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Sir Louka Allen. 3 months old. Big as hell. That's my doodle! @lifewithlouka #goldendoodlesofinstagram #goldendoodle #goldendoodlepuppy #goldendoodlescentral #goldendoodlepuppylove #goldendoodlelovers #goldendoodleofnashville #goldendoodle615 #lifewithlouka #goldendoodlelouka #goldendoodlelife #goldendoodlemoments #goldendoodlecommunity #goldendoodle #pupfluencer #puppylife #dogdad https://www.instagram.com/p/CGLCxuqA88Q/?igshid=2rmxczzk7upd
I'm thinking about making a nonlinear story, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I've already created a summary of the story so I know what happens chronologically, but I think the story would be better told out of order. Do you have any tips for how I could go about doing that without it being confusing, and while making it feel like plot progression is being made?
One thing to remember is that a non-linear story should still fit in a traditional story structure - ie, you build from the beginning to a climax to an end as the story goes along. So, a quick rundown:
Act 1 - Character and world introduction. Here lies introduction to the problem the story will be centered on.
Inciting Event - The No Turning Back moment. This is whatever kicks the main character out of act one. It doesn’t have to be explosive, but it does have to cut off any chance of returning to the way things were.
Act 2a - Character tries to solve the problem the wrong way, usually by avoiding a personal truth about themselves. (Let’s say, non-linearly, you are following the character as an child and adult. Both make mistakes in this act that could be attributed to doing things the wrong way.
Midpoint - I like to think of this as the False Victory or the False Defeat. Something big happens, but positive or negative, it only makes the problem worse.
Act 2b - Character starts solving problem the right way (facing that truth about themselves, reaching out to allies, falling in love, etc), but the bad guys/antagonistic forces are closing in for the climax. (In a non-linear plot, we should be seeing how the threads are tied together now.)
Climax - Victory or defeat in face of the problem. You probably want to stick to one timeline here, as we should know by now where the plot is going.
Denouement - The wrapping up. If there’s a sequel, this is a cliffhanger, a vow for vengeance, or snapshot of the problems to come. You probably still want to stick with one timeline here, but slipping in some non-linear scenes - the main character as a child learning something that reflects in the ending - could work.
If you keep in mind the underpinning of the novel, you can do a non-linear story. Just remember what you need your readers to know and when they need to know it. A great non-linear story is N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season, and I highly recommend it for a quick study.
#154: A Better Way to Write
I’m excited to announce the biggest update to Writing Analytics yet – a brand new editor designed to help you write more.
Early this year, I launched a product called Writing Analytics — a writing tracker to help writers stay motivated through projects that can easily take months and years to complete. The idea was simple: to track how much you write and get a visual representation of it with some other cool stats and predictions. Think Fitbit for your writing routine.
A week after the official launch, the pandemic hit. A few weeks after that, the UK went into lockdown. If you wanted pasta for dinner, you were out of luck. It was sold out everywhere. It didn’t feel right to keep marketing a product. Instead, I made it free for two months and went back to the basement to work on more features.
Originally, I wanted to focus on the analytics engine. I wasn’t planning to build an editor any time soon (certainly not in 2020).
I’m glad that I changed my mind.
I’ve been using the editor to write every day for the past three weeks. I wrote about four times more words compared to the previous weeks. The tracking must be addictive. It’s insane how well it works.
How Does It Work?
Most conventional text editors focus on formatting – making sure the font is right, and the margins look good.
I decided to strip out those features completely. You can’t change the font or mess around with the alignment.
The Writing Analytics editor gives you the tools that you need to write. To beat distractions and get your words done. And to create a sustainable writing routine.
There aren’t any documents in Writing Analytics. The editor manages your work in Sessions instead. A session is a timed, focused writing sprint. Behind the scenes, it tracks your progress, how many words you’re adding, deleting. It even tracks your focus and will let you know when you switched to another window and got distracted.
At the end of a session, you’ll have a draft. You can either start a new session and revise it or export the copy for formatting and publication.
When I thought about it, it struck me that there’s no end to word processors that have 20 different tools to tweak the font, but none of them has the tools to help you write in the first place. Isn’t that what writers struggle with the most? The blank page and all?
Things like timing your writing sessions, being mindful of distractions, not editing while drafting, tracking your words to stay accountable. Simple but powerful.
I built all those things into Writing Analytics.
When you write, there’s always a timer on which gives you a sense of urgency to get your words done.
The editor tracks your words as you write them. It counts how many you write as well as delete. That’s great for revision, so you know how many changes you’ve made. It can also keep you in check so that you don’t edit while drafting.
Another cool thing – the editor measures how much time you spend typing during your sessions. That’s useful when you want to increase your writing speed.
Last but not least, it knows when you click away from the window. At the end of the session, you’ll see how distracted you were. No more excuses.
And when you finish a session, the editor will automatically create an entry on your Writing Analytics dashboard.
The editor is available today. I can’t wait for you to try it!
Get Writing Analytics
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Past Editions
#153: The Uncertainty of Being a Writer, July 2020
#152: Working with Creative Constraints, July 2020
#151: My Favourite Writing Podcasts, July 2020
#150: The Business of Making Art, July 2020
#149: All That Matters Is What You Leave on the Page, July 2020
#148: Keeping a Victory Log, June 2020
In case you missed this week’s post!
Do you have any tips on how to color the light underside of a dark skinned person's palm? How much lighter should it be, and should it be pale or have a redder tint like blush? I'm white and I worry I've been doing it incorrectly.
OH B O I ~
Eesh, coloring darkskin palms is one of those things i’m good at doing but not so good at explaining, so i’ll try my best on this one
Okay so starting off
The palm of a dark skin person’s hand is simply just a reflection of their undertone
Everyone has an undertone and black people are no different. A dark skin person’s palm is a part of their hand that has little to no melanin. Without all of that melanin the only thing that’s left is their undertone
Black people with an orange undertone tend to have orange looking palms
Black people with a neutral undertone tend to have a mixture of pinkish orange-ish looking palms
And black people with red undertones tend to have pink looking palms
So how exactly do you determine the palm color and undertone of a darkskin black person?
ight so B O O M,
When it comes to a black person with a neutral skin tone rather than raising the color up in the Spectrum simply just lighten the skin
Skin tone can be complicated so I made a few examples:
Make sure when coloring black palms to always add a gradient
(( Many artists have done this and I too am guilty of it so dont sweat it ))
♡Hope these tips help you out♡
HOW TO FINISH A DRAFT
Prepare yourself mentally
You’ll need to accept three things:
It won’t be the novel you have in your head.
It will be the worst novel anyone has ever written.
You can fix items 1 and 2 in the subsequent drafts.
It’s easy to give up an idea when it looks like everything is going horribly. It’s easy to fall out of love with an idea when all the things you thought you loved about it aren’t showing up on the page.
But let me tell you, this happens with so many books. They don’t pop out perfectly formed. To use an overwrought metaphor, if books were sculptures, writing the first draft would be mining the marble. You can chisel it down to that beautiful work of art later, but first you need to gather the raw material to work with.
It probably won’t be pretty. It’ll be a great lump of words that may or may not form a coherent story. But that thing you want desperately? that story you can see so clearly inside your head? It will be in there somewhere.
Make yourself accountable
It would be great if all writing a novel took was a strike of inspiration that could carry you over all 50k+ words. But for the majority of us, this isn’t the case.
Your inspiration, your love of the idea alone, will not get you through this.
It’s going to take blood and sweat and an astounding amount of perseverance.
What will help more than any muse is accountability. A sense of responsibility and urgency to get this novel finished.
Most of us need stakes and consequences. We need to be held accountable. This can take many forms. If you’re good at self motivation, you can hold yourself accountable. Make a plan of what you need to do to get the draft out, and hold yourself to it.
If you need some external accountability, tell a friend your goals and send your work to them on a schedule. Join a writing group. Take part in NaNoWriMo. Tweet your goals and daily word counts.
I’m in a writing master’s program. If I don’t write for weeks, I don’t have work to turn in to my manuscript tutor and that’s an unpleasant place for me to be. If I don’t write for months, I fail my course. As motivation goes, it can be stressful, but it helps me get words on the page.
Start now
Do you want to write a novel? Right now. As you read this. Do you actually want to write a novel? If that answer is yes, start right now. Stop reading this (make sure to come back later to finish it, though.) Log off of tumblr and start writing.
There are always going to be reasons why this, right now, is a Bad Time for you start. You have things to do, places to go, people to see. You have obligations and responsibilities. Life tip? That is never going to go away. It will always be a Bad Time to sit down and write a book.
I’m a very slow writer, but I can train myself to write 800 words in 20 minutes if I want. If I wrote for 20 minutes every day, I could write a draft of a 50k novel in two months. That’s the same amount of time as the commercial breaks in an hour long tv show. If I watched an hour long tv show once a day and wrote during the commercials, I could write a 50k draft in two months.
That’s nothing at all.
I promise you, you have everything you need to sit down and start writing this very second. You have enough spare time in your day to finish a draft in a matter of months.
If you really want to write that novel, there are no excuses. Start now.
Keep Going
Remember how I told you that the first thing you have to do is prepare yourself mentally? Those are things you have to continually remind yourself as you write.
It’s not going to be the novel in your head.
It’s going to be the worst novel anyone has ever written.
You’re going to have to accept these two horrible sentences as facts and keep going.
At points, you’re going to hate your story. It’s going to be the very last thing you’ll want to waste your time on.
That’s fine. Believe it or not, that’s natural.
Keep going.
You’re going to want to change it. You might have a new idea for the beginning. You might decide on a new name for the main character halfway through. You might switch from past to present tense randomly.
Those are all things you can fix in the second draft.
Keep going.
Your first draft doesn’t need to be coherent. It doesn’t need to be good. It just needs to be.
You’re not trying to write the best novel ever. You’re not trying to write a good novel. Again, those are for the subsequent drafts.
Now, your only goal is to reach the words: “The End.”
Do whatever it takes to get to them.
TIPS
Keep a notebook of ideas for revisions next to you while you write to help fight against the urge to go back and change things as you write.
Use writeordie.com to kickstart your word count and writing speed if you’re having trouble getting things on the page.
Take a look at my list of writers’ block aids.
If you have the means, try one of Chris Baty’s draft writing kits.
bitches see a text and are like ‘ill reply when i have the social and emotional energy for it’ and then forget about it for a week....anyway i’m bitches
Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score
Important ideas to consider when creating characters who are black and indigenous people of color. (x) (Creator’s instagram post)
i have this writing style i like to call “uncertain.” it’s where the narrator isn’t really sure what they’re talking about either
That is so powerful and I want to write a short story in this style now thank you
“the park had been there for as long as i’d lived there, i think. i couldn’t be sure. i was never one to go to the park anyway” nobody has any clue what’s going on
self aware unreliable narrator
Reblog the 500,000 dollar written check from Seto Kaiba and money will come your way.
Please!!! Kaiba-San!!!!🧡
might fuck around and think until i get sad
Up until this point in my life, I’ve HATED birthdays and the weird ass ideology of celebrating myself. I felt worthless, vulnerable and that birthdays were a privilege I didn’t want to exercise. Boy, didn’t therapy help me figure some shit out...
I dunno why I wanted to share this here. Figured it’d bring in a crowd of my kinds of people.
I haven’t been on Tumblr in--let’s say since The Sex became The Ex. I’ve really been trying to share ONLY things that are pertaining to today’s topics, umm, you know like, for the Black Lives Matter movements, protests, police, quarantine. It all hurts, it’s all too much.
But here’s my distraction from that. And yours if you want it to be.
not sure what should happen next in your story?
Embarrass your protagonist. Make them seem weak and vulnerable in some way.
Shoot someone. That always takes the reader by surprise.
In relation, kidnap someone. Or, rather, make it seem to your protagonist like someone has been kidnapped.
Have one of your side characters disappear or become unavailable for some reason. This will frustrate your protagonist.
Have someone kiss the wrong girl, boy, or person, especially if you’ve been setting up a romance angle. It’s annoying.
If this story involves parents, have them argue. Push the threat of divorce, even if you know it won’t ever happen. It’ll make your readers nervous.
Have someone frame your protagonist for a crime they didn’t commit. This could range from a dispute to a minor crime to a full-blown felony.
If this is a fantasy story involving magic or witchcraft, create a terrible accident that’s a direct result of their spell-casting.
Injure your protagonist in some way, or push them into a treacherous scenario where they might not make it out alive.
Have two side characters who are both close to the protagonist get into a literal fist-fight. This creates tension for the reader, especially if these characters are well-developed, because they won’t know who to root for.
Make your protagonist get lost somewhere (at night in the middle of town, in the woods, in someone else’s house, etc.)
Involve a murder. It can be as in-depth and as important as you want it to be.
Introduce a new character that seems to prey on your protagonist’s flaws and bring them out to light.
If it’s in-character, have one of your characters get drunk or take drugs. Show the fallout of that decision through your protagonist.
Spread a rumor about your protagonist.
If your protagonist is in high-school, create drama in the school atmosphere. A death of a student, even if your protagonist didn’t know them personally, changes the vibe.
If your story involves children, have one of them do something dangerous (touch a hot stove, run out into the road, etc.) and show how the protagonist responds to this, even if the child isn’t related to them.
In a fantasy story, toss out the idea of a rebellion or war between clans or villages (or whatever units you are working with).
Add a scenario where your protagonist has to make a choice. We all have watched movies where we have screamed don’t go in there! at the top of our lungs at the main character. Make them go in there.
Have your protagonist find something, even if they don’t understand the importance of it yet. A key, a document, an old stuffed animal, etc.
Foreshadow later events in some way. (Need help? Ask me!)
Have your protagonist get involved in some sort of verbal altercation with someone else, even if they weren’t the one who started it.
Let your protagonist get sick. No, but really, this happens in real life all the time and it’s rarely ever talked about in literature, unless it’s at its extremes. It could range from a common cold to pneumonia. Maybe they end up in the hospital because of it. Maybe they are unable to do that one thing (whatever that may be) because of it.
Have someone unexpected knock on your protagonist’s door.
Introduce a character that takes immediate interest in your protagonist’s past, which might trigger a flashback.
Have your protagonist try to hide something from someone else and fail.
Formulate some sort of argument or dispute between your protagonist and their love interest to push them apart.
Have your protagonist lose something of great value in their house and show their struggle to find it. This will frustrate the reader just as much as the protagonist.
Create a situation where your protagonist needs to sneak out in the middle of the night for some reason.
Prevent your character from getting home or to an important destination in some way (a car accident, a bad storm, flat tire, running out of gas, etc.)
imma need this for when I’m stuck when I start Camp Nano
I definitely need this
More hacks at –> http://1000lifehacks.com
