Post-Midsummer

Orbital Operations for 7 July 2024

Author

Warren Ellis
July 07, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

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Hello from out here on the Thames Delta. I imagine a lot of you are on holiday right now, so, yes, skal.

Just a brief one this week. Between the holiday and the election over here, I figure nobody’s in the mood for one of my endless lists of rants and confusions. How are you, anyway?

GREENAWAY, EINSTEIN, SPIRITS

WORK DESIGN

PRISON CHARTS

OBSERVATIONS

DEVICES

LTD

Letters about the creative life by Warren Ellis, a writer from England. Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe.

INSPIRATIONS

🎞️ PETER GREENAWAY: ANATOMY OF A FILMMAKER - 1991 documentary on the making of PROSPERO’S BOOKS, but mostly about the nature of cinema and filmmaking. Wonderful stuff. Michael Nyman pops up, whom I once met and talked with, and I found him one of the nicest people on earth.

📖 “‘But you don’t seriously believe,’ Einstein protested, ‘that none but observable magnitudes must go into a physical theory?’ It was a question that struck at the very foundations on which Heisenberg had constructed his new mechanics. ‘Isn’t that precisely what you have done with relativity?’ he countered. A ‘good trick should not be tried twice’, smiled Einstein.” QUANTUM, Manjit Kumar

🎙️ The Spirits in my Blood Sing to me at Night, Kristine Barrett: digging back in my collection for inspiration, and the first piece on this record never fails to lift me.

OPERATIONS

WORK DESIGN

I got a cover in on July 4 that I so wish I could show you, but we have a plan and I need to stick to it. But my god, that piece made my day all on its own.

In full flow over here. I have six or seven things in train, while maintaining some space in case anything else interesting presents itself.

This is where work design comes into play.

Insane office desk, right? Who’d do that? But here’s the thing: Danielle Steel has written close to 200 novels. This space clearly works for her.

I’ve worked for thirty years in the same tiny back room, on a second-hand desk, sitting on an old wooden dining chair with a cushion on it, facing a 21-inch screen with whiteboards hung on the wall behind it. It works for me. I have everything I need within reach. CDs and films are easy to access. I like sound when I’m working, and I can bring up music, podcasts, tv and radio with just a couple of gestures. Going into deep work requires only muted video on the big screen and music played over the top. I work with my back to the window.

You need to design your space so it works for you. Even if it’s a cubbyhole or just a little desk in your living room. If you’re not happy in your work space, you won’t get much work done in it. It needs to be comfortable and it needs to give you pleasure to be there.

Take a look today at the place where you do your creative work. Do you like it? How could you make it better? The whiteboards and the gooseneck holder for the phone were game changers for me.

But seriously: the least friction possible between the work and you doing it. That’s the thing.

Bonus round: Ray Bradbury’s office was insane.

(I sat at Arthur Conan Doyle’s remote writing desk in Kent once and wrote a note there, just to feel that connection.)

ORBITAL

PRISON CHARTS

Look at this horror:

Ganzeer made himself a progress chart for his SOLAR GRID graphic novels and quite rightly calls it a prison chart. Now, I had a progress grid for GUN MACHINE, but it was nowhere near as big as this.

You can make a similar printable to my own book gird (single A4 sheet) at this link here - it says it’s now unsupported, but still seems to work fine.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

OBSERVATIONS

OTHER

DEVICES

I have one of these now. The Rabbit R1. And while I cannot recommend it for everyone, or anyone who got excited about its app tie-ins, it works for me as a dedicated search assistant - it does it better than the phone, and it does it without me having to pick up the damn phone all the time.

I do not have one of these, but kind of irrationally covet one. The Tiny TV is a one-inch screen with 8GB of on-board storage and converter software to scale your mp4s and avis down for it. Absolutely mental. Fifty quid if you get the one with the tiny remote. Wonderful and stupid all at once.

Also still coveting this: the Braun AW50 watch. It does nothing but tell the time, minimally, but it glows with that Dieter Rams aesthetic I admire so much.

GOT MORE TIME?

LTD

WARRENELLIS.LTD is my personal notebook, updated daily. If you use a RSS reader, it generates a feed at https://warrenellis.ltd/feed/ .

Being a personal notebook, it combines gathered knowledge with considerations of new culture and information, jottings and observations, and personal statuses and notes. This means it is essentially of no utility to anyone but me, but, if you’re reading this, you’re welcome to read over my shoulder.

Like most notebooks, zibaldones and commonplace books, it resists any attempt to impose a structure, and I’ve largely given up trying. It obeys the shape of a computer channel only insofar as it’s a chronological-feed broadcast from a station that takes unpredictable and abrupt holidays.

On The Morning Post

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And that’s me done for the week. I have to go outside and tear down some more bindweed and soak it in a bin bag full of water for two weeks before I can compost the shit. Running a carbon-sink garden, even a little one like mine, is a pain in the arse. But most of the other gardens around here are paved or decked over, and even putting a little bit back makes a difference. Do something nice for yourself today. Even putting a little bit back makes a difference. See you next week.

W

I’m represented by Angela Cheng Caplan at the Cheng Caplan Company, Joel VanderKloot at VanderKloot Law and David Hale Smith at Inkwell Management. Please add [email protected] to your email system’s address book or contacts and move this to your primary folder when you get a minute, thanks.