Daynote - Wed 25th Sep 2024
It's a beautiful, crisp morning, but I didn't get out for a walk today, which makes me sad. Still, I'm heading off to London this evening, so I'll get plenty of steps in later today.
ON DECK: A solid 1,346 words this morning, reaping the benefits of the micro-outlining I did last week. I've had cause to articulate some of the specifics of my writing process in the last couple of days, as I did two things where I was asked about it. The first one was with the Reedsy 'How to Write a Novel' course with Tom Bromley, where Tom asked me lots of questions about my process. And the second was with the Write and Wrong Podcast which comes out on Monday.
In both interviews, I talked about my current process where I write a narrative 'treatment' outline that reads like a screenplay treatment, as a high level 'big beats' summary of what I think the book is going to be. But then, as I go along, I 'micro-outline' a few chapters ahead, planning out the next few scenes in more detail. It's not a process that I consciously figured out - it's more of a natural outgrowth of how I sell novels now, which is with a pitch document and an outline/treatment. And so far, it's working pretty well. It's nice to feel like I have some flexibility and I'm not just ticking off scenes I outlined months before.
LISTENING: I accumulated a big backlog of podcasts while I was running about during release week, so I've been getting caught up over the past few days. I really enjoyed this interview with Attica Locke on Crimetime FM.
WATCHING: I'm intrigued by this trailer for Mickey 17. Robert Pattinson continues to make the most of his millions by doing some really great, original SF projects.
READING: I'm doing a beta read right now, a campground horror novel called OVER THE RIVER for my friend CJ Dotson. It is very, very creepy.
UP NEXT: I'm off to London tonight and Bristol tomorrow for day job stuff, but I'll be in London tomorrow evening at the Goldsboro Books 25th anniversary party! Really looking forward to it. I'll be taking the sleeper, so I won't get quite as much writing done as I would taking day time trains, but I often get a fair bit done on the way to and from Bristol, so I'm hoping to get back from London on Friday morning with two or three thousand more words under my belt.