#planning advice

[peachblossomstudy]

// planning systems 

by @peachblossomstudy

[writing-with-olive]

Plotting: Goal-Decision Cycle

So I used a processor called The Novel Factory for a while, and while it was more expensive than it was worth, I did learn one tip that I would reccomend any planners at least know if not use (pantsers, you do you)

What is the Goal-Decision Cycle and what’s so good about it?

It’s a style of planning scenes so that they all flow together and keep the tension building until the climax. It’s also useful to see where there’s gaps in the story, and see plotholes earlier. It’s also character-based, making it ideal for plotting stories that revolve around their characters rather than the other way around.

So how do I do it?

First brainstorm what you want the following plotpoints to be: inciting incident, point of no return, midpoint, breaking point (or dark moment), climax and resolution. Then brainstorm what you want to happen in between these plotpoints and make sure that they’re all in order. Your story will likely start with a goal scene and end with a decision scene. (Though this is not universal. If your character starts by reacting to something and slowly revealing what that thing, it could start with a reaction scene)

GOAL SCENES:

Your character will go into this scene with a goal. Something they want to achieve, for whatever motive or reason. Then something will get in the way. It will stand between your character and their goal. Finally, a disaster occurs; either your character experiences the consequences of failing to meet their goal, or they face the unforseen consequences of meeting their goal. There is often nuance to this, such as your character has been forced to choose between two bad options, and now they will try to minimize their losses, but it’s still a disaster. Or maybe they only completed their goal partly. After writing in what their goal, conflict, and disaster, write in the notes for the scene. This can range from nothing, to some combination of: side character motive, other stakes, things you need to foreshadow, other parts of the scene, or bits of dialogue and/or prose.

Example:

Goal: Wants to defeat and kill magical monster

Conflict: Magical monster is stronger than protag, with inpenetrable fur - protag only has a spear and a sword.

Disaster: By killing magical monster, protag releases a curse upon themself - if they don’t manage to lift it in seventeen days, they will die a painful death

Notes:

- king is watching - wants to see if this plan works and successfully removes protag from picture

- gets arm crushed in fight

- monster has a symbol on it’s head that’s the same as the sorcerer’s symbol in the next act

- “Come at me you little piece of --” The towering mass of magic and muscle turned around and bared it’s teeth. Protag’s voice turned small. “Oh shit.”

In this example, the goal and conflict are pretty straightforward (and a bit cliche, but whatever), but the disaster comes from a result of achieving the goal. As their goal in the beginning was to kill the monster, they likely didn’t believe that there would be a curse, and therefore it was an unforseen consequence.

REACTION SCENES:

After some consequence that happens as a result of trying to achieve their goal, your character’s going to have to do a little processing. Your character just went through some shit, so they’re going to have some feelings about that. After your character gets through the emotional reaction, then they can start going through their choices. Ideally neither of them are good. At a bare level, their choices are to do something or do nothing, but as your specific circumstance allows, there may be different or even more options. Then your character comes to a conclusion, which becomes their goal in the next scene. Sometimes these reactions scenes can cover broad expanses of time, or sometimes they’re pretty short. (These scenes are usually when you have bigger time gaps).

Example:

Reaction: Anger; protag was promised that nothing bad would happen if they won the fight and killed the monster

Choices: Yell at the people who made that promise - express anger (wastes time, will probably make the situation worse) OR figure out out how to lift the curse (people will probably try to trick them again, or think them gullible)

Decision: Yell at people - they’re not allowed to think they can insult protag’s honor and not get away with it.

Notes:

- Protag examined their hand. Swirling black streaks were slowly crawling up protag’s arm. A beautiful precursor to the death that would take them in a few short weeks.

- Sorcerer has his servants occupy protag as long as possible

- Anger is causing protag to miss details

In this example, protag makes a faster choice - they don’t have much time to spare. The decision they make is a showcase of their character. While it might be more logical to lift the curse, we can tell that the protag’s priorities are in a different order.

But what if I don’t want my story to have this much (goal or reaction)

While you always want to alternate between these two options, and you want to have an equal number of goal scenes to reaction scenes, that 1:1 ratio does not have to apply to your wordcount. Faster stories are going to have the bulk of the wordcount in the goal scenes, and slower, more reflective stories are going to have the bulk in your reaction scenes.

hope this helps!

[emily-studies]

How to Survive Online Courses

Hey guys! 

The world is currently in a freeze because of COVID-19 and most of us, including myself, have to participate in online classes. So I thought I would give everyone some tips on how to survive online classes.

Create a Schedule 

Online classes are mostly self-paced. Since we have no one to remind us to work, we tend to fall off the rail of productivity and into the hole of our phones. Now, remember, you don't have to work on schoolwork every day if you don't want to. Self-quarantine is supposed to be a time for you to focus on your mental health, which is extremely important due to the circumstances. Just create a general or specific outline of a routine you can stick to. It doesn't have to full of productive things, at least 3 productivity things. 

For example:

10:00 am - wake up

12:00 pm - start school work

2:00 pm - lunch break

3:00 pm - resume school work

5:00 pm - relax!

Take breaks!

You sit in a classroom 7 hours a day before quarantine. This can be exhausting sometimes. Often a study break is good since it reduces the chances of burnouts. Breaks can also provide your brain with time to retain the data you have learned. When your brain gets a break,  stress can be reduced and concentration and productivity increased.

Make a calendar! 

Everyone procrastinates sometimes in their life; having a calendar can keep you in check. Planning can help you structure your personal and school life. You can plan physically or digitally (click here if you want to know how I plan digitally ;) Make sure you have assignment due dates, projects, and test days.

Dress for success

Personally, I feel really good and productive when I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Sometime, I'd rather chill in sweatpants and a bun, but someday, I like to look presentable and be effective. Something as quick and easy as a little makeup and jeans can help boost your productivity.

Set a study space and eliminate distractions

Just like dressing for success, the environment in which you study/work can affect your productivity. Quiet space, away from everyone, can help to put you in a productive mood. Eliminating distractions will also help you focus on your work, not everyone else. However, there is no need for your environment to be silent. If you want to put on music or a TV show for background noise, make sure you're not distracted by that. Silent your phone and turn it over to make sure you don't look at every time a notification pops up.

Healthy snacks

Okay, let's be honest, we all want to glow up. Munching on chips and unhealthy food is not going to help you get to that goal. you snack sometimes because you're bored or you want to get away from studying but you don't want to admit that. That is okay! If you need a break it doesn't mean you aren't productive! Take the time to take a quick 15-minute walk or snack on something healthy like fruits.

Reward yourself!

After a whole day of hard work, reward yourself! It always seems easier to motivate ourselves when we know there's something waiting for us on the finish line. Watch a movie or a couple of episodes of your favorite TV show. If you're just doing your homework, you're going to get burned out.

For example, if I finish this essay, I get to watch an episode of All American.

The picture above is not mine. Credits to the original account. 

Instagram | Pinterest | Goodreads

[emily-studies]

How I Plan Out my Week | Digital + Physical | Pt. 1

Hey! So today marks the first day online school start for me, which really isn’t much of a different since the coursers are self-paced. 

For the past few weeks, the only thing that I have kept me feeling productive was planning. I absolutely love planing and it makes me feel like I am actually doing something. 

I plan two ways, digitally and physically. I will show you how I plan digitally first and if you guys want me to show you how I plan physically, let me know! (by messaging me)

The program I use is Google Calendar! The program is free and completely on a website, no need to download. There is also an app for IOS and google play store. 

1. Divide them up!

I have different calendars for each “section” of my life. Emily, birthdays, blogs, education, health, and reminders.

Emily: Doctors appointment, chores like laundry, reminding me to watch a movie, and a schedule to let me know who is in town and who I need to hang out with.

Birthdays: Pretty self explainable, birthdays of my family and friends.

Blogs: Reminders of when I need to upload a blog or post a new blog. 

Education: My class schedule and reminders of due dates. I also like to put when I need to do my Coursera courses. 

Health: When I need to workout, what kind of workouts, and time scheduled for reading. 

Reminders: Basically a reminder for everything. Reminders fit into every section like a reminder for when a book’s due or when I need to start cancel a subscription. 

2. Color code!

Color coding is so helpful if you want to see what your day is like. Make sure each color is different from another. What I mean by this is education can’t be mint green if health is light blue. The tone’s are very similar and your eyes will probably look over it. 

3. Time Batching

Time batching is a technique for time management. It is where you group all the events related to a section. For example, in my day I have three things i need to do, school work, workout, go on a walk. Going on a walk and workout are related to health while school work is related to education. 

time batching:

work on school work, workout, go on a walk.

not time batching:

workout, work on school work, go on a walk.

Time batching is very helpful because it allows you to focus on similar without having to switch to another task that is not related to your last one. This gives you more time to do the work and not waste it on catching up. 

How to Use Google Calendar!

To create an event, press the plus button or c. In this you can edit the time and many more things.  

You can add a description, choose what calendar you want it to be in, and add a notification time. For my workouts, I usually add the link of the workout and plan what I want to do for that workout. 

To edit an event, click on the event you want to edit and click the pencil button or press e. 

You can do many things on Google Calendar, just play around with it!

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[shontaaaye]

Planning my first bday trip. I’m trying to stick with it and not give up on myself I actually want to make this a good birthday but it’s hard 😭 who has any good planning advice?

[emily-studies]

Week 4 - 2020 Quarantine Challenge

Questions:

Mon - What is your biggest tip for staying focused?

Use the pomodoro method. 25 min work, 5 min break. Super great for people with low attention span, I will be making a whole blog post about how to stay focused! 

Tue - What is your biggest tip for not getting cabin fever?

Take walks, just by yourself. You can still go outside and take walks but you have to socally distance yourself. Go outside, get fresh air. 

Wed - What would be your advice to you from five years ago?

Don’t date that one boy because you want a boyfriend. And popularity doesn’t matter that much!

Thu - What is the best advice you’ve ever been given (e.g. from a teacher of friend)?

5 years from now, no one is going to talk about that embarrassing moment. 

Fri - What is your biggest tip for organising your study space/study materials?

Have a place for everything, but keep it off of your table surface!

Sat - What is your best tip on how to relax?

Put on a face mask and watch netflix. 

Sun - What is you biggest tip to someone starting to learn your major/favourite subject/degree?

Take notes and listen your teacher!

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[coordination-machines-re-u]

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