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This is INFODUMP 33.
I'm getting too old for this shit.

For the first time, this edition of the INFODUMP is being typed on an actual typewriter. You have no way of knowing that, of course, because once I'm done. I'll take this sheet out of the machine, scan it into DevonThink and the Optical Character Recognition will turn it into an editable file that can be proofed and amended in Ulysses before being sent out to Mail Chimp's software. 

That's more steps than I'd usually go through, but I have discovered something about typing in these last couple of months that I have probably alluded to before; typing is GREAT for flow. I can get into a state of total concentration on a typewriter so much faster and easier than I can on a computer or even writing longhand. Literally a few keystrokes and I'm immersed. I don't know quite what governs that process, but I suspect it's something to do with physically hitting keys to make marks on paper. The sound of the machine itself is kind of hypnotic, like a metronome (albeit one that really can’t keep time - my typing is erratic at best) and it just seems to lull me into my own head. The interface between brain and paper, which you would think would be kind of murky because it's a physical process that isn't designed to be as immersive as modern software, is actually seamless. I think also that the inability to go back and edit forces you to move forward, to “accept and build” on what you’re writing and thereby to make actual progress with ideas.

Because of all this, I have been increasingly relying on the typewriter as a brainstorming/note-taking/journaling tool; it has been invaluable as a place to just smash down stream-of-consciousness thoughts on projects and on scenes before I write them. I've no idea how long this will last, maybe this machine is just a shiny new thing and the process will lose its appeal over time. I hope not. I bought this machine out of curiosity and it has enhanced my working life in ways I absolutely did not expect.

This new-found love of the analogue has sped up some other changes that I've been toying with over the past few months and that I have now put into action: I'm off Facebook, permanently I think, I don't use Twitter (even the INFODUMPposts account is currently dormant), and I've taken Instagram off my phone. 

None of which is to suggest that I am in any way against the internet. I LOVE the internet. The INFODUMP blog will continue, as will this newsletter. I just won't know everything that Donald Trump or Owen Jones says on a minute-by-minute basis. But I think I'll survive.

If anyone is interested (and I assume you are because you subscribed to this nonsense) I do actually have a few strategies in place to ensure I get the information I need/want without having to resort to social media. Number one is actual news subscriptions. I pay for a Financial Times online package because I find that to be the clearest view I can get on news in the UK. I’m not there for the money stuff, which mostly goes right over my head, but I find their news coverage to be pleasantly clinical and lacking in hysteria and their arts coverage is surprisingly good. You do pay through the nose for the FT though, so I'd recommend Reuters if you just want cold news for free. I also get a physical copy of The Economist through the door every week. Again, the money stuff is not interesting to me but they do a great job of covering world news and their political analysis seems astute. I also like the fact that you're reading about things a few days after they happen, so the dust has settled and the story tends to be a little more sober in its presentation than it is when it's part of the 24-hour news cycle.

First thing in the morning I also open up Reeder on my Mac and run through all the RSS feeds that have accrued over the past 24 hours. I subscribe to a bunch of science and culture and tech feeds and a couple of industry and general news sites. Twenty minutes going through those ensures that really I'm as across what's happening in the world as I need to be. Crucially, though, I rarely find that the process has made me pointlessly angry like it used to when I let my news come via Facebook feeds.

This is the segment reserved for atalking about work news but there really isn’t anything I can share. I had hoped there would be a couple of announcements by now but they haven’t made it through the seven circles of approval Hell yet. So all I can tell you is that I’m working on two movie scripts and an Amazon show and that we’re talking to Netflix about maybe making something for them.

The second series of our podcast was recorded back in September and it’ll be out in December. It’s a direct sequel to Season One, “The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward”, and this one is riffing on another Lovecraft story, “The Whisperer In Darkness”. We’re deep in post-production now, so I’ll tell you more about it all closer to the time.

I also wrote a movie on spec recently, breaking a personal time record by getting the whole thing down in eight days - literally the idea occurred to me on a Thursday night and I finished the script the following weekend. It’s a slightly sketchy first draft, but that’s all it really needs to be to communicate the idea and get some interest going. This is something I’m going to direct myself, so it’s going to take a while to come together but the script has gone out to a few people and has been received favourably enough that it’s now lead to me discussing another movie project about which I am not allowed to talk…

Warren Ellis has spent some time banging on about Mick Herron’s Slough House novels, so I finally buckled and read the first one “Slow Horses”. I then immediately went out and bought the whole series and am completely hooked. These are London-based spy novels in a Le Carré/Deighton mold with a sense of humour reminiscent of “The Thick Of It” and the character of Jackson Lamb is one of the finest creations in contemporary fiction. Go get.

I’m developing a new working strategy for movie writing, which involves writing the first draft in Highland 2 because I like the empty page feel of it and because it lets me just write whatever and get all my ideas out. I then convert that file and import it into Scrivener, where I can break the script apart into sequences, make colour-coded collections for character arcs and all that stuff and really hone and edit the thing in bite-size chunks.

The process feels a lot like shooting a bunch of raw footage and then sitting down to edit it, and the division of labour between the first stage of “making shit up” and the second stage of pruning and sharpening is something I’m finding really helpful. It also makes it easier to work on more than one project at a time because I can be creating one thing whilst editing another and they feel like different tasks.

It has been a long old while since the last INFODUMP but the blog at https://infodump.ghost.io is going strong and I’m putting stuff up on there fairly regularly. If you’re into this whole INFODUMP thing, then there’s probably a fair few things there that will interest you. It seems to work with most RSS readers and you can subscribe for email updates if that’s your bag.

Please bookmark or subscribe to the INFODUMP blog.
I am no longer active on any form of social media but I'm about to radically overhaul the juliansimpson.uk site to make it into a hub that will lead out to the various things I'm doing and the various places online where I do spend time. 
And I'm on Goodreads, if anyone is into that: goodreads.com/juliansimpson.
You can email me by just hitting REPLY to this letter.

And I’m out, partly because typing manually is a lot more energy-intensive than using a computer. 

Listen to the new Thom Yorke album, “Anima”, and watch the short film Paul Thomas Anderson made for it on Netflix. Read Bob Iger’s book “The Ride Of A Lifetime” if you like the Inside Baseball take on Hollywood. And play the new Call Of Duty because it’s awesome.

Fuck it. Send.
Copyright © 2019 Julian Simpson Ltd, All rights reserved.


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