be a glimpse into my working life and that means not worrying too much about how 'interesting' it is. I started doing these because I noticed that there were several writers I followed who wrote similar daily or near-daily low-stakes blogs or newsletters and I found them endlessly fascinating to read (as well as regularly getting interesting links from them).

LISTENING: I've been doing more listening to 5AM Storytalk and really enjoyed this episode with screenwriter Liz Hannah, who wrote THE POST among many other things.

WATCHING: Valerie introduced me to TASKMASTER last night, which I had somehow not managed to see. Excellent stuff.

READING: Still reading THE HIROSHIMA MEN, which is continuing to intrigue me with its multi-focal point narrative. I already have a long list of questions for Iain when I meet him in July.

LINK: I thought this Unreal Engine 5.6 tech demo for THE WITCHER 4 was flat out bananas. I know these kinds of 'vertical slice' demos are a lot of smoke and mirrors, but the underlying tech of Unreal is bonkers.

UP NEXT: With my two planned pitches done, I'm mulling over a third, or just starting work on a synopsis/treatment for a different, secret project. I'm leaning towards the latter, because in my experience staring at a blank screen trying to come up with an idea is quite painful, whereas if you work on something else, ideas tend to bubble up. So I think tomorrow and Friday I'll get going on that piece, codename PROJECT DRIFT.

Also - it's paperback release day tomorrow! AHHH. Very exciting indeed. Lots of exciting things in the works and to talk about. I can't wait for more readers to get their hands on the book, especially in such a lovely new format.

And on Friday, Cymera starts, and I'll be heading to bookshops all over Edinburgh looking for paperback copies to sign.

Onward!