Daynote - Mon 3 Feb

I'd intended, after last week's busy events, to start the new month off right by getting back on the regular schedule today. However, I have two alarms - the Garmin watch that I wear which actually wakes me up, then my phone out in the hall that gets me out of bed.

Unfortunately thanks to the late nights last week I'd turned off the Garmin alarm and our bedroom door muffled the phone alarm. So I woke up at 7am instead of half five. As I discussed at length in my latest writing routine post, I'd very much like to get up at 7 - it's when I naturally wake up without an alarm, as demonstrated this morning. But needs must etc.

So, no walk this morning, but I did get some writing done.

And I also woke up to Shazzie from book blog Reader at Work including A RELUCTANT SPY as one of her February picks of the month! Which is a very nice way to start the day.

ON DECK: A decent 1,584 this morning, which is carrying me into the mid-fifty thousands overall word count wise. I'm writing a series of very short, intercut scenes from different POVs due to another bit of rising action, so it's going pretty well. But I'm eyeing the overall word count a trifle nervously. We'll see how we go.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: I've linked it above, but I'll link it here again - I've written a long update to my writing routine process from 2023, looking at everything that has changed in those intervening two years. Turns out quite a lot! This post also pairs well with my recent one on how to 'make yourself write'.

LISTENING: My friend and critique partner Nick Binge has launched an intriguing new podcast called the Binge Reading Bookclub (see what he did there?) along with his friend and podcast producer Hugo. It's a great idea for a podcast - reading one book a month, specifically chosen to illustrate an aspect of writing craft, then have a good old chat about both the book and the craft side of it. I've subscribed and their introductory episode is a hoot.

WATCHING: More SAS ROGUE HEROES last night, and we're just about done with the first season and moving on to the second. Again, I find myself really enjoying the re-watch because of how much more of the script I'm catching.

READING: More of Eve Smith's THE CURE over the weekend while I haunted various garden centre cafes. Excellent stuff.

LINK: Charlie Stross has started an irregular series on plausible ways for novelists to poison their characters. Fascinating and a bit morbid, all in one.

UP NEXT: Nowhere near as busy this week in the evenings, though I do have a call with Nick to look at what we're doing with his Napier class later in the month, as well as dinner with an old friend. But otherwise, it's back to the routine and into a new month! Wild.

Onward!