Weeknote: a chance to look back on the week that finished and plan for the week ahead.
- Have not been keeping to the ideas of the 12 Week Year, which inspired these weeknotes.
- For instance, had to miss the check in with T and P again.
- Also: still haven’t sat down to write a list of weekly actions. Will do that at the end of this list.
- A shame not to keep up with the 12WY because right now it’s exactly 12 months since I had a solo show, Magnolias of Hampstead, and I’m absolutely convinced that was because I did the 12WY.
- But at least I’m writing these weeknotes, which are surprisingly effective for planning / strategy / whatever you want to call it.
- Did manage to send quotes for workshops to E____, at law firm B_____. First one I sent prompted her to ask for an outline of some other (that is, additional) sessions, which was gratifying.
- Last week I was largely tied up Monday-Friday running online Memoir course for Arvon, alongside Wendy Jones.
- Captured voice notes about the various sessions, as I went along, so I can post about them here as a lasting resource. These included: using the Helen Keller photo with Eisenhower as a prompt for writing descriptions; finding the value of the gutter (as it’s called in comics) to let a reader’s imagination work; five moments in a person’s life (impro game) to surface useful insights about a specific, key episode; writing, basically, a movie script to avoid editorialising (just scene setting and dialogue). Some of those posts are already written, some not yet.
- Dinner with Joanna B, plus Fiona McM and her partner. Been about 30 years since I last saw Fiona. Talked about perhaps doing a show of my Indie Publisher pictures at London Book Fair next year. She also suggested I do a portrait of Andrew F, who is about to retire, as part of the series.
- Reminds me that I’ve not asked people if they want to have a portrait made. A couple of weeks ago I suggested a monthly illustrated Room of One’s Own to Harry M., who liked the idea but has no room for a new column in his magazine. Others this week suggested (spontaneously) that I should do them for a publication such as The Spectator. Could try, I guess. Meanwhile, I heard back from Jamila R, which is good news.
- Did an “author reading” session as part of the Arvon course, with overview of my career in different kinds of writing and then a Show and Tell of pictures from the start of my Breakdown series. Gave me a good sense that this is something I would like to get out there. Also: Jaime told me it would be a good idea to self-publish it and sell from my site.
- Created a composite web page (like the one for TGS) using Painstakingly Human and Secret Garden Tour, so as to build a model of what they can be. Would like to teach others how I build these.
- Rebuilt here on Flintoff.org the Blot.im post about making a Micro-Memoir from Instagram posts. When I’ve finished it will work well with the post about the booklet I made for Charmian. Spent a certain amount of time creating a consistent design for these two posts. Still to do: build a Micro-Memoir Section for this site, with an assigned Txp Page, and Category, so that I can keep the email-based course fresh and relevant.
- Also: the two prototypes (Instagram to Micro-Memoir and the booklet for Charmian) are great for demonstrating what the finished product could look like. Might be helpful to do a handful of others, but already I have something worth sharing.
- For months now I have sat on the idea of asking (say) Twigger and Rachel H to share my Micro-Memoir course, even though Twigger said he’d be glad to. Gah!
- Thinking about how to build a shop here on Txp, so that I can sell art works (originals and limited editions) as well as books and courses (made a hash of selling Painstakingly Human, recently, by sending a link directly to my bank account). Emailed Stef, aka Bloke, to ask about the Textpattern shop plugins. Glad to hear back from him. Before getting carried away: Eliot Peper, who somewhat inspired me, started his direct-from-the-author book sales very simply, by creating payment links that he also shared in his newsletter.
- LOOKING AHEAD Carpet cleaner Charlie (Monday).
- Ask people who read my newsletter if they’d like me to do a portrait in their office? Follow up with Harry M., who suggested a one off Room of One’s Own with Lady A.F. Follow up with Jamila R.
- Send Twigger and Rachel H (?) something explaining what I’d like them to share, and how etc. Think of other people to send the same thing to.
- Send out copies of Modest Adequate book to the L&D people I’ve already contacted (I asked them to confirm addresses). Also send them an idea of what I’m about to do for the partners at law firm B_____.
- Make a decision about which book (a “Micro-Memoir”?) to create and sell first using eg Eliot Peper payment links in newsletter. Could be the 12 Birds, or Secret Garden Tour, or Speccy Man’s History of Art, or Speccy Man Has A Breakdown. That’s four different options. What’s holding me back?
- DECISION MADE (this week, finally): the first book to publish is Speccy Man Has A Breakdown. Not a Micro-Memoir in the course sense — just my next book. Author of seven books in 16 languages, self-publishing this one, selling direct from the site. That’s the frame. No cover quotes needed. No borrowed credibility required. The rawness is the authority.
- The book comprises roughly 50-150 pictures — many made during my actual time in psychiatric hospital in 2017 — with an overarching story of breakdown and recovery, told with real humour alongside the raw parts. People who’ve heard me deliver the picture-led talks have been genuinely moved. The book already exists in essence; it just needs assembling.
- Format: A5, pictures sequenced, handwritten-style text in the gaps (as per the talks). Send to printer as a hardback. I know the printer. I have a designer (who helped with the Royal Academy submission). Two days to assemble, if I actually sit down and do it.
- First edition: 25 copies, signed and numbered. That’s it. If it sells out, there’s a second print run. The grandiose voice that says “people will kill for the first editions” and therefore I should print 500 — that voice is fear in a different costume. 25 is the right number.
- Goal: book in my hands by end of March. That means sending to printer within the next two weeks. First task, this afternoon: go through the ~300 pictures and choose the ones that will make the sequence.
- On Jaime: going to donate 15% of profits to him, as agent, because he supports me as an author generally — not just on individual traditionally published books. Want him to care about this book the way he cares about any other. This also changes my own relationship to the project: it becomes something he’s involved in, not a solitary side-hustle.
- There is a second Speccy Man book — Speccy Man’s History of Art, 82 pictures of (basically) me inserted into classic artworks, funny, perhaps an easier emotional proposition than the Breakdown one. That one comes second. Two books by summer is not a mad idea. It’s exactly what I want to do, and there is no rule that says I’m not allowed to publish books in quick succession. Nobody made that rule.
- The Maira Kalman lesson (correctly understood): trust the work, don’t oversell it. One newsletter, a few spreads, a payment link. That’s the launch. I don’t have her audience size yet — but for a first signed edition of 25 copies, I don’t need it. I already know enough people.
- NOTE TO SELF on circular thinking traps: “I need cover quotes”, “I need to be like Maira Kalman”, “this book needs a bigger print run”, “maybe I should do the art history one first because it’s funnier” — all versions of the same thing. All ways of not publishing. Name them when they arrive. Then ignore them.
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