Adrian Faulkner's Blog, page 41
August 19, 2020
The Importance Of Being Organised – The Climb #544
One of the things I’m really, really interested in is the technical aspects of writing. This goes beyond simple craft. Whilst I love to hear about how writers approach character, what I really love is to know how they organise themselves. What writing tools do they use? How do they organise their manuscripts in software like Scrivener? How do they track structural changes they need to make?
I used to be a pantser. I knew the first act, important milestone scenes ...
August 18, 2020
A Glum Day – The Climb #543
Today has been a glum day.
I’ve worked out that writing is very integral to me getting through this pandemic. It’s my escape. It’s why I busy myself with little projects. All the time I’m working on something I’m focused on that and not the general shitshow that is 2020, where the pandemic is just one of a long list of crappy things.
So it’s no surprise that on days when I really don’t have any writing project to do, I might look up from my screen, see the world on fi...
August 17, 2020
Calm Before The Storm – The Climb #542
I’m a little restless at the moment. I’m not trying to start any major project right now as it’s possible that I might need to switch to something else in the coming weeks.
So now’s the perfect time to play with things and work on my craft. As much as I hate flitting between things, it’ll both keep me occupied and teach me new skills.
Today I’ve been investigating the idea of a TV sitcom I have. I wouldn’t say I’m particularly funny, but I like to think my work has som...
August 16, 2020
Gaming Sunday – The Climb #541
I’d like to say that I spent all of Sunday deep in some writing project or other, but the truth of it was that it was spent gaming.
I suppose I shouldn’t feel too guilty given the work that got done yesterday, but there’s still a sense that however much I got done, there was time I could have better utilised.
Today’s big event was the Pokemon Go GoFest Make Up event. Everyone got a 3 hour repeat of the event due to some technical issues that disrupted some players’ exper...
August 15, 2020
Surprisingly Productive – The Climb #540
I managed to get loads done yesterday, and I’m not entirely sure how.
For the most part, yesterday was quite a leisurely day, procrastinating by playing Witcher 3 on the Xbox. From time to time, I got up and dived into a piece of work, but at most it felt like dabbling rather than – as they call it – deep work.
And you know what?
I have a rough structure in Scrivener for the novel I’ve been looking at. I also have a bunch of newsletter ideas – even going so far as to ...
August 14, 2020
Rebuilding A Story – The Climb #539
I’m actually thinking that 2020 might turn out to be the Year of Theme rather than the Year Of Everything On Fire.
One of my big growths as an author this year is really looking at theme and seeing how to integrate it more into my work. Instead of being an afterthought used to describe what I’ve just written, it’s something that’s incorporated into outline or draft from the outset.
I suspect I’m a little over-reliant on it at the moment. It’s shiny and new and I want to...
August 13, 2020
Task Management – The Climb #538
For all the work I have to do, I feel I’ve done none.
The thing is, that like many writers, getting any project done consists of loads of tiny bits of work. And some of it can have big repercussions. Making a decision on a story direction might be something that takes no more than a couple of minutes out of your day, but looking back it was a huge piece of work.
Because in the background, writers are always writing. We’re just not always aware that we do. Facts and ...
August 12, 2020
A Bolt Out The Blue – The Climb #537
Today’s been another hot day but at least we got a hint of rain and thunder.
I’ve been busy trying to avoid the heat, as once it hits afternoon and the sun shifts round, my office becomes a Finnish sauna. As a result, the writing related activities I’d normally during my evenings get put off in favour of not melting.
I did get some early feedback on a project today but I’ll save talking about that for a while.
However, it has me once again looking at my projects and r...
August 11, 2020
Heat Index – The Climb #536
Today was a really frustrating day.
So during weekdays the plan is that when I finish the day job, I pack up and crack out the writing work. Except with the current heatwave, from about 3pm onwards the office catches the afternoon sun and starts heating up rapidly, meaning that by the time I’m ready to start some writing work, it’s too hot to work and I have to wait for the office to cool down. By the time it does this, it’s time to go to bed.
My plan for today was two...
August 10, 2020
Future Investment – The Climb #535
I think a lot back to April when I did a lot of craft work surrounding theme. I generated some real benefit from this, and feel it leveled up my writing a lot. I feel it was an investment I put into my career that really paid off.
But, now I have no active project, it’s got me thinking that I should be investing in my career again.
I want to diversify as a writer, not because I don’t still want to be an author, but because these are uncertain times, and in uncertain tim...
