Daynote - Mon 10 Feb

A damp start to the week today, after fighting off a bit of a sore throat at the weekend, so I took it a bit easy and skipped my morning walk, which would have been very damp and squelchy. I'll hopefully get out tomorrow instead.

ON DECK: The longer writing time meant a pretty good 2,644 words this morning and I'm well across the 65k mark of the SCARLET draft overall. It's going well. I'm navigating somewhat without a map (which makes me nervous) since I didn't manage to do any micro-outlining this weekend. But I'll do a little in the evenings this week and get it squared away, because now we're in a fairly complex part of the book with multiple POVs and overlapping timelines. If I don't micro-outline, I am absolutely guaranteed to flub the details somewhere or put someone in the wrong place at the wrong time.

LISTENING: Loved this episode of the amazing Print Run podcast about subgenres and their proliferation. I think the whole thing is fascinating, especially as the competing purposes/uses of genres and subgenres (as marketing categories, as acquisition trends, as reader identities/fandom organisations and more) inevitably clash and influence each other. If you're not already listening to Print Run, I strongly suggest subscribing.

WATCHING: We started PANTHEON on Netflix yesterday, which is apparently a) from 2022, even though I'd never heard of it and b) based on some of Ken Liu's short stories. It's excellent so far, though suffers from the very common 'entire first episode is setup and character introductions' syndrome which is endemic in more complex, multi-POV dramas. Great animation style and a very intriguing setup though, so we'll definitely be continuing.

READING: I finished Eve Smith's THE CURE yesterday. It was fantastic. Here's what I said on social media.

LINK: An author friend of mine recently had some character art commissioned for their new novel and I thought the artist, Hannah Elizabeth, had an amazing portfolio. You can check her work out here.

UP NEXT: A couple of events this week, one at Arcadia University's study abroad program at Edinburgh University, then another at Napier University at the end of the week. I'm really looking forward to chatting with both sets of students.

Other than that, micro-outlining, a lot more drafting and hoping my sore throat from Sunday doesn't get any worse (I seem to be on the mend, which is good). I suspect I'll break 70k on SCARLET this week, which is very exciting, because 70-80k is traditionally the point where I start to harbour severe doubts that any of what I've drafted is any good (after my first wobble at the 30k mark). Thankfully the very predictability of these confidence lapses makes them easier to manage - I know if I push through I'll get it done.

Onward!