Yesterday & Today: 24th March

Lots of progress on my May publications yesterday with three of them now at the printers for media set-up. The next stage of that process is to get an ‘eproof’ of the paperback after which I’ll order physical proof copies to review. I’ll do this once I have prepared Tilt in a similar way (likely to be next weekend).

I have never gone in for such ‘en masse’ publishing – but it will be good to get these volumes put to bed after working on them for so long.

Other than that yesterday found me running through Crash again – though this time standing still and with few hand gestures. This allowed my to focus on the words/voice – and hopefully to clarify which movements and gestures are important to the piece.

With most of the proof-preparation work now done, today leaves me with a pretty free agenda. No Crash today!

So I need to pick up “C” and finish work on the ‘episode’ I started a few days ago. It would be good to keep the momentum up on that.

A top tip – and one I impress on the writers I mentor – is to answer the following three questions as honestly as you can:

Why do you write? e.g. job, compulsion, to pass the time etc.
Who do you write for? e.g. yourself, a nominal reading, a magazine, your bank balance etc.
What kind of writer are you? e.g. organised, reluctant, ‘go with the flow’ etc.

Having done this, then consider what you write and see if this aligns with the three answers above. For example, if you’re writing to make money and choose to write poetry, then the two are highly unlikely to be compatible. My theory is that all four answers need to be in harmony for you to get the most out of your writing. If they are not then you are most likely not to be as productive as you’d like, or not satisfied with what you get out of writing. If this is the case, then take a look at yourself and force a change in one of your answers.