Turning in this Sunday Circle (á la author Peter M. Ball‘s site) a tad late this week, post-weekend travel. It’s been a good week, though we’re getting into a period of the editing process I’m not quite sure how to quantify. I did have some lovely fresh ideas bubbling up for possible solutions to some of the story problems in the novel, and feel like I’m moving in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of legwork to be done. That said, I did get my problem list organized and imported into the work notebook, so that feels good. Didn’t get much reading done, though, so that’s a bit meh, but my priorities on reading may be shifting a bit as I start work on some of the big-picture issues.
Did restart my minimal yoga practice, though, and man that helped. Stretches out all the places where perpetual slumping really gets to me, and it made me more aware of my overall posture, too, during the week. So that’s definitely getting some priority attention this week.
What I’m working on: This week, I really need to sit down and do some mythic world-building for the novel’s background. I’m hoping that by starting with the creation myth(s), I may be able to isolate the real-world facts to build on and direct them where I need them to be by the start of this particular story. I also need to spend a little time focusing on the major motivation and goals of my villain, which were squiffy at best in Draft One, but really need to be hammered down for story-logic purposes. I’m trapped between the two boulders of “weak world-building” and “weak driving villain,” and they both kind of need to come together simultaneously, which I’m a little worried about…
But by this time next week, I know I want that creation myth hammered out, and maybe have spend an hour or two brainstorming on the villain.
What’s inspiring me this week?: The yoga practice, actually. It’s been a major physical game-changer, even though it’s so short and not particularly hard. Yet somehow it makes a noticable difference in the day-to-day, and it’s made me realize how much I slouch. Like…constantly. So I’m working on that and inspired by the positive changes I feel.
Also, just started watching The Good Place, which is…interesting. I like it, I’ve gotten a few great laughs out of it, and am very curious to see how it develops.
Oh! And these masks by Wintercroft. We got the woodland creatures set to use as a cardboard base for Bug’s halloween costume (he’s going as Nick Wilde from Zootopia), and it had a rabbit mask in it too, so I now must go as “Officer Hops” whom he’s been asking me to “talk like” for the past week… She’s got…a very perky dialogue style…
What action I need to take: I really need to figure out how I’m going to direct, drive, and track this next phase of the editing process. It’s very think-heavy, but not very production heavy, and it’s not something I want to rush (but, conversely, I don’t want it to drag on and on simply because it can…) It may be a matter of picking a problem to solve and trying to get it resolved by X day, but it’s such a non-linear process, I’m not sure that’ll be so helpful…
Maggie Slater 