Materiality Featured Materiality and the Mandalorian: Mando's Helmet is a Social Agent Introduction Hello and welcome back to Materiality and the Mandalorian. This is part two of a series where I puzzle over how materials and objects function in the world of The Mandalorian. Or, at least, I watch The Mandalorian episodes and think about how the materials and objects function and
52 Weeks of Editing 52 Weeks of Writing: Week 23—Marking zombie edition Wow, what a week. I'm writing this a day late again because I had to recover from autistic burnout yesterday. I'll explain in the accomplishment section, but we're in the last days of marking season and I needed to get all my papers done
Materiality Featured Materiality and the Mandalorian: Some thoughts about Mando's quest for ritual purification in the Living Waters of Mandalore Introduction I'm going to start by saying that if you want to blame anybody for this, you can blame my partner. We decided, finally, to watch season three of The Mandalorian this week. Yeah, so we're behind everybody else and we're still only on
52 Weeks of Editing 52 Weeks of Writing: Week 22—This is the week I got my PhD again Okay, so that was a week. Again, I have to hold my hands up right at the outset and admit that I haven't done any fiction writing this week. In fact, I've barely done any writing, other than journaling. I've maintained my streak on
52 Weeks of Editing Featured 52 Weeks of Writing: Week 21—This is the week I got my second PhD This has been an enormous week for me. A weekly review doesn't feel like enough, somehow, given that this was such an important moment in my life. I was awarded my PhD. I can't find the right words to describe it. Technically, I've been
52 Weeks of Editing 52 Weeks of Writing: Week 20—Facing procrastination with the help of AI (part two) Wow, where did that week go? Here we are again for another review, and finally I get to stick a bit of a word count goal up there because I actually did some writing. This post will therefore not be all about me whinging about health issues. I have new,
52 Weeks of Editing 52 Weeks of Writing: Week 19—Facing Procrastination with the Help of AI (part one) Because I'm still in the middle of a major health crisis, I need to lean on something highly controversial for help. My therapist knows I like to journal, so she recommended I try some AI prompts. The AI provides me with feedback on the answers I give, which
52 Weeks of Editing 52 Weeks of Writing: Week 18—It gets harder Word count: 50–52k (10k to the mid-point break) Well, it's been a week. There's something about writing: it never happens in a vacuum. We have to write while we have kids or pets or colleagues or partners all around us. As much as you try
52 Weeks of Editing 52 Weeks of Writing (!): Week 17—Writing even when it's hard Camp Nanowrimo 2023/1: Week 4 Words: 45–50.8k I'm not normally a proponent of the idea of writing even when it's hard. In fact, I prefer the idea of not writing when it's extremely hard, but it depends what you mean by
52 Weeks of Editing 52 Weeks of Editing (Writing?): Week 16—We need to talk about the perimenopause I'm beginning to think I need to call this "52 Weeks of Writing" rather than editing. I couldn't find any way to do strikethrough text in the title (or anywhere else on Ghost), so if you could just imagine I managed a snazzy title
52 Weeks of Editing 52 Weeks of Editing: Week 15—When the Depression Monster Calls I'm late! I'm late! Here I am, a day late, rushing in like the White Rabbit, all flustered and confused. Let me tell you, it's been a week. For reasons I'll explain below, I couldn't write the blog update yesterday.
52 Weeks of Editing 52 Weeks of Editing: Week 14—Camp Nanowrimo Week 1 Wow, here we go. It's Day 7 of Camp Nanowrimo 2023, and I'm actually writing. Not only that, but I've broken through the slump of the last few years. The writer's block I spent the first few weeks of this project discussing
52 Weeks of Editing: Week 13—Twas the Night Before Camp Nanowrimo... There are times, over the course of a long project, when you just don't want to show up. This is ironic, because as much as I'm tired and I don't want to write this blog post tonight, I've actually done quite a
52 Weeks of Editing 52 Weeks of Editing: Week 12—First Three Months Review I think it's time to do a review. This is the last Friday of March, so I've been doing this project for three whole months (give or take a few days). I figured it might be useful to look back over what I've done
Amnar 52 Weeks of Editing: Week 11—Busting Through The Writer's Block This is more of a journal than a proper blog post. This week has been extra, that's all I'm going to say. I come to you now, exhausted and wishing I didn't still have a blog entry to write about editing Amnar. I mean,
Amnar 52 Weeks of Editing: Week 10—The One-Year Anniversary of Being Diagnosed Autistic, Brought To You By A Battle In A Forest I write to you now from the middle of a battle. Somewhere deep in a forest, I'm pitted against some awesome monster, a creature of green feathers and red face, wings flapping. The creature demands that I write 700 words in just over two hours, although at the
52 Weeks of Editing 52 Weeks of Editing: Week 9—Six Steps to a Process for Managing Writer's Block (i.e., it was a good week) Oh, at last! A good week. It feels a little dangerous to say that, as if the gods will notice and dump something awful on me. But even at a time when eggs and vegetables are rarer than dodos, wearing every hoodie I own during a cold snap is more
Amnar 52 Weeks of Editing: Week 8—An Unexpected Direction: Exploring the Roots of Writer's Block My titles get longer every week. Expect by the end of the year the titles to be the whole entry. I wasn't expecting to end up here. I've been putting off writing this for a while, trying to come up with any excuse to avoid it.
Amnar 52 Weeks of Editing: Week 7—What I'm Talking About When I Talk About Writer's Block Last week, one of my favourite blogs dropped this article into my inbox. At the time, I was having A Week Of It, so I didn't have time to read it immediately, but the title really caught my eye. An Anxiety Episode Changed My (Dis)Belief In Writer’
Amnar 52 Weeks of Editing: Week 6—Finding Out How to Use Plottr and World Anvil's Timelines and Chronicles Together I'm writing this while being interrupted at regular intervals by the workers replacing our roof. It's been a week. A real week. I've had teaching, a sudden avalanche of marking, partner-job-drama, cat drama... You name it, it happened this week. As a result, it&
Amnar 52 Weeks of Editing: Week 5—Editing Through The Overwhelm or When In Doubt, Research! Oh god, oh god, oh god. What a week. Actually no, what a day. This is not good, not good at all. I knew this week would be a weird one when I was told, very late last week, that I'd start teaching again this week. Allow me
52 Weeks of Editing 52 Weeks of Editing: Week 4—Editing A Novel vs. Executive Dysfunction (A Story About Neurodivergence and Chronic Illness) I don't know how to start this. This tab has been open on my browser for days. Originally, this week was going to be about characterisation. I'd had some ideas about Io and thought I should write about that. But I hit a wall. I shifted