Daynote - Fri 30th Aug 2024
It's the last day of August.
A decent morning, sunny with a cool breeze. I had a very nice walk in the woods this morning, saw a deer. Autumn is definitely in the post though and to be honest I'm kind of here for it after a wet and not very sunny summer.
ON DECK: Momentum faded a little bit this morning, so I got 477 words. But any day with words in it is a win. And I'm planning to write a bit at the weekend too, as I'll be in town. The words themselves also kind of sucked (or felt like they did), a long, meandering explanation by a character that I suspect will end up being cut by 90%. But sometimes I need to do that, just let characters talk and let a scene play out, then cut and snip the result into shape. And sometimes I go back and the thing I thought was crap in the first draft is actually perfectly serviceable, or even quite good! You can't really judge it in the moment, even though it feels awful.
On the plus side, I got a couple of intriguing messages about possible writing-related opportunities yesterday, which is always very exciting.
LISTENING: Really enjoyed this interview with Sarah L Brooks (who wrote the CAUTIOUS TRAVELLER'S GUIDE TO THE WASTELAND) on the Confessions of a Debut Novelist podcast.
WATCHING: As I sometimes do when I am feeling tense about publishing stuff, I compulsively played the PS5 last night. Bit of Hardspace: Shipbreaker while I listened to podcasts. It's a very fun, very zen game. Until you cut into a coolant pipe and blow the reactor you didn't know was there.
READING: More NINTH LIFE. Still an absolute banger.
UP NEXT: Bit of weekend writing, hopefully making a bit of progress on PROJECT SCARLET, and/or knocking off some of the feature writing I've been asked to do.