David Goodman's Blog, page 2

Daynote - Tue 18 Nov

From gorgeous weather to grey drizzle, such is the way of the Scottish November. And I stayed up too late playing ARC Raiders last night, so I had a lie-in. Cracking game, by the way.

ON DECK: Yesterday afternoon I had a great meeting where one of my recent pitches got the thumbs up. The i's are not yet dotted, but I am continuing with outlining in the hope and relative confidence that they will be. So I added a few more hundred words to my outline this morning and had a good time doing so. Most...

Daynote - Mon 17 Nov

An absolutely beautiful morning today, though a good ten degrees cooler than this time last week. Winter is coming on rapidly, but if I get gorgeous sunlit fields and woods like I did this morning, I can cope with my ears getting a bit cold. Poppy The Labrador also had a very good ball this morning that she was very excited to show me.

I had an excellent time at Denny Library on Saturday as part of their first Book Blether event. Here I am chatting to the audience. It's a lovely space.

Me on stag...

Daynote - Fri 14 Nov

No walk this morning - it rained for a solid 20+ hours yesterday, so I decided I didn't want to slog through ankle-deep mud in the woods this morning and had a bit of a lie-in instead. A wise decision, I think.

ON DECK: No words this morning on DRIFT, because I was focusing on pitches instead (hence the header image). I recently put together four possible pitches and this morning's work was to rework one of them to include elements from another. Once I get an idea in my head like that (either fro...

Daynote - Thu 13 Nov

Absolutely shocking weather today, so I've holed up inside and cracked on with the work. My weather app just says 'rain for the next 12+ hours'. Ah, Scotland in November.

ON DECK: A decent 1,083 words this morning. It's always a bit rough getting going again after a day when I don't manage any words. The imp of self-doubt says 'oh no maybe you'll never write again and even if you do it'll be terrible'. But the well-trained brain reacts predictably to the Scrivener window, a nice dark office and a...

Daynote - Wed 12 Nov

You win some, you lose some. After a couple of days on the routine, with morning walks and good amounts of words being written, I had a bit of a late night (picking up family in the car), then had a very interrupted night's sleep thanks to my cats (captured birds, cats puking, it was a whole thing). So, no walk this morning and precious little writing.

ON DECK: A grand total of ten words this morning, before I noped out of my Scrivener file and instead spent a bit of time working on Notion spread...

Daynote - Tue 11 Nov

Back out again this morning - a lot less damp today, but pretty muddy and grey. However I did experiment with wearing a different jacket (managing body temperature in cold, wet Scotland is a constant challenge) and I was much more comfortable, so that's a win. Lots and lots of geese overhead today too, as well as a beautiful, near-silent flight of eight swans banking in over the bay. It was so quiet I could hear their wings creaking.

ON DECK: An excellent 1,725 words this morning, in a combinatio...

Daynote - Mon 10 Nov

Back to the morning walk today, though it was chucking it down until about five minutes before I left. That meant everything was sparkling with raindrops, a rainbow led me down to the beach and my trousers got quite damp. But it was a beautiful morning.

ON DECK: A solid 1,440 words on PROJECT DRIFT this morning, now that the proofs are handed back in for SOLITARY AGENTS. It's been a couple of weeks since I last touched this story (a week off, then a week working on the proofs) so it took me a min...

Daynote - Fri 7 Nov

I was out late in town last night, visiting family, so got up late again this morning. No walk, but it's a beautiful and crisp November morning after a run of unseasonably warm days. Sunny too. Hopefully I'll get out for some more walks next week and it won't be chucking it down.

ON DECK: I did a bunch of proof work on trains and buses last night, then a little more this morning. I'm in the final third of the book and it's running along nicely.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: I've been trying to be less preci...

Daynote - Thu 6 Nov

Another slow-moving morning, working away on page proofs. Unsplash (unsurprisingly) doesn't have many good images of e-ink tablets (they're still a bit niche, tech-wise) so this blank iPad will have to do.

ON DECK: A couple of chapters done this morning. Slow, like I said, but I will perhaps do a bit more over lunch, since I have a busy weekend with family coming up and proofs are due in about four days. Somewhat regretting my decision not to do some of this while I was on holiday, but hey-ho.

LI...

Daynote - Wed 5 Nov

Wow, today got away from me. Stayed up a bit late, watching BAKE OFF, so I got up a bit late and had one of those mornings where I felt like I was dead last in a 100m sprint. No walk, but did get some proofing done.

ON DECK: I tipped over the halfway point in the proof for SOLITARY AGENTS. It's going pretty well, still mostly continuity errors, rather than flat-out typos. And it's a relief to be reading it and to not be bored or dismayed. I'm pretty happy with it, which is a good place to be as w...