Daynote - Fri 25 Apr

A very happy Friday to you. No walk this morning, because I accidentally went to bed late. I've learned over the years that if it's a showdown between getting enough sleep and sticking to my morning walk, sleep is the better use of limited time. But I still get annoyed when I miss my walk.

ON DECK: Timelined to the end of Part 2 of the book, three parts to go. Unlike the video editor timeline above, there's no exciting stuff to look at, just me getting annoyed that a character says 'two hours' in the text but it's actually got to be at least three hours, otherwise the sunset time doesn't line up.

These are the magical moments in writing we don't generally talk about on panels or podcasts.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: The above timelining is made bearable by the combination of Scrivener and Aeon Timeline. Now that I know how to do a one-way sync (syncing just the scene names and descriptions to Aeon, from Scrivener), I can dump all my scenes into Aeon with a couple of clicks, then drag them onto a timeline.

Today I figured out how to change the timeline view to go down to the second-by-second level, which came in handy when timelining out a multi-POV set of scenes that all linked together with to-the-second timing. Worked a treat. I should really properly read the manual for Aeon, I reckon I'm using a tenth of what its capable of.

LISTENING: I was really chuffed to get a shoutout from Bob McDevitt on the latest episode of the Bloody Scotland podcast - thanks for reading Bob! And the episode itself, with Elly Griffiths and Sean Watkins, is a belter.

WATCHING: Second episode of THE LAST OF US last night, excellent stuff. I mean, harrowing, even having played the game, but very well done.

READING: I'm back to the beta read on my friend's cyberpunk book and enjoying it a great deal. I also started reading INNOCENT GUILT by Remi Kone, as we're going to be on a panel together at Capital Crime in June. It has an absolute belter of an opening chapter.

LINK: Another excellent post from editor and author Phoebe Morgan, this time on book sales and track records.

UP NEXT: More timelining next week. I should have it done by Tuesday or Wednesday though, as the timeline through the middle of the book is less complex, before getting more complicated again towards the end. Then it's time for another readthrough.

Onward!