Fri. Jan. 19, 2024: Planning a Snowy Writing Weekend
Friday, January 19, 2024
Waxing Moon
Uranus Retrograde
Cloudy and cold; incoming snow
Another storm coming in all day today.
Today’s serial episode is from ANGEL HUNT:
Episode 104: Randoph Neville’s Private Study Group
Lianna and Gaston attend Randolph Neville’s elite group, and find a dangerous surprise.
Tomorrow’s serial episode is from DEADLY DRAMATICS:
Episode 54: Fired Again
Nina’s temp agency fires her, too, leaving Nina time to pursue her own agenda.
It was good to be back with the virtual meditation group, although we’d been apart since mid-December, so it took a bit to get us settled down again. But I’m glad I showed up.
After breakfast, I headed out to run the end-of-week errands: grocery store (for just a couple of things), library, liquor store. Home, hauled it all up the stairs (not too much), put it away. A seed catalogue arrived, and I had to spend some quality time with that. One of the books that came in for me is a cookbook centered around the cuisine of Barcelona, and there are some recipes I want to try.
Hard to settle back into the desk when I got home. I prefer to write before running errands, before I’m “tainted by the day” but that’s not always possible, especially with wonky weather.
Revised, edited, uploaded, polished, and scheduled two episodes of LEGERDEMAIN. I have an episode to finish either today or tomorrow and get the next two up. This weekend, I need to write 4 more episodes to upload next Thursday. I’m still writing a few weeks ahead, but not as far ahead as I’d like.
Amazon is FINALLY requring serial authors to admit when they use AI to generate work. I wonder how many will lie? I hope that’s added to the serial details, because I don’t want to waste any tokens on “stories” generated by AI. Some authors, in the group, are really proud of their AI usage, and I am keeping a list so I know whose pieces to avoid.
The Questing Quintet, a group of singers/secondary characters that are supporting one of the plot points in this arc, have been a lot of fun to write. I gave a few hints about their backstories, but I may, in and around everything else, give them their own tie-in novella. Even before I do aspiring scribe Joanne’s tie-in, and the comic heist tie-in. The singers’ story feels very present. At the very least, I’ll do the outline over the next week or so.
After the episodes were uploaded, the surrounding paperwork complete, the loglines written, I turned my attention to THE VICIOUS CRITIC. Wrote two episodes, which flowed well. Took a quick break, and drafted an episode of LIGHTHOUSE LADY, which was more difficult, mostly because I was tired. The organic order of the plot build is a little different than I have it in the outline, and I have to go with what works best for the story, rather than sticking to the order of events in the outline. As the story grows and opens out, it makes sense to do things a little differently. Part of the joy of the process, but I always worry that if I don’t plant something properly, it won’t pay off later on. But I can fix that in the next draft.
It was a good day, about 4300 words, all told, across the projects.
Sorted out an issue with a coverage where I wasn’t sure of the agency’s protocol. My handler was glad I contacted them so they could sort it out. Heard about a freelance gig that sounds like it’s somewhat up my alley, so I threw them an LOI.
Heard from my Nightwood colleague, where I read her play and gave notes, the previous day. She found the notes very helpful, and is excited to get back to work.
Read the novel JANE AND EDWARD by Melanie Edwards. It’s a modern day re-imagining of JANE EYRE set in modern Toronto (pre-pandemic). It’s very well done, and stands well on its own, with a tip of the hat to the source material.
It’s supposed to snow all day today, which is why I ran my errands yesterday. I wish it would start, so my pre-storm headache would ease.
On today’s agenda: two more episodes of THE VICIOUS CRITIC, which I’m eager to write. I will miss working on it for the next few weeks. It’s gone well, and I love being in that world. I will have hit the larger goal of 10 episodes for the week. I thought I’d write fewer, and I’m glad I managed all of them. One episode of THE LIGHTHOUSE LADY, which I’m also looking forward to. That brings me to my goal of 4 episodes of that serial for the week. Maybe finish the Legerdemain episode and do the revisions/edits/uploads/schedule of the remaining two I wanted to get up this week, but that will probably be on tomorrow’s agenda instead. That still leaves four episodes to write over the weekend (2 Saturday, 2 Sunday) which is do-able, even if I decide to do the editing of the earlier two this weekend instead of today. It keeps them all of a piece.
I need to prep and submit a play, too, once I decide which one I’m submitting to this particular call.
I also need to do the graphics for next week’s LEGERDEMAIN episodes, and the episode videos of all three serials for next week. I also have to get the video for “Severance” done this weekend, so it can go live on Tuesday with the re-release.
A bunch of coverages came in; I will do half today and half tomorrow. Most of them are pretty short; I think there are two medium-sized ones in the batch. I don’t want to read on Sunday, because I have to write 2 LEGERDEMAIN episodes, and then I have a yoga philosophy class at midday. I won’t want to do any coverage work after that.
I will, however, build some time into Sunday afternoon to focus on poetry.
Next week, REP is the central focus for the writing. I won’t get many episodes written. Maybe 5 or 6? It may well be fewer, and that’s okay, too. I have to rewrite what I have, because they need to be broken down differently than in the first draft of the early episodes, so the full hook is baited by the end of the 3rd episode. Right now, it’s at the end of the 4th, and that won’t do. Premise and catalyst for the season/serial are upfront, and the hook dangled, but the end of Episode 3 has to be what really drives the audience to the rest of the season. That will take some doing, which means less time for new material. But this has the loosest time frame for writing and development, so I don’t need to stress.
I will still need to write 4 LIGHTHOUSE LADY episodes during the next week, and over next weekend, 4 LEGERDEMAIN episodes. I hope that will get me to the end of the second big arc in LEGERDEMAIN, or at least very close to it. I want the third arc to be much tighter than this one was.
Anyway, I’ve got a lot to finish today, so I better get going. Have a great weekend, and I’ll catch you on the other side.
