The Sunday Circle: What Are You Working On This Week?

The Sunday Circle is the weekly check-in where I ask the creative-types who follow this blog to weigh in about their goals, inspirations, and challenges for the coming week. The logic behind it can be found here. Want to be involved? It’s easy – just answer three questions in the comments or on your own blog (with a link in the comments here, so that everyone can find them).

After that, throw some thoughts around about other people’s projects, ask questions if you’re so inclined. Be supportive above all.

Then show up again next Sunday when the circle updates next, letting us know how you did on your weekly project and what you’ve got coming down the pipe in the coming week (if you’d like to part of the circle, without subscribing to the rest of the blog, you can sign-up for reminders via email here).

MY CHECK-IN

What am I working on this week?

Finally coming out of the weeks of holidays, workshops and travel, which means I’ve got an uninterrupted week to sit down and focus on some writing for a while. Primarily, this week, this means working on a short story draft I’ve got perculating and (return of the laptop willing), finishing off some layout work that I owe the Altered project.

What’s inspiring me this week?

Incredibly spoiled for choice this week, since I’ve both read and watched things that have spectacularly knocked things out of the park (including Joe Lansdale’s novella Briar Patch Boogie and Josh Radnor’s film Liberal Arts, which includes a fantastic Allison Janney performance and some reminders of why How I Met Your Mother was actually great, in its earliest incarnations).

Ultimately, though, the most inspiring thing that I saw this week was John Favreau’s Chef, which snuck in under the wire when it became my Saturday night treat after flying back from Gladstone. Chef is…well, fantastic. Favreau has always been a good film-maker who crafts enjoyable, entertaining cinematic experiences, but there is not a single part of Chef where is isn’t upping his game. There are some spectacular cooking sequences – and I love a good cinematic cooking sequence – but the real appeal is in just how fresh the story comes off (when it should have felt…well, tired) and little things like the films treatment of Twitter as a visual device.

As one of my friends commented on Facebook, after I posted there: CHEF IS FUCKING INCREDIBLE.

I find it hard to disagree.

What part of my project an I avoiding?

It’s been nearly three weeks since I’ve sustained writing work for longer than two days in a row, which means I’m woefully out of practice and in some serious need of focus. I also need to sit down and make some hard decisions on the finance front, in order to pay for laptop repairs and some of the unexpected bills that come with three weeks spent travelling.