Making your writing (and reading) life easier
+ minor FFF update
Long story short, I have a ‘hack’ for making your writing life easier.
I go into this in more depth in my workshops (opening soon) but for now, here’s the simple version.
You see this album below? Perturbator - Nocturne City.
I love this album. It was released on the 24th of July 2015, a time when I was feverishly whacking my laptop keyboard, printing STEPHANIE into existence layer by surreal layer.
Note: Surreal Layer is my new Cellar Door, a phrase that sounds very nice in English.
This album is one I played almost constantly when writing the first draft of THE STEPHANIE GLITCH in 2015 and 2016.
So how does it help me write?
Reprogramming myself
Now, I will only ever listen to this album when I am writing THE STEPHANIE GLITCH or something adjacent. Because Stephanie is a poet in a sci-fi world, listening to this album reminds my brain of times where I have written something weird and clever, cosmic and intimate.
I do not allow myself to enjoy this album at any other time.
Note: I am playing it right now as I write this post, as I prepare to send it and get back into editing and writing TSG.
So today, when it turned up on my randomised youtube playlist, it immediately kicked me back into Stephanie mode, which means weird poems.
Today’s weird poem is about a love affair with a venomous snake. I will probably post the poem over to my RealPhillipCarter substack when it is done. It wouldn’t be appropriate here.
In the meantime, I wanted to let you know a bit more about the upcoming Sendfox automailer thing for FREE FICTION FRIDAY.
The next promo should be on Friday 13th of September, and again once a week for the four weeks after. 20th of September is a double, with both a bookfunnel and a storyorigin freebie shelf coming out.
I’m learning a bit more about Sendfox as I play with it. I don’t want you to have to follow loads of things to see all my stuff, so I want to have everyone in one place, if possible. Sendfox makes that a lot easier:
I can have chapters of a story scheduled to go out in chronological order, at specified intervals from the date you join.
And I can schedule FFF emails for specific dates on the calendar.
So all of that is coming together into an epic new newsletter thing that should provide you with my stories, my poems, my jokes, and free stories, books and excerpts, forever.
I’m still keeping my Substacks active, but the existence of Sendfox allows me to curate a mailing list with an accuracy and attention to detail not possible here. I can create a journey for you.
And if you’ve read any of my books, you will know that an attention for worldbuilding and adventure is at the heart of everything I do.
I can now take a more relaxed approach to Substack, which no doubt will improve the quality of posts. I have over 200 drafts on my RealPhillipCarter one, which I will now be going through, deleting or polishing.
We are about to go on a journey.
Thank you again for your support. 100% of people who voted in last week’s poll voted to join the sendfox, so you can all expect a welcome email soon.
The Patreon writing workshops (and live studio audience tickets to my upcoming podcast*) will be announced soon, here and on the sendfox. These are a follow up to my writing society from Edge Hill Uni, something without a physical location so that it is accessible to writers around the planet.
And, when I am more popular and have my own stand-up show again somewhere, I’ll mention that too.
*The live audience tier will have a bonus feature I think you’ll like a lot. I am taking creative risks here, and very excited to see the result. Ever wanted to heckle the people on your TV?
Catch you in the next one
-P