Daynote - Thu 3 Oct
No daynote yesterday as I was doing a school visit! My first ever and it was a lot of fun. I went to Earlston High School down in the Borders and met the Advanced Higher English class. I talked a bit about my career so far and how I got my short stories and novel published, then we did a writing exercise on idea generation, then we had a really great Q&A. It was a lot of fun and something I'd love to do again. It was also the first time I've been inside a high school since I left my own in 1999, so it was a bit strange, but a lot of fun. When I asked if everyone had a jotter with them, they all pulled out their iPads. Times change. But the students were smart, engaged and absolutely fascinated by the world of publishing. I'll post some pics when I get them from the school.
ON DECK: 964 words yesterday after the school visit, then 607 this morning. One more scene to write in this sample, then a quick whip through crit partners and editing and that'll be off to the races. I'm feeling pretty good about it!
LISTENING: Really enjoyed this new episode of the Honest Authors Podcast with Blake Crouch, and I'm really looking forward to this season's theme of interviewing authors who have stayed in the publishing industry - there's so much focus on how you get in as a debut author that the question of how you keep going and deal with setbacks is less often addressed. But arguably I think it's more important, in the long term.
WATCHING: Finished up THE STAND. Pretty decent, though the finale is one deus ex machina (literally) after another. It's been so long since I read the novel that I can't remember how closely it hewed to it, but it was a good update to the material. I laughed at the Game of Thrones joke in the penultimate episode.
READING: Read a bit of OVER THE WATER last night as well as some of THE CHAMBER by Will Dean. I briefly met Will at Harrogate this year and thought I'd start with his latest. It's pleasingly technical so far.
UP NEXT: Last scene to write tomorrow in the SCARLET sample, then it'll be 2-3 days of editing to polish everything up. Then I think I'll try to finish the Ridealong edit next week. Not sure how long that'll take, as the edits I have planned involve writing a bunch of new scenes. But hopefully I'll have a bit of time to do that, then move onto SHARD edits while I wait for the outcome of the SCARLET draft. Every day I'm juggling (projects).