Daynote - Wed 9 Sep
Trying new things is exciting!
Bit under the weather last night, so I had a lie-in this morning (feeling much better, thank you). So, no walk. But a very fine stock photo of a typewriter. I actually do own a Brother printer and it's a very reliable piece of kit. Anyway.
ON DECK: Working on a sample for Project SUNSHINE this morning (I changed the name, and have retroactively changed it throughout the site) and got 339 words. This is a very new kind of writing for me, so there was lots of stopping and starting and checking and thinking and being unsure if I was doing it right. But I had a lot of fun. It's cool, having 'beginner's mind'. Ideally, every new project contains some kind of thing I haven't tried before, because if you're not trying new things you are by definition stagnating. But it's rare that something is entirely new to me in this way and I'm having a ball.
TOOLS AND PROCESS: I'm also working in new software for this particular project. I'll save the reveal of what I'm using for this week's edition of The Sitrep, which goes out to all paid members on Friday. But it's also fun to be getting to grips with a new tool, after so many years of only really using Scrivener and Word. Because I'm a weirdo who gets my kicks out of things like that.
LISTENING: I've been listening to some backlog episodes of The Q&A screenwriting podcast (I do love a podcast with a significant backlog) and I really enjoyed this episode with Dan Erickson talking about the first season of Severance, particularly the anecdote about how he was doing deliveries for Postmates when he got a call from his agent that Ben Stiller wanted to make his show. Fantastic stuff.
WATCHING: We finished off Season 3 of SILO last night and it redeemed itself pretty dang well in the final two episodes - but the first four or five episodes definitely continued the frustrating and slow-moving circular plotting of the second season. I think the final season next year is going to be absolutely breakneck in pace because of how many plot threads they're going to resolve. But I'll definitely come back for it, so well done, Tim Apple.
READING: More of JOE COUNTRY by Mick Herron (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) last night and, phew, it's a pleasure to read, genuinely. Some really deep character work in this one.
LINK: Literature & Latte, the folks who make Scrivener, are putting many of their webinars on Youtube! If you're curious about this software (or a veteran user who wants to use more of its considerable functionality), you should check these out.
UP NEXT: More on Project SUNSHINE for tomorrow and Friday, and I'll be putting out the first issue of The Sitrep on Friday too - think of it as basically an extended daynote for the whole week (a... weeknote, perhaps) with some of the same headings but more room to talk about what's going on behind the scenes. Sign up at any paid tier to get it.
I've also got a Narrative Damage recording tonight and a day in town tomorrow for the day job. Busy busy busy.
Onward!