#it is a great method for draft 2 however - tip from me

[duffmckagans]

need somebody to tell me that it is not an efficient method to attack draft 3 by retyping the whole thing

[pluckyredhead]

Editing The Lost Titans

I get asks about writing advice/craft/tips occasionally, and I always feel a little inadequate when I answer them. While I try to be very disciplined and methodical about my original writing, when it comes to fic, it's something I do for fun and for free, so my method is mainly slapping my hands on the keyboard like a seal until self-indulgence comes out. It's rare that I outline fic or make significant edits, so it's hard for me to point to specific examples.

However! While I was writing The Lost TItans, I did a bunch of major edits - throwing away entire scenes, revising large chunks, adding an entire chapter after the first draft was done. More importantly, all of those edits had really clear reasons they needed to be made, rather than me going "Eh...it's just not right," which means I can actually explain my thought process without just waving a hand vaguely in the direction of the vibes. So I thought I'd write about what edits I made and why, in case it's interesting or useful to anyone. (And if not, who doesn't like navel gazing?)

The original opening scene was entirely different. It served the same purpose - it was still a dream showing the Titans Red world - but instead of all the Titans fighting the HIVE, it was Jason having lunch on the Star City University campus with Toni and Grant. Then, just as in the finished fic, Jason wakes up at Roy's house and talks about the dream over breakfast.

Now don't get me wrong, I loved writing that original opening scene. I love Toni and Grant, I was already invested in this alternate timeline, so getting to play with these characters interacting was super fun for me.

But it wouldn't have been fun for anyone else. Most of my readers wouldn't know who Toni and Grant were, and literally no one would be invested in their relationships with Jason, because I was inventing those out of whole cloth. Also, because the other four members of the team weren't there, it was just tons of exposition of who these characters were, what their team history was, etc. etc. Rose's joke about Roy being like a cool camp counselor was originally from this scene, but because Rose isn't in the scene, it's a joke being exposited rather than told. There was nothing to engage a reader who wasn't me, and also a lot of what was being shown in the scene - that these characters attended the same college - wasn't necessary information (as you can tell by the fact that in the final fic, that isn't even true).

So I cut the scene entirely and replaced it with the opening fight scene. (And obviously made the necessary edits to the subsequent conversation with Roy.) It's much more high energy, and more importantly: it gets the whole team on the page, it shows that they are a team rather than just telling you, and hopefully the banter gets you invested in their dynamic. They're pals being goofy together! I sure hope these are real relationships and not Hank Hall's weird manipulative RPF!

2. The third scene, dinner at Ollie's, originally opened with Roy, Lian, and Jason arriving at Ollie's and all the different Arrowfamily members getting little bits of dialogue or whatever before it was supposed to cut to the flashback of Jason butting heads with Bruce in Gotham. I was actually in the middle of this scene and stalled out for a while before I realized I needed to a) scrap the opening scene like I mentioned above and b) scrap this one, too. Often when I find I'm just stuck and not going anywhere, it's for reasons like this - the scene I'm writing isn't the right one.

In this case, it was similar to the Grant and Toni scene above - I was having a great time writing the Arrowfam, but the scene wasn't actually contributing anything to the fic. The point of this entire sequence was to show Jason's fraught relationship with his own family, and hint that Connor was experiencing the same dreams as Jason. Random banter with Mia or whoever was just getting in the way of the crucial information. I cleared all of the Arrowfamily stuff out of the beginning of this sequence, jumped straight to Gotham, and then used the birthday cake scene to contrast Jason's relationship with the Bats to his relationship with the Arrows, as well as drop that Connor hint.

I want to be really clear here, because I feel like people get defensive about the idea of cutting scenes that "aren't doing anything" or "don't move the plot forward." I didn't cut these scenes because they were quiet or character-driven. Jason and Roy having breakfast is quiet and character-driven. The whole fic is character-driven. I cut the scenes that I cut because they literally served zero purpose except having various characters go "Hello, I exist and I have a relationship to Jason." I replaced them with scenes that did that, and also moved the plot forward, and also made you care about those relationships, and also were fun to read. Please don't feel bad for those scenes because they got cut; they are a collection of words and don't have feelings.

3. The scene where Rose rescues Jason and Connor from Sudden Death got I would say a medium level of revision, in that the beats are all the same but they weren't originally fighting Sudden Death. Initially I just had them dealing with two members from opposite sides of a gang war, and the scene was pretty terrible but it got me where I needed to be, so I left it and finished the first draft of the whole fic.

When I went back in revisions, I realized that in using the gang war hook, I was once again spending time on something - in this case, the intricacies of crime in Star City - that had nothing to do with the fic. This is an easy trap to fall into: I needed to introduce Rose in a fun, badass way, while Jason and Connor were already hanging out, so having her save them while they were on patrol was perfect. It didn't matter who they were fighting, so I put in some generic goons.

But then I had to justify why said goons required three superheroes (four, if you count Roy) to defeat them, and also set up why they were there in the first place, and it just became a long derailment from the story I was trying to tell, with nothing inherently entertaining about it to justify it.

Swapping the goons for Sudden Death meant I could significantly streamline the "why" of the scene: he's a supervillain doing supervillain shit, case closed (although there's still a nod to him working with Brick, a Star City crime lord, to explain why he's in town). His dumb surfer shtick is more entertaining to read than generic goon dialogue. And he's a Hawk and Dove villain, which meant the scene served three purposes now: giving Rose a grand entrance, humor, and foreshadowing. Boom.

4. The scene where Jason and Roy kiss got a pretty thorough second pass. This one is the least helpful one to talk about, I think, because it really was just honing the vibes. I wanted to increase the tension between them, that slow pull drawing them closer, so I put in more about their respective positioning in the room, the way the room looks and feels, little physical details of Roy. If I make the setting more palpable, I make the tension more palpable - or at least, that's the theory I'm working with here.

5. The climax got a MAJOR overhaul. Initially, Hank returned Roy and took him away again, Jason had the team attack him, and there was a whole thing with the team fruitlessly fighting against all these hypertime variants of Hank. Only then did Koryak suggest they stay in the Titans Red universe.

I'd written it that way because...well, it was a superhero fic, it felt like it needed some kind of physical confrontation at the end. But this version of Hank is so powerful that there wasn't actually anything the Titans could do, which made the fight not particularly engaging. It also didn't really make sense for him to be attacked by Koryak, Grant, and Eddie, who were kind of on his side, or Jason, who was torn.

Instead, I nixed the physical fight, and made the actual conflict between the team members, which is the conflict that really matters. I also made that fight much more painful. The argument was already there in the first draft, but the truly cruel lines - Koryak's comment about Rose's mom, what Grant says to Toni - came in the second pass. Because the stakes here aren't really whether they can beat Hank; it's their friendship, and the balance between what they give up by going home, and what they give up by staying in the dream. I needed that decision to hurt, and failing to punch Hank Hall in the face wouldn't accomplish that.

6. I essentially added an entire chapter in revisions. Originally the fic went: Eddie sacrifices himself -> quick paragraph sending everyone home -> Jason and Roy get together -> team reassembles to rescue Eddie. It felt rushed and completely unsatisfying. I had been focused on resolving the plot points directly involving Jason, because he's the POV character, but I'd spent so long on all of the various team relationships that I had to at least give each character a proper send-off.

So I added the scene at the JSA brownstone. I let Grant and Toni make up, gave Grant his happy ending, and hinted at Toni's. I gave Koryak and Rose exit lines, and hinted that Jason thinks of Connor as family and part of what "home" means. I added the Tim scene because I needed to balance the beginning of the fic, and because if Jason was making the choice to return to a world with a fraught family dynamic, I needed to show that dynamic on page. I was worried that it would feel like I was drawing out the end too long after the Big Bad was defeated, but I think all of those scenes feel necessary and (hopefully) healing.

Anyway, hopefully this was interesting and maybe helpful! I find craft super interesting but it can be hard to talk about in concrete ways, so I wanted to get all this down on (digital) paper as clear examples I could point to when people ask.

[macgyvermedical]

Treating Diarrheal Illness

Someone recently sent me an ask about vomiting and diarrhea. I got almost all the way through writing it and then tumblr ate it. Didn't save it as a draft, didn't even put the ask back in my inbox, just poof'd it into oblivion.

But it was a good ask, and not one I get very often, so I still want to answer it- it essentially said the following:

How could a non-medical person in an apocalyptic setting treat someone who had severe diarrhea and vomiting, assuming the person in gastrointestinal distress was a doctor and could give them some direction? Can/should they give antidiarrheal medication and how would they go about doing that since the patient would probably throw it up?

So very glad you asked:

Diarrhea

The nice thing about most diarrheal illness is that as long as the person stays hydrated, they have a really good chance at surviving. Water is okay for hydration, but if the caregiver can get their hands on some salt, some potassium-based salt substitute, and some sugar, they can make a really easy and effective oral rehydration solution. The recipe is as follows:

Mix together:

1 liter of water

1/2 tsp salt (you want this to be slightly less salty than tears)

1/8 tsp potassium-based salt substitute (if you have this, great, if not, you can leave it out and it will still be effective)

8 tsp sugar

The goal is to get them to drink more volume of ORS than they are pooping- think at least a cup of ORS per poop.

Vomiting

The nice thing about uncontrollable vomiting is, again, that as long as the person stays hydrated, they will probably survive. Hydrating someone who can't keep anything down is a little trickier for the lay caregiver. Fortunately, there's another entrance to the GI tract.

The colon absorbs water. That's the colon's job. It takes the liquid coming from the small intestine and pulls water out of it until it becomes solid poop. A lay caregiver can take advantage of this process to hydrate someone if necessary by inserting a flexible tube (enema tip, catheter tip, NG tube, IV tubing, whatever relatively clean tube you have lying around that fits) a few inches into the rectum and SLOWLY instilling saline (1 liter water to 1/2 tsp salt). The colon can absorb between 2 and 6 liters of water this way per 24-hour period, which can absolutely keep a person hydrated even without an IV.

Diarrhea AND Vomiting

The annoying thing is that when diarrhea comes with vomiting severe enough to prevent being able to keep liquids down, neither of these really work.

So either your caregiver character needs a method that doesn't involve the GI tract at all, or they need to get creative.

IV hydration has a lot of drawbacks in the apocalypse. For one thing, it involves a lot of specialized equipment- the tiny catheters that sit in the vein, sterile tubing with a drip chamber, sterile fluids, and saline locks- all of which are nearly impossible to improvise. Plus, in the case of this ask specifically- doctors generally don't know how to start IVs. That's a nursing skill and unless a doctor is an anesthesiologist they probably haven't put an IV in since med school (where they did it exactly once).

Subcutaneous (subq) hydration is slower and requires all the same supplies. The nice thing about subq though is that unlike an IV catheter, which has to sit in the vein and takes skill/experience to place, in subq hydration the caregiver only has to place a catheter into the patient's fat (something a lot easier to talk someone through). This can instill about 60ml/hr (about 1.5 liters/24 hr). If they have the supplies and can throw more than one catheter in the person, they can probably keep them hydrated this way.

Recommendations

What I would recommend for this story, however, is to pile a bunch of anti-nausea remedies on top of each other to try to get the puking under control, then work on the diarrhea.

If this were my patient and I was in the apocalypse, I would start by putting a cool rag on the back of my patient's neck and have them smell an alcohol pad or some mint, help them wash out their mouth so it doesn't taste like puke, and try to keep them from puking for about an hour. If they make it that long, I'd start with having them drink about an ounce of clean water. If they don't throw it up over the course of the next half hour, I'd give an ounce of coca cola (I don't usually do brand names, but coca cola has a high concentration of phosphoric acid, which is a great anti-emetic plus the bubbles can help with nausea as well).

I'd then drop to an ounce every 15 mins, then an ounce every 10, alternating water and coke, or ORS and coke. The goal is very small amounts of liquid with time in between. If they become severely nauseous, back off and start again after a half hour. If they throw up, start the whole thing over again.

If at any point during this they had a prescription medication available like ondansetron, compazine, or promethazine, they could crush it and have the patient put it under their tongue- that way they wouldn't have to swallow it and risk throwing it back up. Some of it would absorb, and if they happened to swallow some, that would also be great.

Once the vomiting is moderately under control, they could give bismouth subsalicylate (pepto-bismol) and loperamide. Both work against diarrhea. For loperamide, the dosing is two tablets after the first loose stool, then one after each subsequent loose stool. Bismouth subsalicylate and loperamide can be taken together.

Stopping Things Up

A question a lot of people ask is whether you should take anything to stop diarrhea. This usually comes with the idea that the person with diarrhea must be pooping for a reason, and stopping it up is trapping an infection in there and making it worse.

If the diarrhea is being caused by a bacteria or virus, that infection is in the walls of the digestive tract, and it spreads to other people via infectious poop. Pooping does not get rid of the infection. It just makes it more likely that someone else will catch it, and that the patient will become dehydrated. So taking medication to slow down the poopcano is generally a good idea here, since the goal is basically just to wait until the immune system kicks the infection or antibiotics wipe it out, and pooping doesn't help with that.

Now. If the diarrhea is being caused by a toxin, including a toxin from, say, c-diff (an infection from a bacteria that takes over the gut after some antibiotics and causes life-threatening diarrhea/colitis), taking a medication to stop the poop is a bad idea- since the toxin will get trapped and continue to cause problems. Same if it's something like a food allergy or intolerance- it's going to keep messing you up until it's out, so better to let it get out.

How can you tell? Well, here's where I refer you to a doctor. In this situation, the doctor might be able to make an informed choice on whether they wanted to take an anti-diarrheal medication based on what they thought was causing the vomiting and diarrhea.

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Do you have any tips for people who are trying to discovery write for the first time? I really want to try it to see if it would work for me but it kinda intimidates me haha

The short answer would be to write through the discomfort and assess as you go if this process is right for you (because this so varies by writer). Discovery writing at its core suggests writing with minimal or no plan, so diving in headfirst can be a great way to break through the process.

Some practical tips are:

1. Start with a diving board

This can be an image, or a relationship, or a scenario or a first line that you write from. Photo prompts could be helpful for this (I like to browse Unsplash or another favourite stock photo site for this), or prompt generators.

My caution here is that it can get easy to over plan even these tiny tidbits. For example, though I’ve only ever been a Pantser, when I tried to pants my very first short story, I spent weeks coming up with a concept, characters, etc, basically brainstorming outline points. The reason this story went nowhere is a) of course because I’d never written short fiction before but b) because I was literally working AGAINST the process. Which is why it could be helpful to note that:

2. Discovery writing/pantsing intrinsically calls for spontaneity.

You don’t have as much of this when you write off an outline (which is why outlining works better for some - spontaneity is not needed). This is kind of where I get a little philosophical, and maybe a little controversial (and noting this is not a blanket statement). The process you write with may mirror the type of person you are/how you usually approach work and life. This is why I find it a little funny when people preach outlining is the only way to write a book?? Like ok I guess there is only one type of person in the world?? But I digress!

Because of its spontaneous nature, pantsing can be intimidating. I think acceptance of the process’ inclination toward spontaneity, though theoretical, might help! If you’re not someone who likes this/functions better through a different framework, discovery writing may not be the way to go.

3. Meet in the middle (plantsing)

If you’re super nervous to give it a go which is so understandable, I might recommend meeting in the middle with a plantsing method, so perhaps brainstorming the characters and conflict FIRST (and maybe even one plot point to bounce off of or lead up to). This might be particularly helpful if you come from a strong outlining background and could be a less jarring way to transition between processes.

4. You can still plan a little!

Kind of a spinoff of the above point: discovery writing to me doesn’t mean you have zero ideas going into a story, which may help misspell some of the intimidation. I made a video years ago on misconceptions of Pantsing that might be helpful which you can watch HERE. Re: plantsing above. I guess that’s why discovery writing is a better term than Pantsing - this process is less about flying by the seat of your pants (which makes the writer seem inactive but more about wading through a story one line at a time, interrogating many elements as you go: your character, their relationships, and their current scenario, all of which lead to some inevitability. It really is an excavation and if you feel you need to start with a few prepared tools rather than your bare hands, that’s the way to go!

My writing process for short fiction often looks impulsive, and it often is, where a story will come out of nowhere and voila it is on the page. However some stories need more time to marinate, and so I’ll naturally sort of outline them as they sit on the page/as I think about them. So you definitely don’t have to write out of nowhere if that’s intimidating.

5. Start brief

I imagine going from outlining a novel to Pantsing it can be kind of terrifying! But a flash fiction piece? Or short story? That’s a much smaller space you can experiment with. This way, the shorter piece can help you guide yourself through the story.

6. The differences of each process & how to collaborate with one or both

IMO, this is the difference between pantsing and outlining: pantsing = being the tourist, not necessarily certain where you’re going next (but still being an active participant in the tour) and outlining is being the tour guide.

Pantsing is great because you discover as you go, which is why trying to go in without overplanning is often helpful. When you think about it, outlining is the same process as pantsing except you discover before you write the book, so in essence, the processes are the exact same--outlining is just an additional step that gives you a tool to use while drafting. Looking at the processes in this way may help in sort of breaking them down and making them less scary to look at. I’m not sure I know many pantsers who write 50k word novels without ever thinking about what will happen, nor do I know outliners who won’t change a word of their outline--both processes can sort of dip into each other, which is super fun!

7. Clarifying writer logic versus writer instinct:

Pantsing, IMO, relies on writer instincts. As you parse a story, you make decisions and immediately apply them based off that instinct. Logic becomes more subtextual and clarifies once the story or scene is over. Outlining on the other hand calls upon writer logic since you’ve used your instincts making the outline. It’s more application based--you’ve made the decision, and now you use your logic to apply those decisions.

This is where I might suggest:

8. Writing sprints

Doing a quick sprint could be a great way to shift away from a mindset of outlining as it encourages you to write whatever comes to mind since you have a clock ticking. Writing sprints may propel you to call upon your writer instincts rather than writer logic, which I think is an important shift when trying a new process (probably why I always fail at outlining lol)!

I hope this helps! I’ll probably make a video about this topic and try to go more in depth on these points since this is a fascinating discussion!

[lunarecat]

How to stumble climb in RTA according to me, a filthy but devoted casual lol

Disclaimer. This meta is so hard and unfair, HOWEVER, its also a boon to newer/mid tier players because the good thing about banshee and bruiser gang is that your stats do not matter as much as your draft and comp. So dont be discouraged, you can do this!

I’m gonna try to keep this post short, but first hot tip: RTA seasons last 12 weeks/83 days (average) so if you JUST want the skin, you dont actually have to reach Masters til mid-late february~ You have time!

My personal method to climb each season is to find a “default” draft that works 75-80% of the time, so i can draft/climb faster without thinking too much.

I draft from Neutral (units with few counters who work independently) to DPS so the enemy cannot guess my plan ahead of time, nor draft direct counters to me up front.

HOWEVER. Hot tip #2: your draft actually begins the moment you find an opponent and the game tells you who has first pick.

Consider this scenario: AOL exists. You have AOL and you plan on cleaving, AND you have first pick! Since you have first pick, why ban AOL when you can draft her yourself? By drafting her, you prevent the enemy from cleaving, while protecting your own cleave!

Scenario 2: you don’t have AOL, and you wanna cleave. You also didn’t get first pick. You should prooobably pre-ban AOL lol

Personally, I ban Belian by default because I have literally no way to counter her (she’s so unfair lol) and I also depend too much on souls in my current drafts. Who you ban is up to you.

The best first pick depends on you and your account. But if you have her, I highly suggest first picking A Ravi because she’s a strong unit, works independently, and has no real direct counters except maybe Rimuru.

The more you fight in RTA tho, the easier it will be to think up your drafts, you’ll find what works for you. This is the benefit to climbing early, but its up to you. For now, here’s what i personally do

Full bruiser gang (maybe this is enough to get you to masters?): Pre-Ban Belian; First picks: A Ravi, ML Celine. Next picks: Rem, Violet, Maid Chloe, F Ceci.

Pros and Pogs: pre banning belian gives you souls, A Ravi+ML Celine+Maid Chloe is triple revive. No matter who gets banned, you will survive a long battle. Rem is the most unfair unit in the game imo, great default pick lol. Rem+Violet for maximum annoyance, hit violet, she counters, hit her, she still counters, focus on her, violet will kill you. And you still have to deal with Maid and Ravi. F Ceci on aurias for mitigation or elbris for maximum rng hell is also helpful here.

Up in champion my draft is a bit different now but if youre trying to just get to masters, thats the team I’d start with. (My champion draft has changed to pre banning belian; ML Celine>Rem>Seaseria>Arby>Maid>etc; this is cuz in champion, people really have to account for Violet and A Ravi comps so I try to play a bit of mind games here lol)

Best meta units this season and some of their counters in parentheses

Belian (fuck belian lol i pre ban her cuz i have no answer to her, i hear ssb counters her but i dont see how dfkgjh if youve got her tho, draft her and just win! Elbris/counter belian is utterly broken lmao)

A Ravi (Counters: Rimuru when built well)

Violet (Counters: Seaseria; Carrot; Landy; Zahhak; stuns, rngesus)

Rimuru (why bring maid when you can just steal revive lol; Counters: fire units, rngesus, extinction his ass)

AOL (Politis, green Celine)

Rem (fuck Rem lol the most unfair unit in the game imo, if u have her, draft her. Counters: Landy; Violet; AOL; extinction her ass)

Specter Tenebria (her s1 can’t be countered and she has decrease cr, she’s also permanently stealth so the single target dps cant touch her; counters: any good cleave lol)

Landy for free s3 hits with no counter attacks. (Counters: any fire unit, good cleave, or A Ravi)

Seaseria (good against violets but dies to anything; AOL and any cleanser can erase her bombs, if you dont s3 on violet before he s2’s, he himself will cleanse, play wisely with her)

Arby (so many counters now BUT is an amazing last pick cuz the other stuff^ has specific counters so if the opponent didnt plan an arby counter, they usually either have to force ban him, or they die B))

Ran (so many counters, only draft for a seaseria opener if u wanna speed contest)

Politis: she’s good against anything with a non attack skill, bring her and abyssal crown for stuns. Bff’s with seaseria. Counters: everything if she doesnt stun/kill, especially rem lol)

ML Lilias (politis, AOL, bruiser meta; shes not as powerful as she seems, imo)

F Ceci (always a good neutral pick tho she has counters like Rem, AOL, etc. Aurias for mitigation or Elbris to annoy people with constant provokes like mine lol)

Me losing to a silver cuz i fucked up and either got out sped by the enemy or solo’d by the violet/s tenny lol

Other hot tips i can offer:

Watch content creators play rta. That helped me a lot, idk if you have preferences for content creators, but i personally watch a lot of ydcb’s vods, goddoggos, and mango7roll, all of which are major help.

Finally, this is kinda to emphasize what i said earlier, but bruiser gang is your friend if you’re struggling cuz its much easier to make tanks/counters work than to pray for speed rolls. I actually shouldn’t ridicule my opponent up there cuz they could either be a low level player OR a champion player, cuz thats how rng heavy this meta is right now. It’s not always fair, but it goes to show you anyone, including my own plebeian self, can climb in this meta, so just dont give up ;w;<3

[h-e-l-l-b-r-o-k-e]

Can you give us any tips on writing? You are brilliant!!

Y’all don’ know how freakin’ flattered I was (still am!) receiving this!! Gosh… I wish I could you guys a step-by-step guide into my writing process but I honestly don’t have one, though I really wish I could help. Writing, for me, has just always sort of come naturally. Probably because I’ve always had a hyper-active imagination, which I began applying to writing in first grade (around age 6). I still have that first notebook I scribbled many little stories in as a child. I was daydreamin’ a whole lot back then and I’m still daydreamin’ now. It’s sort of ridiculous how much I miss out on because I practically live inside my head. It’s quite bad in some aspects. Anyways, I’ll try my best to give you some tips, even though I’m a horrible teacher!

1) Prep!!!! If you’re not already inspired by whatever thought or idea has been floating in your head, you need to beckon your mind into finding and holding on to that inspiration. Or, in the words of Troy Bolton, “Get’cha head in the game.”

Some things that help me:

Create playlists: Find music that you enjoy, but that doesn’t hold too many personal memories (though there could be exceptions). Playlists should stay consistent in tone (even when you don’t know what to write about yet), and overall consistent in ambience. Creating such playlists help to create another world in your head. A world in which you can visit and revisit in between writing projects. Wanna take a break from project #2 and return to project #1? No problem, just go back to its respective playlist and it’s like you never even left. It sounds crazy, but it works for me. You begin to associate everything about your story with the playlist you created for it, and your story will act like personal memories associated with that playlist. Don’t rush yourself in creating these playlists. Sometimes it literally take me days to craft the perfect jumbo of songs.

Revisit your past experiences: Think about the crazy things you’ve been through. The bad. The good. The ugly. All of it. But, don’t hurt yourself doing this. These memories often spark something in me, even if it’s just the tail end of some aspect of an idea (could be a certain tone for what you want to write, an object, a protagonist/antagonist or even just a minor character, or even a blurry situation—these are all things that your imagination will have to expand upon afterwards). Even if you don’t revisit your past, your brain will usually incorporate aspects of yourself and your experiences into your characters and story, and sometimes you won’t even realize it until much later. Trust me, I know.

Study strangers and people you know: Just, please, don’t be a creep about it lol. Well-played characters from movies and TV shows work perfectly fine as well. Study how people speak—or if your studying a film/show, study their lines. Study behavior, why people do the things they do, why people say the things they say, and so forth. By understanding behavioral patterns makes it easier to create genuine characters who feel real. There’s a lot of psychology at hand.

2) Write. Really. That’s it. Just do it. It’s such a blunt piece of advice, but it’s so true. You can’t get any writing down if you don’t just write. It may be complete crap, but it’s okay because a first draft is meant to be tweaked, revised, and polished. And, make as many drafts as you want to polish that sucker up.

Here’s a few things I like to do and things to keep in mind:

Take a break. After finishing that first draft, relax for a couple of hours or days, or weeks, to freshen your mind. When you return to make the second draft, you’re more keen to mistakes, such as grammar, phrasing, and disruptions of flow.

Details have to serve a purpose. When writing a story, almost everything in it has to have some sort of purpose (small, big, or somewhere in between). Whatever it is, does it enhance your character’s personality, their motives? Does it enhance the plot? Will it make it easier for your readers to empathize with said character? If you mention some thing about your character, make it serve a purpose even if it’s minor. Storytelling is like a puzzle for you to figure out.

Defamiliarize! One of my creative writing professors based her whole course around defamiliarizing clichés and it is honestly the best advice I’d ever learned from someone else. This challenges you and pushes your creativity further. Give your readers something they won’t really expect, and that will leave a lasting impression. However, this is not necessary whatsoever but it is great.

Show don’t tell. Gee, how many times have you hear that one? I heavily believe in this piece of advice, or rule of thumb if you will. However, remember to mix things up. Sometimes it’s okay to tell instead of show. Though, show ratio should outnumber the tell. Showing is great for building suspense and tension.

Include different sentence structures and rhetorical strategies; don’t always start with pronouns. You don’t want to have a robotic voice that makes it seem like an instructions manual. Metaphors and similes are fun strategies to include. Plus they always come from within your prowess.

Ever heard of method acting? Become a “method writer.” Immerse yourself in the world you built for your story. Become one with your protagonist (know that fucker well lmao). Feel what it is your characters are feeling. Act it out. Research the living hell of whatever it is you’re writing about. It makes it easier to have a genuine narrative. It also makes it easier to write it out.

Expand the world your narrative is set in. I love doing this, and I always receive positive feedback on the little details I include in my stories because it makes them feel authentic and realistic. The real world isn’t flat, and your story’s world shouldn’t be either.

Delete any subject pronouns feeling, seeing, hearing, etc. stuff. For example: He saw the bird flapping its wings. Change it to: The bird flapped its wings. Sometimes they can flow well within the narrative, but most of the time its highly unnecessary.

Don’t ramble. Don’t info-dump. I have trouble with this, and I usually have to reel myself away from doing this. It’s a habit, and just like how I love to hear myself talk, I love to see myself write. Rambling takes away what’s at hand in the story and info-dumping overwhelms the readers. Instead, slowly ease your reader into that important information. Sprinkle the knowledge throughout your writing like breadcrumbs.

And, most importantly…. Everyone’s writing style is different because everyone is influenced by different novels they read, different music they listen to, different films they watch, and the different lives they live. Don’t feel like you need to imitate someone else’s writing style to be considered “good.” Instead, stick with what feels natural to you but that doesn’t mean you can’t….

Experiment with styles! It’s fun and you can learn a little bit more about your own unique style through this.

[nanowrimo]

6 Ways You Can Overcome Writer’s Block Right Now

Here at NaNoWriMo HQ, we’re gearing up to start our next Camp NaNoWriMo event in April. If you haven’t written anything in a while, this is a great excuse to jump back into the habit! Today, writer and blogger Joel Syder is here with a few tips to help you overcome writer’s block if you’re feeling stuck:

As a writer, it’s inevitable that sooner or later you’re going to come up against what is known as writer’s block. As a writer myself, I went two years without coming across this taboo concept, but alas, one day I awoke and found myself staring at a blank word document with absolutely no ideas or any clue on what to say.

This drought lasted months. Of course, I was able to complete client work or other projects where I had guidance or templates to work with, but when it came to my personal writing, I just couldn’t seem to put pen to paper.

After trying basically everything I could, after advice from writer friends to online advice, I found several ways to help overcome it. Some worked. Some didn’t. Today, we’re going to explore some of the more successful methods, helping you to overcome your writer’s block.

1. Have a schedule.

When I started out, I used to write whenever I wanted at all hours of the day. It was typically when inspiration struck. However, this developed the bad habit of becoming increasingly undisciplined and without focus.

“By developing myself a writing schedule, all the ideas would flood to me throughout the day (which I would only make a note of), but then when I sat down to write, I had focus and my mind knew it was time to get words down on paper,” shares Tina Hardy, a book editor for WriteMYX and Brit Student.

2. Don’t beat yourself up.

Suffering from writer’s block can be demoralizing, and it’s easy to think there’s something wrong with you, or you should be doing better than this. Nevertheless, the harder you are on yourself, the worse the writer’s block will be.

Go easy on yourself. As I said before, my writer’s block lasted for months, and it was easy to think it was all my fault. However, the more I relaxed, the easier writing became.

3. Pressure creates diamonds.

Although some of us avoid stress and worry like the plague, having a bit of pressure to perform can bring out the best in us; just like coal can turn to diamonds, if you’re into that metaphor. Set yourself a deadline with your writing and work hard to meet it. Punish yourself with less TV time or reward yourself with a nice meal for meeting it.

“If you’re writing a new chapter or blog post, give yourself a set date that you want to complete it by, and then work out how many hours it will take, and then combine this with your schedule, so you know exactly what you’re going to write and when,” explains Terry James, a publicist for 1Day2Write and Next Coursework.

4. Juggle tasks.

Now, I’m not saying multitasking in a good idea. It lessens our focus on the tasks we’re doing, thus harming the overall quality of the piece. However, what you can do instead is focus on tasks, but juggle multiple tasks to keep your mind fresh.

Write up a draft for one task, then another, then another. Then go back to the first and keep cycling through like this. This will keep your mind fresh, and you’ll be much less likely to have writer’s block on any of your projects.

5. Let sleep be your friend.

When we sleep, our mind is actively solving problems and coming up with solutions, and this works very well for writing. Spend 15-30 minutes before you go to bed focusing on your writing, whether you’re rereading something you’ve already written, or simply jotting down notes.

When you wake up in the morning, you’ll be full of ideas on how to proceed. I found this to be one of the best ways to come up with new inspiration for my content.

6. Use technology to aid you.

Thanks to modern-day technology, there are a ton of apps and services out there that can help you overcome writer’s block. From providing you with writing prompts, to actively helping you manage your schedule, it can pay to research what’s out there to see what’s best for you.

One of my firm favorites is The Dangerous Writing App. This is a distraction-free writing website that deletes everything you’ve written if you stop writing for ten seconds over the course of three minutes. Start with an idea and then force yourself to write for this long. Read it back to get the creative juices flowing!

Joel Syder is a writer and blogger at Originwritings.com and Academicbrits.com. He enjoys helping people to write the book they’ve been dreaming of, as well as creating articles about things that excite him for PhD Kingdom, academic service.

Top photo by Brad Neathery on Unsplash

[blakemorris-blog1]

3 Useful Tips About Your Attorney

In this blog you can learn about best 3 tips on what you should expect from your lawyer, and also you can see attorney in Vancouver website here for easy to get consultations on business or other issues, https://attorneysinvancouver.com/

Suggestion #1 -- The cheapest attorney is unlikely to be the best person to handle your legal issue

 Consider this Situation: you are searching for a lawyer for a lawsuit that is complex. You call Mr. Jones, who answers to the first ring. You tell your story, that has. Mr. Jones states, "You get a fantastic case. I am certain you are going to win" If you ask how much it will cost, Mr. Jones states, "Do not worry, you won't need to pay me anything if you don't win. Just come on down to my office, and we'll begin."

 Beware of any Attorney Who tells you. While Ontario attorneys are allowed to control their charges according to contingency, i.e., a proportion of their outcome, this kind of fee arrangement is just rarely applicable in company cases. It never happens when the amount is modest, or if facts are in dispute, retrieval is unclear.

 When you keep a, You want a trusted adviser, who will point out the strengths in addition to the flaws of your Situation. A lawsuit attorney who is waiting by the phone to your call and lets you know precisely what it is you are currently hoping to hear could be too inexperienced to handle your case or hungry. He will bail out when your Situation takes a twist and might be in over his mind. By then, your Situation could have worsened. It'll not be possible to fix it and expensive.

 Even rewarding Instances Require hazard evaluation and evaluation. An experienced litigation attorney will perform him by for charges on an hourly basis and GST and some other expenses.

 Fantastic lawsuit Attorneys are at discovery or meetings, in court, in mediation or alternative lawsuit processes. However, litigation attorneys are a fantastic call or respond by email. In the event of holiday or urgency, the attorney will arrange for somebody in the workplace.

 Suggestion #2 -- Prevention is not as costly as litigation and much better.

 Legal issues are It's only a matter of time. Some suits can be averted. When a crisis arises, Many times, issues are dealt with by company owners. They search for drafting their corporate, contracts, rentals, and labor arrangements without regard to competence, ability, and expertise.

 Sometimes, company Measures are avoided by owners like neglecting to prepare a non-solicitation and non-competition arrangement with a key worker, failing to file a trademark application, or neglecting to generate a customer agreement. When served with a suit, they tear up the papers in anger or ignore it. When the inevitable happens, these business owners are going to be caught short. While mediation or litigation may happen whenever there are written agreements in place, you'll be at a position that is a lot more secure in case you have taken measures prior to the dispute happens. Should you respond to correspondence and legal documents, you'll be more protected than if they are ignored by you.

 Competent Legal Counsel Is readily available for things like corporate company, rentals, the wording contracts and other files you use in your enterprise, partnership and shareholder agreements, your relationships with your employees, your company's trade names, logos and site, your regulatory compliance, and your risk management and litigation prevention methods. It is important to organize affairs to make sure that your liability is restricted in the event of a claim against your organization.

 Make Sure that the legal issues are in order. This is very likely to save a great deal of grief and money. Perhaps you will consider using an attorney audit or even a"company legal checkup." We wish to write about this subject in a future article in this newsletter. Preventative counsel could be costly, but it's only as vital as fire protection.

 Suggestion #3 -- Do not presume that'going to court' means'heading to trial.'

 In Case You Haven't been involved in litigation, you might not love that more than 90 percent of cases settle prior to trial. Though a trial (or an appeal) isn't always avoidable, attorneys use methods to attempt and solve cases at earlier phases. Business people are searching for certainty and also to vulnerability and restrict expense.

 It is never a bad idea To negotiate a settlement with a party; however, strategy and the timing will be dependent on the instance. It's ideal for negotiating from a position of strength. This will mean holding discussions off until facts and documents are revealed to favor your own position.

 Mediation is another Technique attorneys use to attain settlement. Mediation involves a Mediator, who's normally an experienced attorney, acceptable to all parties. The attorneys and the parties prepare briefs to describe their rankings To the plan. On the date, the parties, following an opening session, Retire to chambers. The plan will"shuttle" between the parties before An arrangement is exercised or an impasse is declared. This Procedure generates a high Speed of settlement in scenarios that are complex.

[quincywillows]

how do you plan out your books/wips bc I have a solid idea and pretty much a billeted list of what I want the plot to be and how my book goes but I’m lost at outlining everything in a coherent and organized way it’s highkey frustrating

okay i’m going to do my best to try and give some helpful tips here for how you can organize your thoughts, and i’ll take it from the perspective of both fics, novels, and just general story ideas! a lot of the principles i follow overlap, and obviously it differs by project (and by writer, for example me and my roommates have completely different outlining styles), this is just what has worked for me so far. hopefully it’ll give ya some things to chew on!

firstly, to make sure i’m orienting myself correctly -- from what i understand, it sounds like you’ve already got a sense of what your beginning, middle, and end is. not beat-by-beat, but the general gist of it. this is already a lot of progress, so kudos!! it can be hard to get from just that general warm and fuzzy and exciting idea phase to an actual concrete sense of what you want to plot to be, so feel good about that. it’s not easy work.

i think what you’re now trying to do is get your ideas down into a tangible format that you can follow to start actually working on it, yes? if so, here are some of my thoughts.

method #1: phase-by-phase, beat-by-beat method

i’m starting with the sort of straightforward outlining method here just because that’s what i’ve employed with quincy willows, so it’s most fresh in my mind. when it came to outlining quincy willows so i could start actually writing it down in concrete scenes, i decided to visualize my story by beat rather than by chapter or major plot points. “beat” is a sort of loose storytelling term that means different things to different people -- for me, it’s not a set “scene” (some beats include 2 - 3 scene changes), but more so an important emotional or context moment. this could be a reveal of information, it could be a relationship building scene, it just in some way drives the story forward even if its just the tiniest step.

how this ended up panning out was that i actually divided my full story into “phases.” these are sort of like the stereotypical “acts” in classic storytelling structure, but less strict on how they’re interpreted. so i can have 7 “phases” to quincy willows, for example:

for me, each of those reflects a distinct SECTION of the story where a major development is occurring plot wise, and sort of roughly reflects story structure. (new kid in school is through the “inciting incident”, unlikely partnership & secrets unravel is up to the midpoint, inevitable decay & halloween are the rising action, and the final gamut is the climax).

within each of those phases, there could be anywhere from 6 - 12 beats. by sort of outlining what the general progression of things would be and what beats i THOUGHT would be included where, i was able to create a good enough skeleton of an outline that i felt comfortable starting to actually write. but one thing i think is important to note is that the phases and beats are totally flexible. i’ve deleted beats entirely, i’ve moved beats between phases, i’ve added beats where i felt like something was missing. it’s a malleable outline, and i think you should never feel tethered to an outline. it’s a roadmap, but it’s not the only way to get to your destination. sometimes, your story will change on you, and that’s okay. hear it out! you can make the decision to stick to your original plan or adjust accordingly.

then, i’ll also say, once i have my general idea of my beats down i will go in and almost... like basically, every beat gets about three synopses. there is the “title,” which is the most basic, often quippy take on what is happening in the story. then i have the “logline,” which is the essence of the beat boiled down to one or two encompassing sentences. then, i have a greater description of what is happening in that scene emotional turning point by emotional turning point. so, to use qw again as an example:

this is the title (up top) and then the logline. when i go into the actual scene on scrivener, i have my notes about all the things that happen in the actual scene which i worked off of to write the scene. but even then, i don’t always follow the original idea of my notes explicitly. sometimes i don’t think an idea works all that great anymore by the time i’m actually writing it, and that’s okay. it’s flexible!

one thing i have loved about this outline structure is it allows me to write out of order. i can jump in and work on whichever beat feels fresh and exciting to my brain, which is so helpful for working on a long project that needs a complete draft from the get-go like quincy willows. however, on projects like fanfic where i can take my time, want to write and post in order, etc...

method #2: bare bones outline

full disclosure -- i have written all the lonely people with a bare bones outline since its inception. sure, i have a whole little doc where i wrote down all the major themes, plotlines, and emotional beats i wanted to cover, but as far as structuring it and deciding what would go into each chapter (especially the early chapters), i mostly winged it.

this is where a looser outline can be a nice approach. you sort of outline how long you want the project to be (i.e., atlp is 16 chapters), and you have a vague IDEA of the Major thing that will happen in each chapter (“11 and 12 are the back story chapters,” “10 is where the romantic tension will finally snap but also they’ll have their fallout that they have to come back,” “4 will be the first kiss”). but then you just start working on the beginning, and as ideas come to you you can toss them in the general realm of each chapter without explicitly outlining when each and every beat will happen. that allows you to start walking around in the world of your project and playing with the characters rather than waiting until you have a Perfectly Perfect outline. you know?

then, usually, when i prepare to write a new chapter (atlp... i’m coming for u in december baybee), i will examine the little beat ideas i had and try to construct a more concrete mini-outline of that chapter alone before diving in. sometimes i do, sometimes i don’t -- but it goes to show that depending on the story, you don’t need a super strict outline to follow.

but even then, if you’re still feeling lost, i feel like the most tried and true method is honestly...

method #3: let it marinate

it might very well be you’re just not yet ready to jump into actually digging the narrative yet. and that’s totally chill. i came up with the initial nugget of an idea for quincy willows in sept of last year, let it exist as a fic for about 4 months, and then took it down in like dec to start working on it as an original work (bc that’s really what it was). i then thought about it for 6 months until the outline jumped out of me basically fully formed over 2 days in early june. so that’s... 9 - 10 months of ruminating and thinking about character and worldbuilding and jotting down notes and making playlists and talking to friends -- that’s almost a whole year of just wiggling in the idea until i stretched it out enough to start seeing the writing on the wall.

i hope all of this is a help in some way, or at least gives you things to think about that guide you in the right direction for you! let me know if there’s any other way i can help or things you’d like advice on. i will try my best to articulate well and offer some insight haha. you got this, writer friend!!

[diregate]

Tarot Reading Commissions now up

So after much thought and even much much more hesitation (and a lot of positive motivation by a lot of people), I’ve decided to open up tarot reading commissions. This will serve as a way to keep myself stable, both mentally and financially, as I am staying by myself while studying in university. The amount I get from doing this will tend towards alleviating costs of living (this place doesn’t come with a kitchen, so most of my foods are instant foods/takeouts) and purchasing of study materials if the need arises.

Stuffing everything below the read-more, because this post is getting long.

Disclaimers on tarot reading: I do not read minds or the future, the cards do not read minds or the future. 

I personally have no experience in doing fortune spreads e.g. Twelvesmoon spread (or any equivalent that involves ‘how will this month of the year look like’, that’s for horoscopes). If you really want to, I won’t say no, but just take it with a huge grain of salt, since even I don’t really trust those. 

There are possibilities when my reads are completely off, and if I am, I apologize. I cannot agree on refunds, but I will however leave the commissioner to decide to pay before or after a reading session.

What can I do for you?

I have two versions of reads to offer to people who are interested: Simple and Complex spreads.

The simple spreads are, well, simple. They are fast, elegant and great if you want to skip out on the unnecessary clutter that comes with reading tarots. The simple spreads I offer usually use only 2-4 cards. If we are reading real-time (I’ll come to this point later), it may take about 5-10 minutes from shuffling.

For simple spreads, you ask me what you are looking for. If you have a particular spread you would like to choose for me to use, let me know as well. These questions can be specific or vague, but being more specific helps in the reading, and deciding the spread to use.

The complex spreads are a little different. In real-time reading, this can take minimally 30 minutes for me to finish reading it all out to you. The spread takes at least 5 cards (as of now, I do not have spreads that exceed 9 cards). If you want your best buck for bite, have been puzzling between several problems, or just really like to see how people read tarots, I recommend this way. I’ve done a decent number of these reads for others.

With these kinds of spreads, I ask you a few short questions, that you can answer with a few words. The first question will always be somewhere along the lines of “Are your problems rooted in the past, or are you more worried of the future consequences?”, and subsequent questions will be adjusted from there. I try my best not to use default lines, so that everyone’s experience can be unique.

How can I do reads for you?

I will offer my Discord to people who are buying a read. Alternatively, Tumblr messenger is also a way to reach for me whether you want to have me post the read there, or if you would like to find me for other reasons. Email is fine too, but only through requests. There are two main methods to how we can arrange this, depending if timezone permits.

Real-time Read: This will be tricky, but more often than not I prefer this style of reading. I say this is tricky because I live in GMT+8 timezone with full time undergraduate studies. (My) Weekends are also off limits for this style of commissions in general due to personal reasons. For a rough gauge, midnight PDT = 3 PM GMT+8.

All reads in this format can be done over iM, and while I do support voice, I have a preference not to as my place can get noisy and disruptive.

Post-read Draft: Easier to handle, especially if time does not permit an arrangement between us. I do the read request, then give you a full script of what I’ve read, through iM or a PDF document sent through email. Most simple spreads can fall under this category, as it’s a much lower density of words and makes for an easy ‘morning coffee’, so to say.

For both, clarifying on certain meanings can be done, just ask me about it.

What are the costs of the commission?

Simple spreads cost 5 USD, while complex spreads cost 15 USD. Prices can be negotiated if needed.

Real-time reads and post-read drafts do not affect prices. Nor do the decks I use. Clarification of reads do not cost anything as well. 

Payment can be done before or after the reading session. Tips are also welcome. Most payments would be done through Paypal.

What cards do I use?

For those interested, I use the Lost Tarot of Nostradamus deck, and the Steampunk deck. I am also currently learning on using the Tyrian Tarot deck as a support deck. As such, most of my spreads come from these three, though I also experiment and invent custom-tailored spreads for some more specific requests. 

I’m unfortunately not putting links in, in case the post disappears because of Tumblr algorithms, but they should come up easily in searches.

For those who are interested, I implore you to ask; for those who would like to commission me, I thank you for it; for those who are taking a passing glance, I’d enjoy if you spread the word. 

[elcrivain]

If you’re new to playwriting and want to practice playwriting, there is no better way than to learn how to write a 10-minute play. Not only is the piece short and sweet, but it makes it easy to practice over and over without wasting time. You can feel free to make errors, write dumb lines of dialogue, and tell a story that makes no sense all at the cost of 10 pages or so. (If that seems like a lot to you, remember that play pages are much shorter than fiction pages.)

For those who are new to theater, a 10-minute play is a short story that lasts no more than 10 minutes long. It usually is a vignette in a series of plays at a festival or competition and offers a great way to practice writing for theater. Below, you’ll learn how to write a 10-minute play and tips for starting out.

Requirements Of A 10-Minute Play

1. STICK TO 10-MINUTES

This is a fairly simple rule to understand, but when you’re writing a 10-minute play, you actually must stick to the 10 minutes allotted to you. You wouldn’t ignore a word count rule for a short story, so neither should you ignore a time limit for a play.

As a writer, the timing is somewhat beyond your control if you are not also directing your piece, as the speed at which lines are said can change the pace of your story. However, to make sure you’re on target when writing, be sure to read each draft out loud with a timer on hand.

(I mean it. Your story really has to be 10-minutes long if you want to have a chance anywhere!)

2. CREATE A STORY WITH AN ARC

It might seem obvious that you should write a story with an arc of some sort, but often what can happen in 10-minute plays is that you’ll end up writing a sketch instead of play. While the difference is minute, a sketch tends to be working towards a punchline, even in dramatic instances, whereas a play has an arc to either the story or character.

Often a play can have something similar to a punchline called the climax, but that isn’t what the story is completely working towards. Instead, the climax just marks the apex of the story, not what the story has been working towards. The action following the climax is equally as important to understanding the story, whereas in a sketch, the punchline is the end of the narrative.

Additionally, in sketches, there is no character development or purpose to the story besides the punchline. For a play, even characters do not change, there is a realization or arc to the narrative beyond this final point.

How To Write A 10-Minute Play

When writing a 10-minute play, any method can be used to brainstorm the standard parts of any story, such as the character, world, and so forth. For best results, focus your brainstorm for a 10-minute play on the same things you would for a short story.

Whether you do these things before you begin writing your play or after, is up to your short story writing approach. However you do it though, you’ll want to stick to the following how-to:

1. ASK A QUESTION

According to Sam Graber, every 10-minute play should ask a question. This truly goes for any play in my opinion, but it is something to keep in mind when writing a 10-minute play as it helps you avoid writing a sketch.

Your play can ask any sort of question. It can be a simple one, such as “What would happen if someone found their true love two months before their death?” to something more ambiguous like “Is loyalty good?”

Whatever you ask, make this the thesis of your play. It will give your play purpose, keep your story focused, and reveal many other important things like your story’s theme and motifs.

2. DEVELOP YOUR CHARACTER, CONFLICT, AND SETTING.

This isn’t new information. For any story you write, you’ll have to develop these things. After you’ve asked the main question of your 10-minute play, you’ll want to flesh out character, setting, and the conflict that derives from your question.

For theater, character is extremely important as the entire is communicated by people. There isn’t a camera for editing, language for someone to read and process, but raw human connection between the actors and the audience.

Because of this, you’ll really want to focus on character first and foremost. Develop at least one complex character to intrigue your audience, then if you get stuck, movie on to the conflict that is rooted in your story. After developing that, you can then focus on setting, but know that given the constraints of theater, setting is often attributed to the imagination of the actors and audience, so fleshing out minute details for a 10-minute play may only be helpful for your own brainstorming.

3. SKIP EXPOSITION

As we’ve emphasized, you only have 10 minutes—and not a second more—in your 10-minute play. Given this time constraint, you’ll need to skip exposition of any kind to get to the center of your story. While you may be tempted to slip it in with a few lines of dialogue, it really isn’t worth the time you’ll lose. When you could be pushing the narrative forward, you’ll be wasting precious seconds talking about something that the audience likely doesn’t need to know.

Keep in mind that in short fiction and even short films, exposition often makes up a few sentences or paragraphs, or the opening shot. But in short fiction, the reader dictates the pace of the story, so there is room for creative exposition and a slower narrative. For short films, you should stray away from exposition, but occasionally films may introduce them because they aren’t in time crunch.

But in a 10-minute play, you are bound to that time limit. While many short films would be better without exposition, you really cannot afford in a 10-minute play to waste any time on exposition. If you feel that exposition is necessary in any way, then you may have a full-length play instead of a 10-minute one. In which case, this guide is no longer of use to your narrative.

4. INTRODUCE THE CONFLICT QUICKLY

Just because you skip the exposition, doesn’t mean you should take your time introducing the conflict. Introduce the conflict as soon as possible so the audience knows why they’re following your story right away.

You don’t have to introduce it in the first line of dialogue, but ideally in the first minute of the page, the second minute at the latest. Even if you have a more subtle conflict that audience members can’t pick up on right away, it’s still essential that you introduce the conflict as soon as possible. It’s a part of answering the question you asked before you began writing, which brings me to…

5. USE THE PLAY TO ANSWER THE QUESTION YOU ASKED

Your entire play should work to answer the question you asked before you even started your script. This could mean a resounding climax for some stories, or it could mean something more subtle and haunting. Whatever it is, every page, every line, every movement of your play should seek to somehow answer the question you asked at the beginning.

When editing future drafts, look at each part and ask yourself how the piece answers the question. If it doesn’t answer the question, rewrite it so that it does or scrap it all together. With only 10 minutes, every single part of your story must answer the question you asked when you began this play.

Tips For Writing A 10-Minute Play

1. GET CREATIVE AND TAKE RISKS

One of the most exciting parts of writing a 10-minute play is the experimentation you can easily incorporate into your story. It can be in a draft, or in the piece itself, but given that you have such a short time, you can really get creative and take risks without wasting tons of time.

So, if it’s your first time writing a 10-minute play, don’t stress about getting things right, but instead, let your imagination take over and do things you usually wouldn’t think to do. The worst that can happen is you’ll have to rewrite the piece, and that will only consist of 10-15 pages.

2. CUT OUT EXTRANEOUS DETAILS

It’s called a 10-minute play. Unlike a short story, there is an actual time limit to this piece, so cut out anything that isn’t relevant to your story. This could be a side character, a scene, or a line of dialogue. Once you’ve written your script, look at it with a critical eye and treat every detail of your story like a choice. Ask yourself if it answers your main question you posited at the beginning of this post, and if it doesn’t, cut it out.

3. USE ACTION TO ADD DEPTH

Avoid telling the entire story with dialogue alone. You have living, breathing people on stage who can use their bodies, their movement, their expressions to tell even more. Make your story more efficient and jam-pack it with more information by adding in action that signals deeper meanings.

4. MAKE SURE YOUR IDEA IS MEANT FOR A 10-MINUTE PLAY

This is a big problem you’ll find in short stories of all types, be it film, fiction, or playwriting. You think you have a great idea for a short story, and then suddenly realize you’ve tried to cram a three-act story into a short story.

It doesn’t work.

If you are running into continuous issues with your 10-minute play, it may be worth evaluating whether your story is for a short play or a full-length play. If you aren’t sure, take a look at what makes a short story (be it fiction, film, or so forth) different.

[2k30-blog]

40 Small Things You Can Start Doing to Save Our Planet

You don’t have to pack up and live in a van or a tiny house and start a zero waste life (although you totally can if that’s your jam!) to reduce your CO2 emissions. There are plenty of things you can start doing right now that will help. 

1. Turn off your water while shaving or brushing your teeth. Seriously, you should already be doing this. 

2. Carpool, take the bus, take the train, bike, or walk where possible. Yes, I know walking home from work in the summer sucks, but it will suck a whole lot more when the earth is 2 degrees hotter. If your school or work is too far away to do this regularly, try finding parking further away from your destination and park there for the day. Not only will this help cut down on your fuel usage, but you get in some exercise as a bonus. 

3. Shop locally sourced products. Did you know that the majority of resources involved in making a product go to the production and distribution of it, and not the final product itself? Buying locally sourced products not only helps boost the local economy, but also cuts down on the energy and resources needed to transport the product to its destination.

4. Speaking of shopping, bring reusable bags! According to the Center for Biological Diversity, it only takes approximately 14 bags for the equivalent of gas to drive 1 mile, and only 1% of plastic bags are returned for recycling. Not only do single use bags use fossil fuels for production, but they also end up as toxic waste and landfill. Reusable bags can be bought for as little as 99c each, and can be used hundreds of times. Many are even biodegradable to ensure they don’t end up as long term landfill.

5. Use the 4 R’s. Many people believe in the 3 R’s, but did you know there’s a fourth? Refuse. Refuse to use unnecessary products that create single use waste, such as single use grocery bags. Reduce the amount of products you buy and waste you use, when it’s impractical or impossible to eliminate them entirely. Reuse whatever you can, such as jars and cans. I’ll have an article soon about 50 household items that can be easily reused. And finally, recycle whatever you can’t reuse any further. 

6. Read up on the recycling rules for your municipality. Chances are, that pizza box might not be recyclable after all. Many areas have rules regarding items that were used to store food, such as chip packets and pizza boxes, as the oil may be in the cardboard. Read up on the rules so you know what you can actually recycle, and whether you should be washing and taking apart bottles before you toss them. 

7. Replace leaky taps and pipes. If you have a single leaky faucet that drips once every 6 seconds, that’s 347 gallons (almost 1,314 litres) a year dripping out your tap. Replace or seal them where possible. 

8. Turn off appliances at the wall when they aren’t in use, and turn off lights when you aren’t in the room. 

9. Cut down your meat intake. Don’t get me wrong, I love meat. However, meat agriculture takes up a gross amount of land, water, and resources. The emissions from the meat industry outweigh the emissions of all cars, trains, boats, and planes combined. You don’t have to go cold-turkey (pun fully intended), but cutting down your meat consumption to only a couple meals a week can greatly help. According to earthday.org, if the entire U.S. did not eat meat or cheese for just one day a week, it would be the equivalent of taking 7.6 million cars off the road. Try going meat free for one or more days per week. 

10. Use a reusable water bottle. Stainless steel and aluminium water bottles (such as Hydroflask or Kathmandu, not sponsored, I just like the brands) are great as they have a long life cycle, can be recycled, and you don’t risk BPA and other chemicals leeching into your water from plastic. If you don’t live somewhere with good water, buy an under sink filter or even a Brita. I prefer under sink filters as they’re easy to install and in the long run they’re cheaper and produce less waste, but both options are better than buying cases of water bottles. 

11. Put a bucket or old ice cream container in your sink to catch runoff. My grandma, who was raised during the depression, has always done this. Use it to collect any water that doesn’t have contaminants or soap, so you can pour it on houseplants or in your garden. 

12. Use non-toxic biodegradable laundry and dishwashing products so that you aren’t washing toxic chemicals down the drain. 

13. Bring a reusable thermos or coffee cup to get your coffee. If you don’t make coffee at home, try bringing your own thermos or coffee cup to your local coffee joint. Most stores will be happy to make your drink in there, and some stores even offer discounts for you doing so!

14. Wash your hair less. Not only is this good for your hair, but it also means less toxic waste getting into the sewer. Many people (including me) are ditching shampoo altogether and just using conditioner, but if you can’t go without your shampoo, try to reduce your hair washing to once a week. 

15. If it’s yellow, let it mellow! If you’re just doing a Number One, you really don’t need to flush every time. An average toilet uses 1.4 gallons of water for a flush (but if you have a toilet dating before 1995, you may be using up to 7 gallons per flush!), if you pee 10 times a day, that’s 14 gallons of water. If you flush every second pee, you’ll save 7 gallons of water per day, or 2,555 gallons per year. 

16. Air dry clothes instead of using the dryer. My dryer is strictly reserved for emergencies. Even in the smallest apartment, you can find a foldable clothesline that suits your needs. Place it next to a vent or radiator for maximum drying abilities.

17. Have a baby? Use reusable cloth diapers. One child can use anywhere between five to eight thousand diapers. That’s a lot of landfill. 

18. Plant a tree. Did you know that the average person would need to plant almost 9 trees per month for their life to offset their carbon emissions? The good news is that even planting just one tree will help. Read up on what trees and native plants are goo for your area. 

19. Use cruise control when in level areas. Cruise control can seriously help reduce your fuel consumption, but it works best in level areas. If you’re driving in a hilly terrain, it’s best to use your old fashioned gas pedal. 

20. Getting a new car? Consider an electric, or at least a hybrid. The electric and hybrid car markets are expanding, and now you can even get hybrid 4WD’s. Obviously not practical if you’re happy with your current car, but if you’re in the market, check it out. Compare gas mileage and make an informed decision. 

21. Buy secondhand and thrift. It’s cheap and you can find some great deals and gorgeous things. Need I say more? 

22. On the same note, regularly donate anything you don’t need instead of throwing it away. 

23. Try reusable menstrual management. Reusable cloth pads and period cups are a lot better than they sound. I was a skeptic, but after switching to a cup, I’ll never look back. Not only am I saving money, but I’m also saving an estimated 437 tampons per year. 

24. Recycle clothing hangers. Many clothing hangers aren’t actually recyclable, but as it turns out, some dry cleaners will gladly take your old hangers to use. 

25. Reduce your junk mail. Get bank statements emailed to you instead of mailed, and contact any junk mail services to tell them you no longer want their mail. Unsubscribe from mailing lists. 

26. Get rechargeable batteries. While we’re at it, did you know there are battery rechargers that can recharge non-rechargeables? Life. Changing.

27. Don’t run the dryer, washing machine, or dishwasher unless it’s full.

28. Replace all your bulbs with energy efficient LEDs. 

29. Maintain your car. If, like me, you do have to regularly drive a non-electric car, you could be wasting a considerable amount of fuel due to your car not being maintained. 

30. Reduce the weight of your car. I know it sounds stupid, but added weight really does change your fuel efficiency. I’m not suggesting you rip out your spare tire and back seats, but you should remove roof racks or storage pods when you’re not using them. 

31. Use both sides of a piece of paper when printing or taking notes. 

32. Wash your laundry in cold water when possible. Unless your garment tag specifically advises against it, your fancy blouse can probably be washed cold. 

33. Use matches instead of lighters. The wood of a match will degrade long before that plastic BIC. 

34. Dim your screen and turn off data when it’s not needed. You’ll save on your phone or laptop’s battery usage, and in turn, need to charge them less.

35. Put less on your plate and go back for seconds when needed. No, this isn’t a diet tip. Approximately a third of what Americans put on their plate will go in the garbage. Put less on your plate, and only go back for more if you’re still hungry. Put leftovers in an airtight container and eat them the next day. 

36. Ease off on your heating and AC. There’s no shame in wearing jackets around the house, but even if you’re not that extreme, you could save a lot of energy by changing the temperature by just 1 degree. 

37. Buy paper stick cotton tips (Q-tips) instead of ones with plastic sticks.

38. Eat more raw foods. This will either reduce your propane or electricity usage, depending on your oven or stove. 

39. See some trash on the sidewalk? Pick it up. 

40. Check your home for drafts and air leaks. It will make your heating and cooling system more efficient. 

I know these all sound like small or useless things, but if we all take a few seconds and try out a few of these methods, it will make a difference. Every bit helps.

[licieoic]

11/11/11 meme

I was tagged by @lacylu42 , thanks sweetie! The rules are: 11 questions answered, 11 questions given, and 11 people tagged!

1. Have you had to “kill any darlings” from your current WIP, ie: quotes, characters, scenes, etc. that you LOVE but don’t fit and have to be cut? Please share.

Not from my current WIP, but from My Fair Baron, yes. Originally, in the fic, I had Rose choose between Ten and Jack and then Jack stayed on to help when she chose Ten. I was told there were too many characters so I had to cut Jack, I gave most of his lines to Donna and the more scintillating lines I gave to Ten. However! In my current WIP, I brought the Jack character back in a minor way that has the potential to be more later on. Nothing is truly wasted!

2. What is your favorite genre to write in and why? Is it different from the genres you like to consume?

I love writing historical romance because I adore the research. I love learning when things were invented, what people were eating and how it was prepared, and what people were wearing. But I write and read a lot more than that! Honestly, the genre is secondary to the story in what I choose to read.

3. Do you consciously study existing works by other authors to improve your own writing? If so, what types of things do you look at?

I do! I read as much as I can. When I feel stuck, I read something to inspire me, but it’s almost always fanfic. I like to read stories with strong women personalities, so Rumbelle and Doctor/Rose stories are great for that.

4. Have you noticed any patterns in your own writing, ie: you always have a certain type of character, like to explore a certain type of story, etc.?

I’m not sure. I mean, I always write romance and very seldom have an unhappy ending, but I’m not sure I have any other hallmarks that say “THIS IS A LICIE STORY.” (Unless it’s a BDSM story. In which case, you can tell it’s mine if it feels like a fantasy but still very much based in reality, something you could conceivably see happening in real life.)

5. Do you do most of your world building before you write, while writing the first draft, or during revisions?

All three! A story evolves as it’s being written so I will have some initial ideas during story planning, I will get more as I do the first draft, and then I refine things during editing.

6. If when your WIP hits the bestseller list, where would you like to go or what would you like to do on a book tour? Is there somebody you’d like to be interviewed by?

I want to go everywhere and do everything, it would be especially cool if I could meet the friends I’ve made here on Tumblr and AO3 during a book tour. As for someone I’d like to be interviewed by... Is asking for David Tennant too much? I guess I’d settle for one of my favorite talkshow hosts like Graham Norton or Steven Colbert, though I doubt they’d want to interview a romance writer! LOL

7. How do you approach setting the scene in your work? Are you into lush descriptions or giving the bare minimum and allowing the reader to fill in the blanks?

I like being descriptive and that’s where having an editor comes in handy. I had like, 5 or 6 paragraphs describing a masquerade ball and she advised me to condense it to 3. People can fill in a lot of blanks on their own, there isn’t a need to describe every little detail, just enough to paint a watercolor picture and the reader can fill in the rest.

8. Do you follow a set structure (ie: hero’s journey, 3-act structure) when plotting out your works, or fly by the seat of your pants?

I generally try to outline a story first because I have WIPs that I didn’t do that for and they are just... SITTING there driving me crazy because I don’t have an ending. But other than that, a story can change on its own, characters can sometimes lead you places you didn’t think you’d go, so unexpected things happen. Other than that, I have a basic “inciting incident/meet-cute, main action, complication, overcoming adversity together, rinse/repeat, big moment, then big conflict, leading to the resolution” structure. With sex sprinkled in there like pumpkin spice. ^_^

9. What does your revision process look like?

I hand my draft to my editor and she gives it back to me with notes. The most important part of revision is this - if the editor has a question, the reader may very well have the same question, and it is my job to make that part make more sense. And if she says I should cut something or rewrite something, it’s important to know that it doesn’t mean the writing isn’t good, it means it doesn’t fit the story and should be changed.

10. Please share a bit of dialogue from your WIP that shows us something important about the character’s personality.

“That bloody bastard, that, that… pigeon-livered ratbag! Oh, there isn’t a word bad enough for him!”

“Isadora, please calm down—”

“I will not!” she snapped. “Do you know, the single most toxic thing men are taught to believe as they grow up is that being a good and proper adult with responsibilities and everything means doing all of it completely alone, completely without help. And it’s bollocks! What they should be learning is where and when to ask for the help they need in order to function at their ideal level. Everyone’s level of need is different!”

11. Please share any jokes or funny bits from your WIP of which you are ridiculously proud. ;)

Euphemisms for peen utterly amuse me, so I wrote this - 

Sidling over to him, she traced her fingers up his arm to his shoulder to drape her arms about his neck. “Master Longfellow and I are intimately acquainted, or did you forget?”

His cheeks blazed. He had definitely not forgotten.

11 New Questions! To be answered by (if they feel like it): @kelkat9 @suchadearie @leftennant @toppbanana @ktrosesworld @worryinglyinnocent @abovethesmokestacks @lostinfic @theoneandonlylittlebird @pipertennant @charlotteashmore13

How do you attempt to avoid day-to-day distractions?

What’s the difference between procrastination and pre-writing?

I often have a fantastic idea for a new book when I’m halfway through writing the current one – how do you keep yourself motivated to continue when that happens?

How long should a writing session be? Is longer better or does productivity go down the more you keep at it?

I use the Stephen King method of writing - try to get to 6 solid pages of work every day. Do you have a method or structure you use?

Can writing groups and/or courses become their own form of procrastination?

Have you ever collaborated on a story? Was it difficult to mesh your style with someone else’s?

Any tips on managing the admin of writing a book, for example, the marketing or research needed alongside the writing?

How do I overcome a writing block? Do I keep the same routine to change it?

What is your weirdest idea for a book that you have yet to write?

Right now, I’m writing about someone overcoming depression and it mirrors my own journey in mental health. How do you connect your emotions to your story?

[doctorwestcott]

How to Study Guide

Study guides are the most important part of studying. They focus what you need to know for exams and consolidate important information so you’re not reading a boring textbook. Also, the creation of a study guide is another really great way to study as well because you’ll be actively thinking about the material.

Format Based on Learning Style:

There’s no one way to create a study guide. It’s all based on what kind of learner you are. Tailoring your study guide based on your learning style eases comprehension and makes the entire study guide far more effective.

Visual- use color-coded sections in your study guides, or using idea mapping to draw out the information and make it more quickly-accessible. I am a visual learning and this works the best for me and plus, visual aids are fun to make.

Linear- organize the information chronologically, or alphabetically, so you can make learn one thing in a series, and then move on to the next.

Emotional- transform your notes into narrative form to study it better. Translate concepts from math into a story that you can connect to, then organize your study-guide like a short-story you can recite to remember the application of the formulas.

Class A Memorizer- use a format that will help you memorize efficiently, whether it be recording yourself reciting vocab words and definitions, then listening back on your smartphone device throughout the day, or by creating flash cards and testing yourself regularly.

Other Formatting Tips & Tricks:

-Draw mind maps to connect main ideas and prioritize information. I have a huge masterpost on mind maps and how to create them so I won’t go into depth, but you can read the post here if you’re unsure how to create mind map or what the hell that is; however, this study guide method provides a good visual of how subject material fits together to make a whole concept.

-Use comparison charts to highlight the differences in key concepts. Create study guides using comparison charts, or tables, when it is necessary to compare and contrast a related group of ideas. The Cornell Note-taking system is what comes to mind when I think of this method or at least the format of this method. Here is a link to this method.

-Study multiple study guides. Create a study guide in a combination of formats, using the main concepts and supporting information you pulled from your study materials. You may draft the guides on paper or whatever fancy program you use to take your notes. I prefer manually making and using mind maps for concept focused learning, flash cards for key terms, and the Cornell system to understand broader ideas.

So, you’ve got the whole study guide format down pat. How do you decide what to study? Study smarter, not harder, right?

-Ask your teacher about what information the test will include (unless your professor is a Grade A asshole). There’s nothing I hate more than studying my ass off, get to the exam, and realize I didn’t study what was on the exam. I find cumulative exams easier because if you’re on exam 3, you can check exam 1 & 2 to see what questions were asked and to fine-tune the questions you got wrong on the first exam. When in doubt, study weekly and create a study guide emphasizing the material you have the most trouble in.

-Re-read ALL materials to isolate the main ideas to include on your study guide. Scan for the main concepts to mark the information for inclusion on your study guide. Also, look for chapter review or study questions to focus your study guide. These are usually at the end of the chapter and could highlight weak points in your comprehension.

-Compile your revision notes. A study guide is basically one big revision anyway.

-Seek out additional definitions, explanations, and resources. Sometimes there are courses where you need to teach yourself the material or your professor’s teaching style is just ineffective for you. Don’t let that be an excuse for you not to study, find different resources to help or use Khan Academy.

-When reviewing for math or science, make sure to have necessary formulas memorized. Make applying those formulas the more important study-focus. Understand how to use the formula, and when to use it. The concept behind the formula is more important than the formula itself.

-Schedule your studying. Ah yes, my favorite tip! Create your study guides as early as possible, and set aside enough time to study them before the test sneaks up on you. In the few weeks before the test, divide up your time for all the different subjects and sections of each subject you'll need to study, to make sure you've got enough time to spend on each individual area of information.

Resources:

Study Guide 101

Study Guides & Strategies

How to Create a Study Guide

Cramming is the enemy. You want to understand the material not just memorize it and dump it once the exam is finished. That’s not effective and it’ll bite you in the ass during finals season and standardized tests (SAT, ACT, MCAT, GRE, etc.). Good luck little studiers!

[jaime-etudier]

These are just some tips from a professional procrastinator, on how I actually ever get shit done. What works for me may not work for you, but just give it a shot. I know these probably all seem like common knowledge, but sometimes having it listed out makes all the difference (Also I know this is a long ass post but I’ve bolded the main points and placed other important notes in italics so you can just glance over it if needed).

Part 1: Basic Tips

Don’t open youtube. It’s a deathtrap for me. A deathtrap leads to spiralling into the most unproductive day possible. It happens to me constantly. Maybe instagram, twitter, or tumblr is your deathtrap, but whatever it is, stay the fuck away from it. Here’s a couple of ways to do just that.

Forest: I know I’ve talked about it before but  this app/chrome extension is the shit. Set it for a certain amount of time and it plants a tree. You can blacklist sites or apps and if you visit them, it kills the tree. If you leave the app or stop the timer before it’s done, you kill the tree. Just don’t kill the trees.

Put your phone in another room. I know. It’s hard. But it really helps eliminate distractions if you’re not using an app like forest. If you can’t do that, just focus on not allowing yourself to use it unless absolutely necessary. Self-discipline pays off in the long run. And that brings me to my next point.

Just do it. Too simple, I know. But literally just sit your ass down, take out your computer/textbooks, and get to work. If you force yourself to do even just 2 minutes of work, at least you’ve done something. It’s not about motivation at this point, it’s about discipline. As sappy as it sounds, you really can do whatever you put your mind to. 

Make a list! Prioritize! Take it subject by subject, making a checklist on everything you need to get done. Once you’ve done that, go back and rate them on how important they are, and when they’re do. I use exclamation marks to demonstrate urgency. For example:

(!) Psyc: type notes

(!!) Hist: Essay assignment; read ch 1 & 2

(!!!) Engl: interview Assignment 

(!!) Cjus: read ch 1,2, & 4

(!) Arab: outline section 3

WARNING: don’t let the list making process become procrastination. As soon as you finish making it, take the most important task, and get started on it. 

Go with the flow. If you can’t force yourself to focus on the most urgent assignment, start on the assignment you’ll enjoy the most at that moment. If you’re enjoying it, you’re getting shit done. A lot of times, doing that one task is what will get you in the mood to knock out other tasks on the list. 

Take breaks. Yeah yeah you hear this one all the time. I know. That’s because it fucking works. You need to take a few minutes of rest, even if it’s just to stretch out really quickly before hitting the next paragraph on that essay. However! Don’t! Let! Yourself! Get! Too! Distracted! While breaks are healthy and beneficial in most cases, I have a tendency to get massively side tracked by social media/Hulu. Grab a snack and some water, go outside for some fresh air, and then get back to work.

Part 2: Self Care

The self care routine for studying: this is one way that I get myself in the mood to study. Be warned, it can easily turn into a procrastination method, so don’t do it if you’re working on a last minute assignment.

Clean your study space. Clear of your desk, open the windows, make sure everything is really neat and tidy. The focus here should be on creating an environment that is conducive to learning.  

Diffuse essential oils, burn incense, or light a few candles. When your space smells good, it makes it a lot easier to focus. Aside from this, alot of the oils and such can be really beneficial healthwise. I like using lemon when I need to focus, as well as a lavender and eucalyptus blend when I’m feeling sick or anxious. 

Put on some music. Find some shit that really slaps. It just really gets you going. I usually lean towards classical music, jazz, or electronic shit without any lyrics. If I do listen to music with lyrics, it’s usually in a different language, like French or Korean (ARMYs where you at). 

Tea! Or Coffee! Whatever floats your boat. If I’m going for the self care routine, I’ll typically make tea because it’s usually more relaxing for me.

Face mask! This one is just for fun, but I always feel 10x better after using a sheet mask or mud mask. Take some time to relax and study.

Take it slow. If you have the ability to study in this manner, aka not rushed as fuck, embrace it. Take your time and really understand the information in front of you. If it’s reading, annotate like crazy. If it’s writing, research and outline to your heart’s content. Enjoy the process. Learn cool shit. If it’s math, whip out a whiteboard and work all that shit out.

Part 3: Last Minute Studying

The next few tips are for when you’ve really fucked yourself over by procrastinating. Now you’re on a massive time crunch. It’s okay babe, take a deep breath; we’re gonna be a-okay.

Let yourself panic. One minute, tops. Any longer than that and you’ll probably spiral. Got it out of your system? Great. Let’s move on.

Know what needs to be done. Understand the parameters of the assignment and make sure you have everything you need. Does your teacher accept late work? If not, can you finish in time? As soon as you know this, sit your ass down and get started.

Don’t fuck around. If it’s an essay, just start typing. Don’t spend too much time on the outline at this point. After you’ve banged out a first draft you can look at structure and all of that. The important thing is that you have the content and your thoughts down on paper. Work on refining them later.

DON’T WORRY ABOUT PRETTY NOTES. If you’re studying last minute for an exam, now is not the time to practice hand lettering. It’s the time to drill as much info into your brain as possible.

Hit up Quizlet. Literally saves my ass at least 3 times a semester. Don’t just passively flip through flashcards either. Take tests, play games, do the reviews, print out sets if it helps to have it on paper. 

If writing/typing things over and over is how you learn, do it, but don’t focus on it being neat. Make sure you understand the info and organize it in a manner that makes sense, but don’t spend too much time here. It can also help a lot to learn languages by repetitive writing, especially if they use an alphabet system different from your own.

Listen to notes. If you have recordings of your notes, listen to them. Try to know the info through as many senses as possible. Read them, write them, listen to them. Repetition is key if you need to know something in short time frames.

Embrace the Grind. As hard as it can be to work under so much pressure, you should eventually get into the swing of things. Once you hit that zone, don’t leave it until you’re finished. Limit your breaks, drink coffee (don’t forget water too), and try to finish the project in time.

Part 4: Turning in a late assignment:

Turn it in. I know it can be hard/anxiety inducing to turn in late work, but some points are better than no points. 

Apologize to your professor. Let them know a) why it was late and/or b) how sorry you are for the inconvenience. I would do this through email, as well as in person, if possible. It shows that you care about the assignment and their class. Make it as sincere as possible, and hopefully they will accept it.

Come to terms with a lesser grade. If you turn it in late, you’ll probably get some points off, which is usually a fair deal. You had a responsibility to finish an assignment by a given time and for whatever reason you didn’t, thus consequences are inevitable. Just fucking accept the grade you get, as long as the content of your work is graded fairly.

Since you were under such a time crunch, there’s bound to be mistakes. Revise as much as you can, but turn it in as soon as possible. Accept that these mistakes may result in points off as well, but try to avoid really big ones. 

AVOID DOING THIS IN THE FUTURE (aka see the first part of this post). Procrastination can be a bitch. Unless there are unavoidable circumstances causing you to do last minute assignments, just stick with trying to manage your time better.

That’s all I’ve got for today! I am a sophomore in college, so while I have some experience, there’s still so much for me to learn. Feel free to add any other tips that work for you as well!

[plotlinehotline]

Do you have a specific tag for collaborating with another author?

Collaborating with Another Writer

We don’t have a specific tag for author collaboration, but let me give you some tips (from someone who has written with a partner MANY times).

1) Generate Ideas

It’s possible that the reason you’ve chosen to collaborate is because you both already have an idea, but if you and your partner aren’t sure what to write about, spend some time brainstorming ideas separately. Set yourself a designated time to meet up and discuss your ideas, whether in person or online, and bounce those ideas off of each other. Get inspired by prompts or images, or other story sources (books you’re reading or television shows you’re watching). Jot them down as they come to you on sticky notes, and then transfer your ideas to a notebook/sheet of paper (you might even just stick the sticky notes directly in your notebook). 

During the sharing-of-ideas with your partner, no idea is bad. Trust me - I’ve shared ideas with my writing partner that I thought wouldn’t work, and she added a new angle to it that ultimately transformed it, and I would do the same for her. It was a true collaboration of ideas where we each contributed to the overall concept. When we landed on an idea that kept us talking and adding on to it, we knew it was a winner. 

2) Develop a system of splitting up the work

There are many ways of divvying up who writes what, and my writing partner and I have tried many of them with routine success. The details of your project might determine how this works out for you, but here are some suggestions: 

Take ownership of a character - If you’ve got two (or more) protagonists, you might decide to each “adopt” one of those characters. Say we’ve got Mike and Lisa as main characters. Anytime we’ve got a scene from Mike’s POV, perhaps that’s you writing it, while anytime there’s a scene from Lisa’s POV, your partner writes it. This can do wonders for consistency with each character’s voice (even in limited 3rd person). 

Make a list of scenes and divide them up based on content - This definitely requires more prior planning, but you might look at scenes and give them each a label of backstory heavy, action heavy, crucial turning point, ect., and split them up so that each person gets to do a little of everything. It’s obviously not fair if one partner gets to do the super dramatic scenes, while the other gets stuck with the challenging job of integrating backstory. It’s best for both writers to get practice in every type of scene. 

Each writer writes a certain amount - It could be that you switch off every chapter, or scene, or even every 5k words (or whatever word goal you want to set). The great thing about this is that each writer gets a little “time off” in between turns, but depending on how well you plan, you might not know what part of the story you’ll be writing until the new pages from your partner are in front of you. My partner and I have even done this one live - where we’ll write for 30 minutes and then switch. Not always our best work, but it was certainly fun and forced us to make quick decisions we could really work with. 

Develop your own system - We all work differently, and when trying to find a system that works for two writers who may have different individual methods, it’s necessary to do trial and error until you land on something that works for you both. 

Set deadlines and make each other accountable - When we’re working on our own projects, it’s easy to live by our own schedules, but with a partner, it pays to consider their schedule as well. It certainly helps partnerships to be supportive of each other, but pushing each other is also an important part of the equation. [And as an aside, if my writing partner is reading this, I haven’t forgotten our project, and I’m prepping for our upcoming meetup ;) ]

3) Decide how you’ll share feedback

If you’re writing together, it’s anticipated that you’ll be critiquing each other as you go. It’s important to set boundaries for this process, so that both writers know going in what to expect from a critique. You don’t want to be criticizing aspects of your partner’s work that are personal to their writing style, simply because it’s not “what you would do.” The beauty of collaborating is that you both bring something different to the table. However, you also don’t want two styles that completely oppose each other. I know that’s a tall order, but finding that balance is the challenge. When I read old work that my partner and I collaborated on, there are frequently times where I don’t remember who wrote what (bear in mind, this is almost 10 years after we wrote it, so a lot of time has passed).  

But beyond what you’re critiquing, decide on how you’ll share it. Will you just email each other, will you use the comment feature in word processing programs, will you print out hard copies and do margin notes...how will you exchange feedback? And how often will you do it? Perhaps you both want to work in “rough draft mode” for the beginning chapters where you don’t really share feedback, and you simply move forward with the story until you’ve gotten a certain amount done (perhaps even a whole draft). 

4) Don’t force a partnership that doesn’t work 

If you find that you and your partner are too different, have conflicting writing preferences, or just don’t work well together, let it go. If you value the relationship, continue to support each other’s individual writing, and maybe someday the partnership will blossom again. In the meantime, you might find a new partner or focus on your own work for a while. 

I hope these tips were helpful! Good luck!

-Rebekah