#compare drafting software

[resdraft]

Transforming Concepts with AutoCAD, Revit, and Chief Architect Drafting Tools

Choosing one of the right drafting tools depends on the specific needs of the designer or architect, the complexity of the projects, and the level of collaboration required. CAD, Revit, and Chief Architect each have their strengths and weaknesses, catering to different aspects of the design spectrum.

[bkblaise]

hello i love ur art <3 may i ask how you shade/render? or if you can share any helpful tutorials you learned from ^^

Unhinged Art Tutorial

Well, anon and @merlucide! I'm not sure if I'm the best person to learn from (I'll attach some video links at the end to people who I personally look to for art advice) but I happen to have a series of screenshots for how i render with a strawpage drawing I did recently(at the time I drafted most of this a month+ ago), so I'll go over what I do, at least in this case.

Warning: A bit rambly. Not sure if intelligible.

Tutorial..? Explanation? under the cut.

I have a few different shading styles based on ease of program usage and effort level, but in this case i had to individually streak the shadows. I'll be focusing on hair and skin for the most part here.

My sketches are pretty poor, because I'm hasty:

Honestly I find the better the initial sketch, the easier the final profuct will come. So take your time, use layers when sketching to be clean. The airbrush layering shows vaguely how I tend to shade hair.

Backlighting *Applicable mostly when there is a bright background, light behind the subject, or in neutral lighting.

The 'underside'/inside I tend to use a peachier, brighter tone closer to the skin color (for tanned skinned characters I'd use a shade closer to a rosy orange, since that's just a more saturated peach. For darker skinned characters, I'd recommend a slightly redder & brighter version of their skin tone. This works pretty well with dark hair+dark skin, but in the case that your character's hair color is a lot lighter compared to their skin tone [also in the case of a fair skinned character with WHITE hair] it's totally fine to ignore the natural undertone of the character and shade it with a pinkish white.) This works for any hair texture but can be more time consuming for coily hair textures. (2c-4c)

Lineart when I take my time / Old rendering video

It looks more stable if you start off with a solid lineart base because you won't struggle with big-picture placement issues.

"Lineart" when I just try to pump out a drawing

I first did a rough sketch, kept it as an overlay layer and drew over it.

(Chickenscratching is valid though, honestly. I think it has a look to it!) I usually block out base colors, and vaguely where I want the shading to go, unless I need a special type of lighting, which then I'd do the base colors and either choose to wait until I'm finished rendering or do light processing* (*will discuss this later in this post) with different blending modes and layers.

For example if I'm doing the colors mostly FIRST (Choosing a grayed out palette) and then rendering, it'd look a little something like this: Left (Trackpad, on FireAlpaca) / Right (iPad, on Clip Studio & Procreate)

Sometimes, I'll shade with a dark, grayed out tone and then fill it in with something slightly more vibrant. This kind of gives it a bounce-light feel? Also with a lot of pieces I do recently I try to block out entire parts as white because lighting especially on white background pieces looks better if you pretend that it's white behind the character due to an intense sunlight.

Also, I use gradient layers to tweak with the colors. It's pretty useful and looks nice!!!! Gradient maps are available in every software I use: Procreate, FireAlpaca and Clip Studio Paint.

I find that the more intense the light (but not scattered, as in the source is either very bright or it's very close) the darker the shadows usually look? And if there's a brightness coming from behind the figure and the hair is splayed out in some way, it will appear semi translucent because it's just a bunch of strands made of keratin and collagen, something like that....

Anyway this is all very messy but I hope it helped

Here's a process photo for how I shade if that helps too.

More examples..

I broke down my thought process in my lighting so here's a close up of that.

i totally forgot about the video links so here's my idol the one and only:

And I think this guy makes quick but concise tip videos:

Finally I really like the in depth professional explanations from a long time illustrator:

I've personally taken advice from all three's videos and used them to improve my own art, so take a peek!!!!

[mbta-unofficial]

The Cultural Phenomenon that is The Matrix (1999)

Like the last essay I posted here, this is an early draft of what might become something more substantial. It has nods to other WIPs including a cultural phenomonon essay on Harry Potter, and there are other works I have my eye on like Stuart Semple's Pinkest Pink, AI weiwei's Ouvre, the CHARLIE HEBDO terror attacks, and Hamilton which I think are central to the political culture of the 21st century. Feedback is encouraged and if you want to send me works of art that you think are part of a broader cultural phenomenon I'd love to hear them.

At least in American political culture, few works have been as influential over the last 3 decades as The Matrix by Lilly and Lana Wachowski. In brief, software engineer Thomas Anderson discovers rumors on the internet of something called The Matrix. Federal Agents appear at his workplace and capture and interrogate him about what he knows. He is recruited by a team of rebels that reveal that the whole world he believes he understands is an advanced computer simulation which imprisons all of humanity. He is offered a choice, take a blue pill that will erase his memory of the rebels and allow him to return to his job and life beneath the attention of the “agents,” advanced programs that look like federal agents but in fact work for the robots imprisoning humanity, or take a red pill that will remove him from the matrix entirely to experience the real world. Anderson chooses the red pill and is believed by the rebels to be “Neo,” a hero prophesized to end the imprisoning of humanity in the matrix. In an operation gone wrong because of a betrayal from the inside, rebel leader Morpheus is trapped in the Matrix. Anderson and the rebels reenter the matrix, Confront Agent Smith, rescue Morpheus, and Anderson becomes Neo gaining superhuman abilities in the matrix.

This movie fits into a tradition of pulp sci-fi in which ragtag heroes overthrow an oppressive force, but where it gains its political currency is primarily through its identification of the world itself as the oppressive structure. Specifically, there is an illusionary world created for the sole purpose of oppressing humanity, but its illusions are in fact extremely charming. Cypher, the traitor who assists the agents in capturing Morpheus, wants to return to the Matrix and is disgusted with the real world behind the illusion. He is portrayed as materialistic compared to the idealistic rest of the crew, creating pornographic simulations for himself to enjoy inside the matrix, and being uninterested in their philosophical ideas about freedom. Cypher and Agent Smith’s defeats represent the triumph of Neo and the rebels ideas over the oppressive structure. Nothing about this immediately captures the political energy this movie would generate. It was followed by two less successful sequels with more bombastic cinematic set-pieces, but which have not apparently stuck in public consciousness like the original.

Philosophically, it recreates nearly identically Plato’s allegory of the Cave, from Republic. In brief, Plato writes that Socrates proposes a cave in which people are chained from birth and shown shadows on a cave wall. They have no reason to believe, until they leave the cave, that there is a world apart, and grow to understand deep subtleties in the world of the cave. When you remove someone from this cave, they are weakened by their lack of knowledge and the brightness of the real sun outside, and if they were to ever return to the cave, they would find that the subtleties they enjoyed and appreciated about the life of the cave would be overwhelmed by the force of outside reality, and they would come into conflict with cave dwellers about the nature of reality because the experiences they had outside the cave would be incomprehensible to those inside. The Matrix agrees with Plato’s argument that only those “Outside the Cave” or free from the Matrix are capable of self-government, and consequently of holding power in society, because those in the cave don’t understand reality as wider than or separate from their understanding of the shadows on the cave wall.

For a certain set, this idea is politically intoxicating, because of what it says about the relationship between them and others. If you can come to believe that you understand one deep truth that others do not, you are seeing “reality” while others are only in “the matrix.” You therefore deserve political power over those who do not understand because of your understanding of “reality.” Among certain people in the tech industry this idea proposed that their understanding of and capacity to create the computer systems underneath modern banking, logistics, identity, social media, and information technology meant that they understood everything they needed to understand to deserve to rule the world.

The conspiratorial nature of the events of the movie also reinforce the insular nature of knowledge about the matrix. It is a thing ordinary people don’t know about, and you can expect people to be dismissive or even hostile when you attempt to share knowledge of the matrix with them. For misogynists looking to recruit socially awkward people online, the framework of the Matrix and its “red pill” gave a perfect frame into which to fit a conspiracy theory about the power women have over men. What only the men who have “taken the red pill” believe is that women are basically subhuman and are primarily motivated by sex with dominant men. Therefore, men looking to have sex with women must, instead of attempting to engage with them as human beings, either abuse and manipulate them into complete emotional reliance on them as “responsible” men or accept that they will never get what they think they want because of an inability to become sufficiently manly. These are “incels” in their own and others’ language about them.

While these groups are small, they have had an outsized impact on American political culture. The particularities of what they believe and the writings of their thought leaders are far less important than recognizing their tactics, which primarily include grooming impressionable self-described social outcasts into abandoning their wider social circles in favor of these radical communities. It’s here that the ideology of the Matrix actually becomes the basis for what these people do politically: members are groomed to believe that they are special because of their disconnect from others and that their disconnect from others must be nurtured so they can come to see the truth. Just like the Matrix, believers are set apart from “normies,” those out of the know, who might be concerned about the apparent disconnect between what they are hearing from the nascent radical and their experiences. Rejection from “normies” is an affirmation of the truth of the ideology. If that sounds like a cult, you are understanding the psychological tools at play. However, unlike most cults, the specific combination of desire for political power and access to silicon valley money has meant that the influence of these people goes far beyond the mere fandom of this sci-fi movie or people in small boards on reddit.

When you look at a modern political cult that has recruited thousands and carried out real attacks on US democracy like Qanon, you should recognize that the thought leaders of Qanon are the thought leaders of these message boards, and that Donald Trump’s political career is in many ways directly owed to people who organized these early internet social spaces.

That said, I want to also mark a profound irony to the Matrix: It is at its core, also a movie about transgender experiences. In the initial cut of the movie, one of the rebels was going to be played by two actors, a man in the real world and a woman in the matrix. The red pills were modeled on the real estrogen pills taken by the directors to trans their genders. At the core of the Matrix’s plot is Neo’s rejection of the identity that he is given by the world of the Matrix, the persona of Thomas Anderson, and embracing a new identity, community, and name.

The movie is by two trans women about their experiences of being trans women and the isolation and disillusion with society that causes. Yet, by making a movie about disillusion and isolation, they also created a vocabulary to discuss disillusion that people who had been radicalized into hating women, democracy, and diversity to isolate people and dismantle whatever guards those isolated people had against radical hatred of women, democracy, and diversity. Nobody can blame the Wachowski sisters for what the world did with their movie. When I discuss Harry Potter, I think the opposite holds true: the cultural phenomenon attached to Harry Potter is as disconnected from authorial intent as the cultural phenomenon attached to The Matrix. JK Rowling’s cultural phenomenon extends far past the impact of her books because her actions were so directly political while her books were so distinctly inoffensive and anodine. Moreover, Rowling herself is undoubtedly a victim of the cultural movement precipitated by the Matrix to radicalize people against the trans people who made it.

I want to be careful not to overstate the cultural importance of this movie. Like each of the works that I want to discuss, it changed language and influenced a subculture that produced several violent political movements, but the people who used it had their own agendas for change and it’s reasonable to think that if they hadn’t latched on to this story they might have found another one. I don’t think its fair to conclude from the history that it conclusively created anything that wouldn’t have existed without it beyond fanworks or derivative media, and that its role in politics is limited to political communication. However, communicating political ideas determines what ideas get spread. The Matrix provided a primer in the ideas of Plato’s Cave: of another world that we are kept from that could radically change our understanding, and the idea that everything you know about the world might be a lie. For any radical that is an openness you require in people who you want to recruit. It also marks the very boundaries of acceptable political communication as the basis of political struggle. Before the Matrix, politicians could be thought to win on policies, while the goalposts of political life were more or less static. Afterwards, people started to provoke the political establishment with questions about the playing field itself. Once you accept that we could be living in the matrix, you ask what exists outside of the ideological boundaries you learn in schools. To a trans person, the notion of Male and Female become suspect. To Donald Trump’s inner circle, the same questions are provoked about Democracy and the Rule of Law as we know them.

[nanowrimo]

4 Ways To Cure Writer’s Block

Every year, we’re lucky to have great sponsors for our nonprofit events. NovelPad, a 2023 NaNoWriMo sponsor, is a novel drafting software designed to make it easy for writers to write. Today, they're sharing a few tips to help you beat writer's block:

NovelPad loves NaNoWriMo because we have the same goal: Helping authors get the thing done!

Starting a book is usually fun and easy—your fingers dance across the keyboard as you explore an exciting world, meet your characters, and stir up intrigue for the coming plot. But once you get into the weeds of how that all works, and how you and your characters get from Point A to Point B, you might find yourself losing momentum. You might find yourself so encumbered with obstacles that you might get a case of the dreaded writer’s block.

The very good news is that writer’s block isn’t terminal, and I certainly don’t think writer’s block is as enigmatic as some people seem to think. I believe it’s actually quite a simple problem, and usually due to one of a few common factors. Let’s look at four ways you can push yourself through your case of ye olde block.

1. Check in with yourself.

Step one is always to check in with yourself. 

Start by reviewing your basic self-care needs:

Are you staying hydrated?

Do you feel hungry?

Would a shower or a nap be beneficial?

Is it time for a walk or some stretching exercises?

Consider your environment as well. Maybe you need:

Noise-canceling headphones

A change of scenery

A babysitter or someone to help around the house

To open or close some windows

Next, evaluate your level of focus. Is your mind wandering elsewhere? It can be useful to create a "dump list" to jot down anything that's causing you stress, such as work-related issues, pending tasks, or upcoming events. Setting that list aside can give you the tangible feeling of pushing those things off your desk to worry about later.

Once your body, mind, and environment are sorted out, you'll likely discover that writing becomes a bit easier!

2. Look back at where you’ve been.

Even if the first tip did or did not do the trick, let’s take a look at the project itself.

Sometimes writer’s block is a blessing in disguise! Your creative gut might be telling you that something went awry. Try reading your project back and pinpointing where it became difficult to keep going. Consider alternate plots or paths to get your writing flowing again.

If you're managing multiple plots and subplots, identifying the moment you deviated from the main path can be quite challenging. To pinpoint which plot line is causing issues, you can take advantage of NovelPad's handy feature: Plot tracking.

On the Plot Board, you can review every scene of a particular plot in order, making spotting those errors in your plotlines much easier.

3. Rewrite a problem scene.

Once you've identified the scene causing issues, it's time to make improvements! This can be challenging because there are countless ways to approach a scene.

However, don't hesitate to embrace revisions. Often, a scene benefits from a thorough rewrite. With NovelPad Revisions, you can save limitless scene revisions, compare them side by side, and effortlessly switch to the one they want in the live manuscript. This keeps your different versions safe, well-organized, and readily accessible.

4. Freewrite to free yourself.

Freewriting is a great way to get your creativity flowing again. Write some poetry, compose a letter to a friend, or simply let your thoughts flow without judgment. Freewriting without judgment can help turn on your writer mode and even help you solve some problems! It's especially beneficial when you're stuck on something specific, because we often find brilliant solutions when we stop being so critical of our ideas.

Kick writer’s block off your desk with NovelPad! It's free to use throughout NaNoWriMo, and we offer discounts to participants and winners afterward. If you find that NovelPad isn't your cup of tea by the end of November, don't worry—you can still access and download your project at any time. Just write!

Our team at NovelPad believes in making it easy for writers to complete their books. That’s why we built an uncomplicated, intuitive system that stays out of the way until you need it! We want writers like you to #JustWrite without burdening you with excessive features. Speaking of features, software updates at NovelPad are based entirely on user feedback from authors to keep our features sharp, relevant, and minimalist.

All NaNoWriMo participants have access to a 15% discount on NovelPad with code WRIMO2023 — use the code during checkout to redeem your discount. Offer expires April 1, 2024.

Top photo by Richard Dykes on Unsplash.

[music4lifebycc]

Chasing Tranquillity in My Second Piece, 19 June 2025

Today I worked on the musical ideas for my second piano arrangement. After reviewing my previous improvisation session, I selected a few musical ideas to develop further. For this piece, I am using broken chord patterns in the bass line. The chord progression remains similar to that of the first piece, but this time the bass has a more open and spacious quality.

My intention with this second piece is to create a lighter and more tranquil mood. This piece is connected to the continuing story of my first piece, Tsubaki.

I began by creating a new blank canvas. I then spent time familiarising myself with the draft material, improvising to see where each idea might naturally fall within the structure. This part of the process took around two hours. I felt that my ideas developed more freely compared to when I first began my earlier piece.

Once I had a general sense of what I wanted the piece to sound like, I started arranging the material in a chronological order that felt intuitive and emotionally balanced. This part also lasted around two hours, during which I experimented with the melody and recorded several versions. The slower pace of this piece allowed me to reflect and enjoy the music as it unfolded through my playing.

For the remaining four hours, I practised and improvised further to solidify the structure. This led to new discoveries, particularly in the chorus section. I began shaping the overall form of the piece, moving from the introduction to the verse, into the chorus, back into the verse, and finally into a repeated chorus. This final chorus is accompanied by a gentle background layer that resembles the verse, acting as an embellishment. I am still leaving space for changes, in case I decide to remove or replace certain sections that do not flow as naturally as I would like.

To help with organisation, I used colour coding within the session. This method has been helpful in giving me clarity and making the arrangement feel more like a score in progress, similar to working with notation software where accuracy and intention are both important. My next step will be to record the full version of the piece and begin preparing it for the instrumental layering phase. ####### Side Note #######

Today I spent around 8 hours working on finalising the musical ideas for my second piano arrangement. I spent 2 hours improvising and familiarising myself with selected motifs, 2 hours arranging them in a rough structure with re-recordings, and 4 hours practising, refining, and shaping the structure of the piece. ####### End of Side Note #######

Thank you so much for reading and accompanying through this journey! Stay tuned for the next session ^_^

[imaginaryanon]

Hi! Regarding your writing software questions: Ellipsus lets you have a main document and one or more drafts based on that document, that you can change independently. And then there's an option that lets you compare side by side both versions, which highlight any changes (be it that you changed one word for another, or added/removed sentences) in different colours (there's a neat visual in their product tour, but I don't want to send the link in case tumblr eats it). Based on your request, I think that could be what you're looking for? I don't use that specific feature, but I'm overall happy with the program, and it's what I currently use to write. They also state in their page that they won't implement generative AI in their software.

Have a nice day! I hope you find what you need.

that... sounds like EXACTLY what i'm looking for, holy shit? thank you SO much for telling me about this program, i'm definitely going to look into it when i try to get back into writing!

[taylor-titmouse]

If the androids have a written-out script, how do conversations work? Do they only respond to keywords? Do they ever take bits and pieces to make new phrases to keep up with their audience’s whole sentence?

honestly it's "whatever is most convenient for me as the author" but i do try to make them come off as like, stilted, and as having multiple systems running at once to determine how to respond. like mari-ko*, the receptionist, is running a receptionist program that tells her who employees are, what the business hours are, and all the most likely questions she would be asked. but she's also running touma's handwritten software that would activate if she's placed in a sexual situation, and that would be comparatively less dynamic at the time the story takes place because it's in-progress.

so it's like. at least in the current draft, they're not having real conversations, they'll repeat the same phrases, or they'll only respond if spoken to and will respond with that they think the person talking to them would want to hear, based on programming and previous experience with that person. they have Some learning capabilities but it's more like remembering preferences and settings.

[jointhefediverse]

Android Mastodon Clients 🌟

A web client is a software application that accesses and displays content from the World Wide Web. In this particular case, Mastodon (and some other Fedi sites).

These apps are here to bring all of your different accounts into one application for easy posting, browsing, and management.

Below, I've reviewed the ones that I've used myself so far. I encourage you to try as many as you can to find the right fit for you!

Rodent- Very minimalist. Very little customization, no access to profile links unless in bio, no direct access to profile. On Playstore

Focus- Popup ads👎On F-Droid/Playstore

Fedilab- Good! Post draft option, notifications filtering, access to profile links, trending tags, trending posts, schedule posts option, font resizing, icon resizing. On F-Droid/Playstore

Tusky- Lots of UI customization, access to profile links, post draftability, post scheduling, trending posts/hashtags, and notifications filtering. Slightly more legible ui compared to Fedilab, though has mostly same features. On F-Droid/Playstore

Subway tooter- More advanced UI customization (for the people into those smaller details). Same as Fedilab & Tusky in usability but comes with a trending posts page. On Playstore

Moshidon- Very similar to the OG Mastodon app in layout. Comes with a few color pallet options. Simplistic and easy to use. On F-Droid/Playstore

ZonePane- Slightly less intuitive UI but entirely still usable. Includes lots of customization in font sizing/spacing, thumbnail sizing, icon shaping, the ability to hide follower/following counts, the ability to hide other numbers such as likes, RT's, etc. Similar to Cohost in this way. Has Banner ADs!! On Playstore

Pachli- Similar UI and customization to Fedilab & Tusky. On F-Droid/Playstore

Tooot- Has a simple UI layout with very few customizable aspects. Font size adjustment is available, as well as light and dark themes. On Playstore

Trunks- Super clean UI with losts of fun features like pinned shortcuts, an exploration page, a trending page, profiles have an engagement gage, and much more. Just a few of the customizable things to look out for are lots of different font options and the ability to hide muted posts from your timeline. On Playstore

Buffer- Makes you sign up for a separate account to use it 👎

[kogameh]

"Angelic Lullaby", aka the supposedly recurring song in AGKokoro

Uh, I figured making a Twitter thread on this would be annoying (word limit/format-wise) so let's talk about it here instead.

You see this page from the first prologue? Yeah. Notice them singing and the music notes around them?

The speech bubbles were supposed to have proper lyrics, written by me. But long story short, I was REALLY under a time crunch and couldn't write one by the time I started the lettering process so I ended up resorting to the "gibberish" text as seen above.

You might also notice some music notes on these two pages---they're intended to play the same music as the page shown earlier.

But obviously, it's difficult to know that by mere texts and images (of course lol), so I'm mentioning it here.

The point is; yes there IS intended to be a recurring song in AGKokoro. You can't hear it. But I HAD plans on making you hear it.

How?

And now the long story:

The initial plan was not only to have the music and lyrics but to release a completely vocalized song with a Vocaloid and even a lyrical MV/PV to go with it, lol. (Yeah I do fuck around with Vocaloids [the software] too if you don't know)

I DID commission the music (since no way I can learn composing within that short of a deadline lol) but the lack of lyrics is the entire reason why I couldn't proceed with the rest of my initial plans.

Unfortunately as my deadline approached fast, all of these ideas had to be canceled and I didn't want to half-ass on any of these so o)-(

So yeah, I ended up laser-focusing on the comic and scrapped the rest haha.

I really meant it when I said my intention in doing the first prologue chapter was showing an amalgamation of EVERYTHING my "useless piece of shit" self could do. out of spite :')

So... yeah! That's how we end up here!

In the end, I still haven't written the intended lyrics for the song. I DO want to get back to it someday and WILL update the pages with the intended lyrics at the very least, haha.

The song is meant to be plot-relevant so I really don't want to half-ass it and prefer the lyrics to sound, well, good, y'know? The only problem is just finding the time for it orz

***

BONUS:

While drafting the pages, I imagined the songs to be something along the lines of Tsubasa wo Daite, Meru's song or Ashita Kuru Hi lol. The commissioned music piece ended up pretty different compared to all of these but it still sounds AMAZING!!

Here's a preview of it if you want to idk, listen with the pages or something.

(It's composed by Enokido-san, thank you for doing my comm!!)

Here's the original artwork intended for the MV/PV. I don't like this art anymore (the anatomy sucks and why is the hair drawn like that) so I really need to draw something new if I end up redoing the PV :3c

"What makes me mention this?"

Apparently Webtoon can put music in their comics and I'm jealous of that but its Webtoon Creators program only so like hell I'm giving the rights of my OCs to them :////

"WHY all of this matters, if at all?"

Because uh, it WILL be mentioned again and it WILL be an important thing to Kureha's character and his....uh. what was his "misfortunes" in the plot again? idk

"WHERE did the music come from anyway?"

Oh you've seen these pocket watches? They're actually music box-inside-pocket-watch kinda thing! Pretty cool, right?

Wow idk if you've read through that but, congrats if you do! Because this WON'T be my last long rambling post about OCs (idk why I haven't done more of it aside from the fact I'll be talking to a wall 99.9% of the time lol)

ANYWAYS YOU CAN READ THE FIRST TWO PROLOGUES OF AGKOKORO HERE IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY

[oddmawd]

Out of curiosity (and of course please do not feel like you have to answer this)

How do you keep your story organized?

I use Miro Board to help me lay down my plot and timelines, but I’m always curious what other tools writers use to outline, organize and such for their writing.

Id love to also just create a post and have writers and artists add to it over time as a source of knowledge and help….but I’m not sure how to start it honestly.

i love this questions and for me it's SCRIVENER, baby, SCRIVENER

i'm using OCCULT PIECE as an example because it's a massive project and Scrivener absolutely helped me bring it to life (it finally corralled my brain into something manageable LMAO)

not sure how familiar you are with this software, but it combines a word processor with a file organization system so i can flip between documents within a work super quickly...keeps all my notes, drafts, and other docs at my fingertips

the column on the left shows the docs and folders i've set up to keep this massive AU project organized...i have folders for each story, with subfolders that have notes and chapters for each work, and then i have separate folders for worldbuilding notes, character notes, connections between stories, and similar...i expanded a bunch of the folders so you can see what's in 'em if you want a closer look

Scrivener also has a corkboard view so you can see your story elements all laid out, and you can move them around as you see fit, which makes rearranging scenes (should you choose to put separate scenes into their own text docs) very easy

i like this software for its utility but also because you pay for it once and then can transfer the license to different computers when/if you change to a new one, and you can get it pretty cheap using discount codes that come up pretty frequently (usually they're a NaNoWriMo prize)

i have never used Miro and IDK how it compares! will have to check it out and seeeeee

as for the post people can add to, do you mean like a Tumblr post with reblogs, or like a shareable document people can circulate and add to at will? would this be for a large collaborative story or universe or just general information? sounds cool either way! love it when a community comes together...

[cloudy-caspirations]

Hey cas!! I wanted to ask you how to make the most out of notions (cuz its kinda complex app) + how to make notes omg im struggling w this YELPP😭😭

Hi !! I started using notion last year to try and organize my school life and still haven’t completely figured it all out, so I get what you mean with it being a little confusing 😭. I’ve been mostly using it as a planner, but just started writing notes on it over this summer break and am kind of loving it. I’ll include screenshots and stuff under the cut, but if you need more specific details or a tutorial for a database or something feel free to send another ask or dm!

My Notion Setup ⬇️⬇️

(Sorry if the formatting for pictures is weird, I’m still trying to figure out how to use this app 😵‍💫)

For Planning:

Here is my notion dashboard! It’s a little barebones compared to others that I’ve seen on Pinterest, but it works for me because if I include anything else my ADHD brain will get overwhelmed and won’t keep up with actually using and updating it.

I have two databases: one being used as an assignment tracker that sorts my assignments into To-Do, Overdue, and Done sections based on dates and the other has pages for my classes for the semester. (I just realized that I forgot the change the heading from Spring 2024 to Fall 2024, so please don’t mind that 😭) Along with the databases I have a simple to do list for things that I need to get done that aren’t assignment related.

You could also add a calendar view to the assignment database if you prefer seeing it in that format, I just choose not to because I use Google Calendar to see it in relation to my other plans for the day.

I don’t use the class pages for much because I preferred writing my notes in either Goodnotes or a physical notebook last semester, but I’ll probably start using them more because I like using notion to keep track of all of my code snippets and stuff along those lines that are easier to type than write out. It was also pretty helpful last semester for creating drafts and outlines for essays.

For Note-taking:

Here are two examples of pages that could go in the classes database if you prefer to take notes digitally. I like to use databases to create pages to take notes in for each chapter/section of the textbook or material for the class.

My favorite way of viewing it is the board view because I like having my progress visualized (and clicking and dragging chapters to the “Done” section is satisfying), but the table view is also nice if you want to include more details such as quiz scores or dates.

Here are some photos of my notes for a single chapter. I use section headers to separate the actual notes from other stuff like chapter-specific exercises or links, and use toggle headers for sub-section notes to make it less cluttered. Other than the formatting it’s nothing too fancy, my typed notes are similar to how you would take notes in any other software like GoogleDocs or Word.

[zephyr-rat]

Green Giant Saga Update: May 1st, 2025

Hey folks!

Just an update on my end regarding the Green Giant Saga: the Twitch and Zac fanfiction series I've been writing.

I am still working under the game gig I've been hired to do on my free time in addition to my main job as a software engineer. As such, progress in writing the story is going very slowly compared to what it was for Osweld Remediation and before.

However, I would like to report that the first draft of part 13 is 50% of the way done and I still intend to make this series 20 episodes in total.

This story in particularly will be a sharp shift in Zac's character development as a hero and will test him after many dark experiences with Zaunite's underbelly. Meanwhile, Twitch must try to figure out his place in his new relationship with Zac after the events of the last episode.

This next episode will include cameos from Legends of Runeterra and Convergence characters with the introduction of 2 very important main characters of this story: 1 of which being a new adaptation of a League champion.

Wonder if you guys can guess who! But it will be a bit until it's properly done. Until then, I hope you guys can accept this update!

Thanks for reading!

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If you want to read more of Zac and Twitch’s adventures in Zaun. Check out the entire saga!

Ao3 Series

Main Tumblr Page

[machine-saint]

in Hillel Wayne's Crossover Project, he interviewed a set of people who had both done software engineering and "traditional" (mech, chemical, civic) engineering. the overall conclusion is that the broad sentiment that software engineering is in a state of fallen grace compared to "real" engineers is false, and both disciplines have things to learn from each other.

i think most of the things SWEs have to learn will be unsurprising: respect your project, do more planning, and so on. but the two he brought up for what traditional engineers can learn from SWEs are surprising:

a culture of openness, of conferences that aren't organized by academics or companies but simply for the love of the thing. he mentions that he presented this at a SWE conference, but if he was a traditional engineer he'd have nowhere to present it. there's no community.

version control and tooling, like the ability to run automated test suites and block the build if they fail. "Some other fields have proto-VCS, things with a fraction of the power and versatility of git, and the rest are still saving files as form-draft-3.docx."

[blackjackkent]

Writing Interview Tag Game

I was tagged by @ra-scheln - thank you! :D

When did you start writing?

A looooooong time ago. Haha. As a kid there was a several year period where I thought I wanted to be an author as a career, and always liked writing even after I moved on to other plans. The stuff I wrote as a kid is mostly lost to time, although I do still have the Google doc of a “novel” I wrote for my senior English project in high school. I haven't had the courage to look at it for a long time because it is uh. Not Good. :P (No judgment on my past self - we become better through trying and learning. But it would probably be unrecognizable compared to my writing now.) 

Are there different themes or genres that you enjoy reading than what you write?

Sort of? I like reading scifi and fantasy and the majority of my writing has also been in those genres. But I also like reading things like regency romance, historical fiction, very specific types of horror, etc. that I have no real interest in trying to replicate. 

Can you tell me about your writing space?

Sometimes I write on my phone flopped on the couch - that's how I'm writing my answers to these questions in fact! I'm a pretty fast phone typist but it's still a slower process, though, so when I really want to buckle down I usually go to my desktop computer which is in the office. Right now it's a big wooden corner desk but I'd like to replace it with a couple of smaller ones that are more easy to maneuver and put cool rgb lights on for the Gamer Aesthetic. XD

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Lately as I've been trying to write more consistently, I've been having a lot of luck with this web app called 4thewords.com. It's a bit of gamification but the main thing I like about it is you pick an amount of time and a word goal and it sets a timer for you and it has proved REALLY effective for forcing me to just get words down on paper. The first draft is the hardest for me by far and it's been often really useful for getting over that hump. So lately I'll set myself up for 500-1000 words or so per day of “battles” and that gets me the forward momentum that I'm trying to maintain. 

That said, I'm also trying to be better about not forcing myself to write when it's just not coming at all. I don't want to burn myself out. 

Are there any recurring themes in your writing?

I am sure the answer is yes but it's hard for me to distinctly identify them. (I'd be interested in hearing reader answers to this question.)

Off the top of my head, though - missing scenes, mutual pining, struggles with emotional control. I think one major thing is that, as someone who missed my prime dating years due to the Big Sad, a lot of my characters do have an underlying thread of finding love/fulfillment/connection despite obstacles, later in life, or when they feel they don't deserve it or don't know how to do it. 

What is your reason for writing?

The same reason I was almost an actor, the same reason I like making people laugh on my stream. Hell, even the same reason I like programming and making software that improves someone's day. 

I like making people feel things. I like seeing their reaction to something I've done and hearing that it evoked something in them. This is the most fundamental human connection in my opinion. 

Is there any kind of specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

Honestly, any time someone takes time out of their day to leave any type of comment at all, it's guaranteed to make my whole week. But in keeping with my previous answer - my favorite comments are ones where I get to hear about how I affected the reader's emotions, or where they mention particular parts that really struck them. Those always make me really happy. c:

How do you want to be thought about by your readers? 

Interesting question. I think… as someone who is good with character voices and keeps tight hold of the fundamental core of the characters even when putting them in different situations. Someone who can manage both angst and humor well. Once again, I'd like people to look forward to what I write because they know it's gonna make them feel something that they enjoy. 

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Character voices and dialogue. I've been told I've been very good at catching the cadence of different characters, and some of my favorite things to write have been just bouncing those voices off each other and seeing what happens. I think this is really the pillar on which all the rest of my work is able to stand bc the characters feeling like themselves makes the rest have more impact. 

How do you feel about your own writing?

This really depends on when you catch me, haha. Some days I'm really proud of it, and some days I have a hard time seeing anything good in it. Currently in a bit of a trough of overthinking it, but I’m lucky to have a couple readers who are v supportive which helps. <3 Overall though I think I do a good job and have some interesting stories out there and in my to-do list. (I also tend to way over-compare myself to other people in the fandom; there are so many incredible writers around here that it's hard to put myself next to them.)

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

A mix of both, I suppose? Certainly in picking what I want to write about I am thinking primarily about what I would find fun to write and not about what has a “market” in the fandom per se. But I also am lucky enough to have found other people who do enjoy the same characters as I do and enjoy my take on them, and in that sense I am definitely often more excited about a particular idea because I know one or more of my friends would be excited to read it. :D So both things are definitely a factor. 

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Tagging: @writer86 @rhysintherain @bardic-inspo @thedarkstrategist (and anyone else who wants to do this honestly)

[desiderium-interactive-fiction]

Added Another 5,000 Words to Demo & Work Philosophy For IF

Desiderium is now at least 15,000 words!

I added about 5,000 more words to the demo (maybe a little less). I'm trying to update it daily. I had a lot of fun today playing around with how each RO will interact with each other in a particular instance (asking if the RO the user has chosen to pair up with for a scouting mission has ever been in love). Still have to write the pairings for the user-created character, though. That will involve more choices compared to the scenes with pre-made characters, though.

A lot of this is just a rough draft and while the core concepts will stay, I definitely plan to go back and add flavor text, more descriptions (not tooooo much though), reword things, and just overall make things better.

As for work philosophy, I'm a BSA (business systems analyst) in my professional life and have a background in software development and the SDLC (software development life cycle). I'm planning on completing this book/game the way I would manage a project for my software team.

I plan to put at least several hours of work in a day and am using a Kanban methodology to keep track of everything. While I haven't really coded much since college, I am familiar with choicescript and it's honestly kind of a breeze compared to C, MIPS, Java, etc.

Keeping track of software development is kind of my thing so I'm anticipating that I will be able to stick with my milestones and overcome risks as they pass by.

Additionally, I have created an internal documentation stack on Confluence that has a bunch of lore for the world in my story and I can't wait to share (the non-spoilery) parts of it with everyone. Stay tuned!

Also, currently I'm using CSIDE as my IDE but I've heard that visual studio might have a choicescript plugin and honestly that might make it easier to push updates via git so I'll be looking into that, too.

[xoxoofeeeliaxoxo]

Reflective Statement - Draft

Research skills:

I would say that most of my research went into finding content for my design posters. I wanted to extend my research into finding an expression of aroha that I was familiar with and also associated with. I began to think of my hometown, Otara and how locals express their love for the town through art and music. I definitely could improve my research more by being open in what areas I research – whether that be content, design styles, typography history, and using different forms of research to expand potential ideas.

Creative Process:

When it came to designing exploration posters, I would use the techniques I had learnt in class and just start creating posters. Then, I’d get ideas and further expand or refine my designs. Just getting started on creating content was a head start, even if what I had created was bad, I would try and find what I liked about my posters and try and to develop them into new posters. I would say that I struggle managing my time with my work and trying to construct my posters as a set of 2. There were times where I would focus too much on one poster than expanding my explorations. When it came to creating the diptych, I would struggle with connecting the second poster to the first. I would refer to the conventions we learnt in class and find a convention I wanted to go off. I would also take some of visual strategies I used in my first poster and create something off that for my second poster.

Decision making:

The exploration designs I created prior to my final had great visual strategies but it was quite generic content. I had to focus on creating depth so people could feel connected to the posters. Trying to create that depth in my designs was a struggle, but I would start forming mind maps to help dive into more specific ideas. But even then, when it came to generating designs I would get stuck again.

Overall progression

I have learnt a lot compared to when I first started this course. I am not familiar with using Adobe software, but I have gained a basic understanding of InDesign skills. I would definitely need to look at tutorials in my own time to get more confident in using this software, and it would help me a lot more with bringing out my ideas visually. I have found that mind mapping is a very useful tool in generating ideas. I’ve found that I am strong in using various visual strategies in my work so gaining more knowledge around InDesign would definitely bring me a plethora of visual strategies to use.