#Had to check my Google docs and notes apps to figure out

[movietonight]

Last Line Challenge Part 2 - Fic Edition

Tagged by @youngpettyqueen

rules: post the last line you wrote and tag as many people as there are words (or however many you like).

There are some barriers to starting an argument: His sister’s pleading expression and, more importantly, Charles lacking the vocabulary and grammar to make his case. “I will not grade your conversations, but I will expect you to attend.” That is the end of the argument.

[skitterjitter]

do you ever look at a character's name and you're just like -- where in the absolute fuck did I get this from????

[therayofsonshine]

i went to a work party last night so i was kinda drunk… and i forgot the rest of the days… so here is day 13, 14, 15 + 16… i will catch up…

day 13: i had to think about this one, i can’t lie. but a big privilege i have in my dr is my financial situation. it was honestly something i didn’t think to script until it was mentioned in another post as “vital things to script” — which to some, yes it may be.

we’re comfortable in my dr. we’re not counting all the pennies we spend, but we definitely aren’t rich enough to waste it, iykwim. my family work hard for the money we have and i’m so proud of how far we’ve come - especially since coming to korea and having to start from scratch. it hasn’t been easy, but where we are now has made all the hard work and dedication worth it :)

day 14:

any baking smells - we have a café, so it’s all i’m used to smelling and it’s very nostalgic to me

coffee - again, café.

mangoes - i script this for every dr of mine, but i love love LOVE the smell of fruity scents, especially mangoes. so whenever i get a whiff of something sweet, saccharine-y, it reminds me of my dr!

cleaning products(?) - we clean the café A LOT LMFAO

day 15: my main wingman is my older sister, definitely. she’s someone really special to me and she was the first person i told that i had signed up for a dating show. she was like “slay! but why.” LOL

as i’ve probably said before - or haven’t, i can’t remember - my family didn’t know anyone in korea when we moved. everything was new to us - the language, culture, honorifics, etc.. it caused my family to grow closer as we kinda had to rely on each other to be each other’s best friend. that was the case with my sister and i.

luckily, our parents taught and encouraged us to be confident, so we had the courage to figure things out. but we still needed someone. i remember the first time we went to a supermarket on.. like.. our second day of being in korea. we had our translator open and double checking we had the right amount of money 😭

anyways, yes. love my sister.

day 16: OH MY GOD i love this one!!!! trust when i say i’ve used every scripting platform you can think of.

at the start of my shifting journey, i used the good ol’ google docs (sometimes still do) - so all my old scripts from like 2020-21 are there. then i moved to google slides… putting images on a google docs is really awkward and i wanted more visuals. that era lasted for like… a few ish months? i have like 2 scripts there that are REALLY in depth yo 😭

after that i used notion for a while.. but it’s too advanced for me i fear… i just couldn’t wrap my head around it. i need nice and simple. i love youse who have really beautiful scripts tho. i respect it. but it’s not for me… and that’s okay! :)

then that leads us to here, and to my baby… my beloved… my beauty… the notes app. now stick with me. our shifting journeys are ours, right? so one thing i figured out pretty late along my journey was i didn’t and still don’t like long, complicated scripts. it stresses me out and then my brain just isn’t having it. notes app allows me to keep it plain and to the point. and i get to add pretty photos! :)

at the moment, i just use the notes app and pinterest to add boards for my drs. i am a visual learner, after all!

𝟐𝟓 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐌𝐀𝐒. ❆ ⋆⁺₊❅ .

a series of questions for the days leading up to christmas for shifters!! Some of these questions are Christmas specific and others aren’t, feel free to answer what you want and how you want, ex. moodboards, short answers, longs answers. And if you’d like, you can reblog so it reaches more shifters. Merry Christmas and Happy Shifting :) post tags are #shiftmas #shiftmas2024 tagged: @arishifter

⌗ 𝟏. christmas caroling ; What are a few songs that remind you of your dr? Why?

⌗ 𝟐. gingerbread houses ; What does your house look like in your dr? Who do you live with? What is your favorite aspect of your house?

⌗ 𝟑. eggnog ; What is some drama going on in your dr?

⌗ 𝟒. sledding ; What does a hang out with you friend group look like? Where do you go? Who is your friend group?

⌗ 𝟓. snowman ; What is your OOTD? (outfit of the day)

⌗ 𝟔. stockings ; What is your family like? What are your relationships with different members? Any extended family? Who is visiting for Christmas?

⌗ 𝟕. candy canes ; What gives you dr euphoria? (like gender euphoria but for your dr…)

⌗ 𝟖. mistletoe ; Who is your s/o? What is your dynamic and how do you spend time together? Are you two doing something special for the holiday?

⌗ 𝟗. snowflakes ; What are some headcannons you have about people in your dr?

⌗ 𝟏𝟎. icicles ; What is your occupation in your dr? Your coworkers? (Or if student, your classmates?) What is your favorite and least favorite aspect of your occupation?

⌗ 𝟏𝟏. tree skirt ; How did you find out about shifting? What was your first dr and what is your main dr now?

⌗ 𝟏𝟐. ornaments ; What are some objects you have in your dr that you don’t in your cr? Why do you have them in your dr?

⌗ 𝟏𝟑. sleigh bells ; Are there any priveleges you have in your dr that you don’t in your cr? What are they?

⌗ 𝟏𝟒. cookie cutters ; What are some smells that remind you of your dr? Why?

⌗ 𝟏𝟓. elf on the shelf ; who is your main wingman/women/person? What is your dynamic? What do you guys do when you hang out?

⌗ 𝟏𝟔. wrapping paper ; What is your favorite way to script? Why is it your favorite way?

⌗ 𝟏𝟕. gift tags ; What is your camera roll like in your dr? (photos or just describe it)

⌗ 𝟏𝟖. snowballs ; What is a silly scenario you are looking forward to in your dr?

⌗ 𝟏𝟗. mittens ; What are your hobbies in your dr? How do you usually spend your down time?

⌗ 𝟐𝟎. ice skates ; What is your ideal date in your dr? (friends or s/o)

⌗ 𝟐𝟏. coal ; What is something unpleasant you have/have to experience in your dr? Why are you not looking forward to it?

⌗ 𝟐𝟐. tinsel ; What is something fun or random you have scripted? (ex. Thundersnow is more common, you have a ring that allows you to read minds, you have good luck with thrifting, you’re good at gambling.)

⌗ 𝟐𝟑. fir tree ; What are some traditions you have in your dr but not your cr? Why?

⌗ 𝟐𝟒. hot cocoa ; put together a moodboard of your dr or you in your dr

⌗ 𝟐𝟓. christmas ; How are you spending your christmas? Who with? What might be some gifts you are giving and to who?

divider credits.

[juicysock]

Overthinking Tactic I Discovered

When you find yourself starting to get anxiety because you're thinking too much about something, take a pause, open something like your notes app or a Google Doc or even a private texting chat that no one else can see, and start typing out everything you're thinking word for word. All of the anxieties, the questions behind them you're asking, and read it back to yourself every few sentences or so. This, for some reason, helps with processing the fact that, "this is irrational and I should stop." As a bonus, when I do this I usually also type out word for word my thought process of turning the overthinking around. Here's an example: A friend doesn't pick up the phone, but hasn't texted to let you know that they'll probably be busy the next time you call (this is assuming you have some kind of set call schedule to check in and just talk). You, as any natural anxiety-having overthinker does, start thinking you might have done something wrong. Maybe your friend is mad at you. Maybe they never want to talk to you again. Pause. Open your chosen transcript method. Start putting the thoughts down and reading them back to yourself. Figure out how these thoughts relate to the feelings you have about yourself, rather than anything directed at your friend. Start going over things to rationalize your thought process. For example, write out questions like: "Is this really about my friend hating me, or is it because I feel like I'm not good enough for them to talk to me?" Analyze that feeling, more-so things that combat it. "What things do I remember my friend doing and saying that tells me my head is just messing with me?" When you come up with answers, put those down word for word too and read them back to yourself. "If I was in my friend's shoes, would I want myself to try calling back in a little bit? Would I overthink the same way I am now if I gave up on myself?" If you really want to be intense about it, you can also ask yourself things like, "do I trust my friend?" "Do I believe my friend when they tell me they want to talk to me?" "Do I trust that my friend would talk to me if they actually had a problem with me?" I think, what this does, is lets you see an actual physical representation of the mental storm the negative trigger spawns. It gives you a chance to look at your thoughts written out, instead of only hearing them once and forgetting them and immediately running onto another (probably worse) subject. It's an amazing grounding technique, no matter the technicalities of how it functions.

[wolfiemcwolferson]

i wrote u a message some time ago abt it but it seems that it was not delivered or something like that (might be my own fault cause I ~may or may not~ have had 3 glasses of wine before so absolutely no fuckin idea if I actually sent it or just wrote it and went to sleep)

ANYWAYS….

I have written u before telling how I ABSOLUTELY ADORE the way you write piarles (ultimate otp), and then the last fantasy fest fic…. I MEAN…. I’ve read it 4 or 5 times already and I absolutely love omfg how can u write something like thisssssss. I think by the time the winter e can he fic comes I’ll probably have memorized if, and then I’ll just memorize the winter exchange fic also because I KNOW it will be perfection as always.

(whenever u can, please feed me with your piarles fics, thoughts, 5 sentences prompts. I take everything u want to give)

Hi friend!

Your message from a few weeks ago did send, but sometimes I'm so overwhelmed with the nice things people are saying that I hoard them up like little nuggets and re-read them at 3 AM when my brain is telling me to delete everything in my current google doc and start over.

BUT, I appreciate your kind words so so much it's unbelievable that other people love my little brain drabbles as much as I love coming up with them.

I have a little one that I have had in my notes app forever and ever that isn't full fic worthy, but would make an interesting little ficlet so here you go:

Piarles AU- based off the song Cherry by Harry Styles, but with a Happy Ending

Charles makes a burner Instagram account - which is really really stupid considering he did it when he was drunk with Carlos and the username is absolutely something Pierre would recognize, but...maybe he'll see it and feel guilty. Maybe one day he'll be checking to see if someone has watched one of his dumb stories on Instagram and he'll see it and he'll know. Charles is still waiting. Maybe he'll feel guilty then.

Because Charles misses him. Every single time his phone dings and he gets a dumb notification on that stupid burner account that Pierre has posted a story, dread fills him up. Is he finally going to post the probably boyfriend? Is he finally going to do more than soft launch him?

Soft launch - stupid stupid word that Lando had used to describe whatever Pierre was doing with that man. Posting pictures of two plates out at a fairly romantic dinner. An artsy shot of a flat that definitely didn't belong to Pierre. A balcony that leads out to a ridiculous view of a French vineyard.

Stupid French boys with stupid money and parents with rare art collections that steal soulmates and - it would hurt less if Pierre had looked miserable for at least a day. One single day of him looking miserable.

But, the day - the day - after he told Charles that Pierre 'needed time to figure out if he was doing the right thing', he was back to his normal self. Smiling in pictures. Hiking. Going out clubbing with Yuki.

Charles wanted to scream at him a little bit. How dare you doubt this? You know who I am just as I know who you are. I've known who you are since I met you. You are the person who knows me best. You are the person who helps me buy clothes so I do not wear one color. (Charles doesn't like to think too much about the fact that he has been broken of that habit completely and it is thanks to Pierre's years and years of work.)

Pierre didn't need to figure out if he was doing the right thing. Because the wrong thing was what he was doing now. (But it's hard for Charles to find fault in him. All Pierre has ever known is Charles and Pierre...well, Pierre thinks things to death.) ((But, what is there to think about when you and your best friend admit that the feelings you have for each other go well past platonic? What is there to think about?)) (((Charles is being a dick. There is plenty to think about. Pierre is so hesitant to give his heart away. That's fine. Charles will wait.)))

Yuki comes to see him when he's on this side of the city - bringing him absolutely zero scraps of Pierre, but plenty of gossip about their other friends - who Charles does miss, but all their conversations are stilted and odd. No one wants to bring it up. Charles doesn't know if he's thankful for it or he hates it. Probably a bit of both.

Charles is laying on the couch, thinking about calling Carlos to come over and drag him out of his flat so he doesn't have another night of...this, when his phone buzzes on the table. It's Instagram and he huffs before swiping it open and Instagram switches his account, pulling up Pierre's newest Instagram story.

It's a short video of footage from a train window. Going home.

Charles lets his phone drop to the floor, scrubbing his hands over his face a few times before he picks it back up and pulls up Carlos' contact. He can go out. He will go out and he'll - he'll dance with his friends and he will...not think about Pierre.

.

Post shower, Charles is arranging his hair in a way that says...well, something. Lando will rearrange it when he gets here so he's not sure why he's bothering, but his door is buzzing and he gives up. Going to swing it open and beg Lando to help him, please.

It's not Lando.

"I was hoping," Pierre says, eyes on the floor, hands in the pocket of his coat, voice small and scared, "that you still meant what you said at Halloween."

Charles is frozen in the spot. "That I love you?"

Pierre's eyes flick up to his, quick, and then immediately back down. Like he's afraid.

"I do. I still love you."

Pierre takes one step towards the door, eyes still on the floor. "I know now." He shrugs, voice smaller. "I am sorry, Charlito. I should have -"

Charles reaches for him. Tucks him into his arms. "You know now." He whispers, feeling Pierre cling to him. "You know now."

"I love you too." Pierre sobs into Charles' chest.

He came home.

[todaydreambelieversfic]

Author Spotlight: Justgleekout Day 2

Author Spotlight: @justgleekout​

Share one of your strengths.

Probably writing conversation? chatting back and forth. I like to think I've got my boys figured out quite well and know the things they would/wouldn't say.

Share one of your weaknesses.

I struggle a lot with giving my fics some body. Giving the story time to develop. It's not that I don't want to write longer fics, but I just find it really hard! I usually have great ideas for really small scenes that I could see working in bigger fics. But the longer the fic, the more daunting it is to me. That is why I mostly stick to one-shots and drabbles. I wanna write the bigger stuff as well though!! so much!

Which fic has been the hardest to write?

you should probably know that I am still very much a baby in the fic writing community as I have only three short fics on Ao3 and two other drabbles on my tumblr. But the hardest one was "Not My Type". I wrote it for spaceorphan for the fic exchange. I had never thought about writing a fake dating story as this is not a trope I usually read. so I had some trouble figuring out how to make that work. I did have a lot of fun writing it though!

Which fic has been the easiest to write?

"You're insane, you know that?" It's just a very soft short one-shot but I had it all written out in my head for a long time before I actually wrote it down. soft one-shots are my favourite things to write (and sometimes also read). so they come quite naturally to me. (it is also very short so that helps ;)

Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

More just a fun hobby. I really love it but it is still very difficult for me. drawing is more my passion I'd say. it comes more naturally to me.

Is there an episode or character or arc above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?

Kurt Hummel!! I honestly can't see myself writing fic that doesn't include at least someone talking about him. There are also a lot of episodes that have inspired me and still wanna write stories for. especially in season 3 and 5, like bash, tested, prom a saurus, asian F and many more!

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Get a beta! And I stand by that. Don't feel above or scared about having someone reviewing your story. They will see things you haven't even thought of!

What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

I guess "Write what you know"? There is nothing wrong with writing what you know, but please don't let it restrict you! It's actually so educational to write about things you are unfamiliar with! if a certain theme is interesting to you, do your research! ask others for advice! broaden your horizons!

If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?

I've only published a few short ones but I would choose not my type, as i is the longest and includes vogue!Kurt (aka my favourite Kurt) ;)

What’s your process? Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order? Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines? What are the perfect writing conditions for you?

I write best when I know I actually have the time to write and don't have other things on my mind. (which is why I haven't written as much as I would've liked.) I usually write pretty chronologically. Though I do add, switch around and rewrite scenes a lot! My stories all start off in my notes app on my phone, this way it doesn't seem so daunting. But if I see enough progress and if I'm actually confident about the story I copy it to a google docs where I have more tools and things are a bit clearer.

***

Check out Justgleekout’s Fics

Not My Type -  Kurt was always assumed to have a type. Tall, blond and stupid. But Kurt wasn’t that superficial. No sir. So what if the only guys he ever dated were tall blond idiots? That doesn’t mean he has a type. To prove it, he picks someone who couldn’t be further away from the regular guys he dated. But who would fit that picture?

The way you dress -  Blaine is completely stunned about how Kurt always manages to look so perfect.

[mkstrigidae]

from the ask meme abt writing, i have a few questions about your writing process! how do you stay organized with so many pov’s in AWPH? i always wonder what writing app/site fic writers use (word, google docs, etc.), and if it’s not too much, could you show a screenshot of how that looks?

Hi friend! :) I am terribly sorry it’s taken me a while to answer this- life has gotten in the way

Oof- so the answer to that question ‘how do you stay organized’ is probably ‘I don’t’, but I’ll do my best. (this ended up long and fairly disorganized)

About APWH POVs:

For the different POVs, there isn’t really a process I have to choose whose POV is used for what scene- I’d probably be more stern about it if were writing a novel, but because it’s fanfiction, I kind of just go with whatever feels right at the time. There is one thing that’s absolutely deliberate, though- I’ve never written a scene from Petyr’s POV, because he’s the exception to narrative omniscience.

There have been a few instances where I’ve had to switch whose POV i was writing from as I went along, or after I finished a scene- Meeting Jon Arryn is an example from the most recent chapter. Initially, it was from Sansa’s point of view, but Sansa overthinks everything and so it kept going off in all sorts of weird directions and I couldn’t pin it down. Once I started writing as Robin, it got much easier.  

The single most difficult thing about keeping all the different characters straight is remembering who knows certain things, and who doesn’t know certain things.

Take this, for example. The two characters closest to omniscience are Oberyn and Sansa, but where Oberyn knows Baelish’s history and can understand certain aspects of his motivation because of years of working on the case and studying him (in addition to a hefty understanding of human psychology), Sansa isn’t always completely aware of how important certain pieces of evidence are, or how relevant certain things are to Petyr’s motivations. The two of them understand Baelish more than anyone else, but in drastically different ways. The biggest thing is that Oberyn is aware of Petyr’s relationship with Catelyn, and how he feels about her, whereas Sansa has no idea about that, and still doesn’t really understand why Baelish took her in the first place (although she’s been doing a repeat speedrun through the five stages of grief throughout the entire thing, poor kid).

But there are basic facts of the story, and then there’s the ‘who knows what’ aspect of it. Someone broke into the Stark’s home in White Harbor and stole Sansa from her bed- this is a fact. But only a few people know who it was that broke in or how it was done. An assassin was hired to kill Petyr Baelish at the airport and failed. The Lannisters know who the assassin is, but Oberyn and Daemon don’t yet.

There are lots of complicated relationships among the characters too- Jon knows more about Robb than any of the rest of them, except maybe Rhae, who only ever shows vulnerability to Willas and Marg, and so the rest of us don’t really get to see her soft side. Arya’s relationship with Catelyn is extremely complicated, and as such, she has a lot of baggage going into meeting Sansa that Sansa has no idea about. Lyanna is aware of what’s generally going on politically, and is working on several important stories that could provide some insight to Oberyn, but they haven’t talked about politics too much recently, because Oberyn’s too busy with the investigation and Lyanna’s busy with her job. There are secrets that Robb has been keeping for an extremely long time, and secrets that Sansa’s keeping without even realizing it. There are a lot of things that were odd or abnormal or red flags in Sansa’s childhood that she doesn’t even realize are odd, because she has no other frame of reference.

In terms of keeping the other stuff straight, I have a page at the beginning of the APWH Master Document (it’s so long dear god), that basically has character names, ages, locations, and time zones written down. I’ve tried making like, character info compilations, but I’m not very good at updating them so I stopped that (although I found a particularly funny bit about the targs in one that’s sampled below).

Generally, I think it’s more important to understand how your characters react to certain situations and their most basic personality traits and values, rather than just having a long list of stats on them, so that tends to be my approach. If I’m worried that I’m about to write something that conflicts with a previous plot point, generally, I’ll go back and skim the story for mentions of them to double check- I’ve reread APWH so frequently that I am genuinely sick of the first five chapters, haha.

Unfortunately, a lot of it tends to just be that I have an extremely good long-term memory for details. The trade-off is a god-awful short-term memory, though. It’s partially the ADHD. I’m on the verge of trying to keep things straight with an excel doc, tho.

The timeline is one of the trickier aspects, so I tend to scribble them out anytime I’m thinking about when and where certain events happened. Generally, I use Sansa’s abduction as year zero, because I do not understand how years work in Westeros and have elected to just use my own- here’s a sample of one I scribbled down the other day when I was trying to figure something out.

(Sorry about the post it notes- those are covering some spoilers! ;D)

About my writing process:

It is…. Not as streamlined of a process as I would like, haha. Generally, I go by chapter. I kind of have a rough idea of what I want to happen in each chapter, and generally that evolves as the story does.

For each chapter, I kind of just bullet point out some things that I want to have happen, and then try my hand at writing some of them. Some of my best ideas happen after this process, though, like the scene where Robb and Sansa find out that Baelish moved them out of the city while Robb was in town to avoid a confrontation. But I have those bullet points, and usually rough chapter titles and rough summaries before the chapters start. (Some things blacked out because of spoilers ;D)

I think that if I waited until I was inspired to sit down and write, then APWH would maybe be done by like, 2070, so I usually kind of sit down and just start writing- some of it is good, some scenes I discard completely, and usually, once I hit on something that works, the plot flows where I want it to.

I generally know how I want the chapters to start, based on how the previous chapter ends (My writing time for them usually overlaps bc it’s a natural continuation). Once I figure out roughly how I want the chapter to end, though, the whole thing starts coming together, and it’s easier for me to figure out what doesn’t belong in the middle, and what might be missing.

I started using one master document on word, because I swear to god I did not intend for this story to turn into the behemoth that it is, and that lasted for about twelve chapters before I realized that the damn thing was 368 pages of tiny font (I don’t double space my lines when I write bc I like seeing as much of it as I can). So I’ve switched to individual word docs for each chapter as of chapter 13, and used google docs to share the chapter with the wonderful @nowmywatch-begins who was kind enough to beta read the thing and remove the excess of commas I tend to use. I use color coded highlighting to indicate different things- turquoise means I want to go back and rework something, green means I need to check to make sure something doesn’t conflict with something I wrote previously, yellow is for sections that I might not want in that chapter and might need to move, etc. Anything I end up discarding goes in a section at the end of that chapter labeled ‘outtakes’. I used to have a lot of trouble rewriting things because I hated to get rid of them, so this circumvents that particular issue. I get to keep what I wrote, while still improving the story by being willing to throw out certain parts.

I write out of order frequently so I keep a separate document called ‘APWH- Bits and Pieces’ that I use whenever I’m doing something like that- it acts as sort of a holding tank for these scenes until I feel like they fit in the story. I also just keep random notes in there, questions that I think need answering, random sentences that just come to me, ideas I’ve jotted down when an idea sparks, etc. There’s a lot of stream of consciousness kind of stuff because I tend to process ideas by writing them down, and so I have stuff like ‘okay so what if Lysa did X and Petyr was here and does Sansa have a college scholarship???? Is the Braavosi prison in the northwest or the south? Why is Westeros still a monarchy? do the tabloids follow the royal family like in britain???’

Like, I have the ending for APWH written, but it’s fairly disjointed, and i think I’ll be able to flesh it out more as the story goes along. I like having a general idea of where I’m going with my writing, but I also will modify those ideas frequently as I go- sometimes the characters really do write the story for you.

This is probably not very organized, and waaaaay longer than you wanted, but I hope this answers your question!!! Thank you for the ask! :)

[automatedashboard]

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2 billion. After learning more about how AI had already structured dozens of marketing-related processes, we chose to explore how automation and artificial intelligence might help us with our clients at PR 20/20. We became obsessed with how smarter innovation might increase profits and reduce costs. In the process, we discovered natural language generation (NLG) innovation that wrote plain English automatically.

You have actually come across NLG anytime you have actually utilized Gmail's Smart Compose feature. Or, when you hear Amazon's Alexa respond to your voice questions. Once we discovered a potentially useful NLG software application, we decided to run an experiment to see if the AI innovation could partially or totally automate our performance report writing procedure.

Ai-generated Reports Are The Write Stuff - Articles - Chief ...

Now, the next action is to search for software that works for your company. Here are a few things you'll need to think about: You'll wish to consider the expense of any of the software application's subscriptions or charges, along with the expense to implement it. For example, you might need to contract or employ an engineer to prepare your data and take any actions to make certain the software works smoothly.

Make certain to comprehend what you'll require to do if something isn't working properly so you do not sustain any emergency situation costs. As a marketer, you won't wish to count on a full-time engineer to use AI software application to run your reports. You'll desire to look for software application that your less tech-savvy staff member can eventually get trained on and discover. real time reports.

As you select software application, you'll also want to find case research studies, reviews, or user reviews that explain how a business used the software to run reports or finish a similar activity. This will give you a concept of if the item you're considering has a great performance history or credibility in the AI software market.

Here are two highly-regarded examples: Domo is an information visualization and reporting tool that integrates with significant data and analytics platforms consisting of Google Analytics. When you connect these platforms, you can use a dashboard to set up and create data visualizations or reports for your clients. These visualizations consist of pie charts, other graphs, and word clouds.

Best Reporting Software 2021 - Reviews Of The Most Popular ...

The platform provides guides on how to produce datasets or spreadsheets that its algorithms will recognize as well as a drag and drop guide which asks you to publish particular info such as "Monthly Budget plan." Here's a fast demonstration that shows Domo in action: This reporting software allows you to produce reports or reporting dashboards that your group and customers can edit and cross-collaborate on.

Regulatory Tracking & Compliance ...bulalaw.com

Aside from data visualizations, you can also add boxes to your control panels that reveal you scorecards that note whether you're hitting your goals or not, along with filters that assist you drill down on specific aspects of your task. Here's a demo discussing how small companies such as nonprofits can take advantage of the software application's control panel reporting functions: No matter which item you choose, you'll likely require to prepare your information in a manner that your software's robot or algorithm could quickly recognize and examine - real-time progress reporting.

Plecto ApS

Address: Viby Ringvej 11, 1 tv

Phone: +45 71 99 71 60

Email: support@plecto.com

Real-time insights

The software application needed structured information in columns and rows to create text. So, first, we had to pull HubSpot and Google Analytics information into spreadsheets. Because doing this manually would take too much time and restrict the potential time saved with automation, we used APIs and built our own algorithm using Google Apps Scripts to pull information into a Google Sheet.

We understood NLG software would be unlikely to handle entirely custom-made reports well. So, we developed a design template for these reports that didn't alter monthly. To produce a format for each report, we identified a set of 12 typical concerns we were attempting to address for customers monthly: How much traffic pertained to your website, and how does that compare to the previous month? Last year? How engaged was last month's website traffic? What were the leading traffic-driving channels? Existed fluctuation in overall traffic, and if so, what caused it? How did the blog perform last month? How engaged was blog traffic? What were the top-performing article? Were there any modifications in blog traffic last month, and if so, what caused them? The number of objectives or brand-new contacts were created last month? What were the top converting pages? Where did objectives or new contacts come from? Existed any change in total goals or lead volume, and if so, what was accountable? A good AI software application will either permit you to create documents or perhaps control panels, as your reports.

Automated Writing - Journalismai.com

As soon as we 'd structured our data and developed a basic report format, we needed to translate our basic report format into an NLG template. The design template was essentially a finished version of an efficiency report. When the NLG software runs, this report gets copied into the NLG software application. Then guidelines are applied to the copy to programmatically update what's written based on the structured information provided.

------------[ 1 ]------------

Automate Email With Python. Using Python To Automate The ...

Table of ContentsHow Report Automation Can Improve Your Reporting Process ...Bi Vs. Automated Reporting: Which Do You Need? - SisenseAutomated Writing Feedback – Shibani's Blog - Shibani AntonetteAp's 'Robot Journalists' Are Writing Their Own Stories Now - The ...Automated Journalism – Ai Applications At New York Times ...

The last output could be a CSV, Word, or Google Doc file. Even if you're working with a reliable AI software, you'll still want to evaluate it and repair any problems that come to light. This prevents any AI-related incidents from occurring when the tool is actively being used by workers or on tight deadlines.

Plecto ApS

Address: Viby Ringvej 11, 1 tv

Phone: +45 71 99 71 60

Email: support@plecto.com

Real-time insights

And we eventually improved the process to consistently produce clear, accurate automatic efficiency reports. If a software provider that you work with offers a trial or discount for evaluating out their product, take advantage of it. This will allow you to witness first-hand if the expense of the product outweighs its benefits, or provide you time to identify if there is a better product that you ought to be utilizing - real time reports.

When you do this, here are a few things that you'll want to examine: The quantity of time that the software is conserving employees, or if there were any bugs, how much time the software expense. The amount of other efficient or revenue-generating tasks your team had the ability to get made with the extra time you had.

How report automation can improve your ...dashthis.com

As we tracked our new automated efficiency reports, we discovered that our tools took a fraction of the time to produce the exact same report that we took hours to create. Furthermore, the level of information in our client reports is now constant across all accounts. Prior to we implemented AI tools, the reports were just as strong as the account team's convenience level of evaluating marketing performance reports.

Reproducible And Automated Reporting Using Stata

The only manual part of the procedure now involves spot-checking the information for precision, applying some styling, and then sending. automated reporting dashboards. What when took us 5 hours per report now takes 10 minutes. While the original procedure needed to be managed by multiple colleagues, just one employee is required for spot-checking.

Although our team has the ability to access AI suppliers and experts for our in-office experiments, other small company marketers can also make the most of this technique somewhat affordably. Nevertheless, remember that AI execution can require time. For us, we needed to put time into constructing structured datasets, as well as our Report design template so that our AI software might read our analytics and draft reports correctly.

Complete information, faster conclusions, and better decision-making digital-era success depends upon them (automatic work time reports). But a company with a single variation of the truth, spreadsheets filled with precise data, is still a couple of rungs brief of success. One factor: management needs easy-to-digest reports that interpret the numbers. That tends to result in cleaner interpretations and crisper decision-making.

These products drill-down into ab organization's database and auto-produce easy-to-understand, written reports from the same information that Microsoft Excel uses to produce graphics. A few of these fairly new AI tools likewise known as natural language generation, or NLG, software application are variations of the same innovation that assists major media organizations produce computer-written news products.

Ets Research: Automated Scoring Of Writing Quality

Anna Schena, a senior product supervisor at Story Science, another AI-generated writing toolmaker, says that "information storytelling" suggests users don't have to discover how to evaluate spreadsheets or obtain insights from long rows of dashboard dials. "Easy-to-understand language and one-click collaboration features ensure that everyone in a company really understands the information, all the time," Schena states.

States Sharon Daniels, CEO of Arria: "NLG-driven, multi-dimensional stories are the development that [data-generated] visuals were years earlier. The big information problem was partly resolved with the evolution of company intelligence dashboards," she discusses. "But while visuals paint a photo, they're not the total photo." Adds Daniels: "The

[automaticworktimereports]

Quill - Narrative Science

Ets Research: Automated Scoring Of Writing Quality

Table of ContentsAssociated Press - Automated InsightsAutomated Reporting Software & Tools: Report Automation ToolAutomated Journalism - WikipediaAutomated Report Generation With Papermill: Part 1 - Practical ...Automated Generation Of Clinical Study Reports Using Sas ...

As marketers in 2020, there's one significant thing that we share: We're driven by data. No matter whether we're copywriters, social media managers, videographers, or web designers, information is crucial to assisting us figure out which jobs are effective, which methods might require more of a budget plan, and which methods we need to leave behind.

Even if you have an analytics software that tracks a project's traffic, engagements, ROI, and other KPIs, you'll likely still require to take some time to arrange these numbers, evaluate them, and develop an understandable way to report on your tasks to your group or clients. In the past, marketing companies and companies entrusted full-timers with reporting-related duties. automate dashboard.

Best Reporting Tools & Software Of 2021 ...thedigitalprojectmanager.com

This is an issue that my Cleveland-based marketing firm, PR 20/20, ran into a few years back. As part of our process, we develop monthly efficiency reports for each of our customers. When we produce them, we pull the data from HubSpot and Google Analytics. Then, we compose a report to describe the data to our colleagues, customers, and project stakeholders.

However, although they were assisting our clients, creating them was holding our group back. While our clients found the reports valuable, the process of pulling the data, examining it, and drafting the reports easily took 5 hours per client, monthly. This took our online marketers away from jobs that could have been productive in the long run, such as brainstorming originalities and strategies that could noticeably assist their customers.

Automated Journalism – Ai Applications At New York Times ...

Whenever you're trying to try out or implement a new strategy, you'll desire to investigate the subject thoroughly. For example, you'll wish to recognize your spending plan and after that check out software that fits into it. You'll also desire to identify the pros and cons of any software application you consider. This will help you much better familiarize yourself with the world of AI and which tools can actually assist you.

Prior to deciding that we wished to streamline our reporting technique, we 'd been researching AI through resources at our Marketing AI Institute. The Institute is a media company that intends to make AI more approachable for marketers. real-time progress reporting. Given that we released the business, we've released more than 400 posts on AI in marketing.

2 billion. After learning more about how AI had already streamlined lots of marketing-related procedures, we decided to explore how automation and artificial intelligence could assist us with our clients at PR 20/20. We ended up being obsessed with how smarter technology could increase revenue and reduce costs. At the same time, we found natural language generation (NLG) technology that wrote plain English automatically.

You have actually experienced NLG anytime you've utilized Gmail's Smart Compose feature. Or, when you hear Amazon's Alexa react to your voice questions. Once we discovered a possibly useful NLG software, we chose to run an experiment to see if the AI technology could partially or totally automate our efficiency report composing process.

'Automated Writing': Implications For Digital Communicators ...

Now, the next step is to look for software application that works for your service. Here are a couple of things you'll need to think about: You'll want to consider the cost of any of the software application's memberships or charges, in addition to the expense to implement it. For example, you might need to contract or hire an engineer to prepare your information and take any steps to ensure the software application works smoothly.

Be sure to comprehend what you'll need to do if something isn't working correctly so you do not incur any emergency expenses. As an online marketer, you will not wish to depend on a full-time engineer to use AI software application to run your reports. You'll wish to purchase software application that your less tech-savvy staff member can eventually get trained on and discover. automated reporting dashboards.

As you choose software, you'll also desire to track down case research studies, reviews, or user testimonials that explain how a business utilized the software to run reports or finish a similar activity. This will provide you a concept of if the item you're thinking about has a good track record or credibility in the AI software application market.

Here are two highly-regarded examples: Domo is a data visualization and reporting tool that integrates with major information and analytics platforms consisting of Google Analytics. When you link these platforms, you can utilize a dashboard to set up and generate information visualizations or reports for your clients. These visualizations include pie charts, other graphs, and word clouds.

Vphrase - Get Insights From Your Data In Natural Language

The platform provides guides on how to develop datasets or spreadsheets that its algorithms will acknowledge as well as a drag and drop guide which asks you to publish specific details such as "Regular monthly Spending plan." Here's a quick demo that shows Domo in action: This reporting software permits you to produce reports or reporting dashboards that your group and customers can edit and cross-collaborate on.

reporting tools ...opensource.com

Aside from data visualizations, you can likewise add boxes to your dashboards that show you scorecards that note whether you're striking your goals or not, in addition to filters that help you drill down on specific elements of your project. Here's a demonstration discussing how small businesses such as nonprofits can take advantage of the software application's control panel reporting features: No matter which product you choose, you'll likely require to prepare your information in a way that your software's robot or algorithm could easily recognize and evaluate - automatic report.

Plecto ApS

Address: Viby Ringvej 11, 1 tv

Phone: +45 71 99 71 60

Email: support@plecto.com

Real-time insights

The software application needed structured information in columns and rows to generate text. So, initially, we needed to pull HubSpot and Google Analytics information into spreadsheets. Due to the fact that doing this manually would take too much time and limit the prospective time saved with automation, we utilized APIs and constructed our own algorithm utilizing Google Apps Scripts to pull data into a Google Sheet.

We knew NLG software would be unlikely to deal with completely customized reports well. So, we developed a design template for these reports that didn't change each month. To develop a format for each report, we identified a set of 12 typical questions we were trying to respond to for clients each month: How much traffic concerned your site, and how does that compare to the previous month? In 2015? How engaged was last month's website traffic? What were the top traffic-driving channels? Was there fluctuation in general traffic, and if so, what caused it? How did the blog carry out last month? How engaged was blog traffic? What were the top-performing post? Existed any modifications in blog site traffic last month, and if so, what caused them? The number of goals or new contacts were generated last month? What were the leading transforming pages? Where did objectives or new contacts come from? Was there any change in overall objectives or lead volume, and if so, what was accountable? A good AI software application will either allow you to produce files or even dashboards, as your reports.

Automated Writing Evaluation - Excelsior College Owl

As soon as we 'd structured our information and established a standard report format, we needed to translate our standard report format into an NLG design template. The design template was basically a completed variation of a performance report. When the NLG software runs, this report gets copied into the NLG software. Then guidelines are applied to the copy to programmatically upgrade what's written based on the structured information offered.

------------[ 1 ]------------

Automated Reports - Jotform

Table of ContentsHow Report Automation Can Improve Your Reporting Process ...Automated Content: Can Algorithms Write Your Content For You?Automated Reports And Dashboards In R - Nandeshwar.infoSitekick - Automated Client ReportsReproducible And Automated Reporting Using Stata

The final output could be a CSV, Word, or Google Doc file. Even if you're dealing with a credible AI software application, you'll still wish to evaluate it and troubleshoot any concerns that emerge. This prevents any AI-related occurrences from happening when the tool is actively being utilized by workers or on tight due dates.

Plecto ApS

Address: Viby Ringvej 11, 1 tv

Phone: +45 71 99 71 60

Email: support@plecto.com

Real-time insights

And we eventually perfected the process to regularly produce clear, accurate automatic performance reports. If a software service provider that you work with offers a trial or discount for evaluating out their item, leverage it. This will permit you to witness first-hand if the cost of the product exceeds its benefits, or provide you time to recognize if there is a better product that you ought to be using - automatic dashboard.

When you do this, here are a few things that you'll desire to examine: The quantity of time that the software is conserving employees, or if there were any bugs, just how much time the software cost. The amount of other efficient or revenue-generating tasks your team had the ability to get made with the extra time you had.

Regulatory Tracking & Compliance ...bulalaw.com

As we tracked our brand-new automated efficiency reports, we found that our tools took a portion of the time to produce the exact same report that we took hours to produce. Furthermore, the level of detail in our client reports is now constant throughout all accounts. Prior to we implemented AI tools, the reports were just as strong as the account team's comfort level of evaluating marketing performance reports.

Associated Press - Automated Insights

The only handbook part of the procedure now involves spot-checking the data for accuracy, applying some styling, and then sending. time reports. What when took us five hours per report now takes 10 minutes. While the initial process required to be handled by numerous teammates, just one employee is needed for spot-checking.

Although our group has the ability to gain access to AI providers and professionals for our in-office experiments, other small company online marketers can likewise take benefit of this technique rather economically. Nevertheless, bear in mind that AI execution can take some time. For us, we needed to put time into building structured datasets, in addition to our Report template so that our AI software application could read our analytics and draft reports appropriately.

Total information, faster conclusions, and much better decision-making digital-era success hinges on them (real-time progress reporting). But a company with a single variation of the truth, spreadsheets filled with accurate data, is still a few rungs brief of success. One reason: management requires easy-to-digest reports that interpret the numbers. That tends to lead to cleaner analyses and crisper decision-making.

These products drill-down into ab company's database and auto-produce easy-to-understand, written reports from the same data that Microsoft Excel uses to produce graphics. A few of these fairly new AI tools also known as natural language generation, or NLG, software are variations of the same innovation that assists significant media companies produce computer-written news items.

Automated Reporting With R Markdown

Anna Schena, a senior product manager at Story Science, another AI-generated writing toolmaker, says that "data storytelling" implies users don't have to learn how to evaluate spreadsheets or glean insights from long rows of dashboard dials. "Easy-to-understand language and one-click collaboration functions make sure that everybody in a business in fact comprehends the data, all the time," Schena states.

States Sharon Daniels, CEO of Arria: "NLG-driven, multi-dimensional stories are the development that [data-generated] visuals were years earlier. The big information issue was partly addressed with the advancement of service intelligence dashboards," she discusses. "But while visuals paint an image, they're not the total picture." Includes Daniels: "The ability to gain access to essential details in near real-time interacted as if composed by the business's leading expert, without predisposition, at an NLG writing-speed is truly astonishing - automated report writing." Deep inside analytics departments, NLG tools are getting traction.

Heitzman utilized AI-generated writing software application from Arria NLG to punch-up reports containing the graphics rendered by his propriety service intelligence (BI) software application. "We've developed narratives on enormous amounts of data to be able to immediately and clearly articulate the marketing worth we're giving our clients," Heitzman states. "The [Arria NLG] platform has actually dramatically reduced the amount of time and effort to discover insights." Brian O'Connor, lead director, advanced analytics international service services at biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, boosted the graphics produced by Microsoft's Power BI.

Meanwhile, chip goliath Nvidia is enhancing its Tableau control panel with Automated Insights: "Automated Insights' Wordsmith has actually entirely changed how our group interacts with Tableau," says LaSandra Brill, head of digital planning and insights at Nvidia. "We can now ask the most essential questions straight within Tableau and receive real-time analysis from Wordsmith." IT options service provider Macrocomm includes story to its analytics program's output also: "By adding narratives to Eureka, we can produce summary findings in several languages that can be shared with stakeholders at a speed and scale not formerly possible," says Vinny Perumal, a handling director in the compnay's energies department.

Implementing Automated Reporting Solutions – What To ...

[cdelphiki]

So how does Scrivener work cdelphiki? Any specifics? I think you talked about it a fair bit before, early in November, but I can't quite remember.

Scrivener is awesome!! Basically, it’s a word processor on steroids specifically for writers (and not student/business purposes, like Microsoft Word/Google Docs) Although you can use it for student or business purposes, if you wanted.  

Basically, you use it by first creating your project. It has a lot of templates to choose from, and once you pick what you want to do, it has instructions of how to structure your project in your newly created file.  There are a ton of template options, but I’m here for the novel format: 

But you can write pretty much anything you can imagine in scrivener.  

Pick what you want and click “choose” then save it somewhere. I have the app for ipads/iphones, so I save all my projects on dropbox so I can access them from my phone or computer. (This is how scrivener is set up for synced across platforms: over dropbox, not icloud for mac users. It took me a hot minute to figure out.) It has you name and save it up front so it can start backing up your work!!

Once it’s got the project created, it will give you the informational page for the template you selected. Read through it for a lot of good information on how to use all the organizational tools for your specific project. 

Now you basically just start working. There is no real wrong way to go about putting together your story.  I use scrivener for both one shots and multi-chaptered fics.  I actually keep most my one shots in one project, titled “Tumblr Prompts,” just to make it easier than having a zillion project files for single stories.  

If you want a pretty detailed walkthrough of how I use scrivener, I put it all below the cut. :D

Here’s one of my my well-used project files: 

There’s a lot going on here. The left column is your navigation bar. This is basically your entire book. As you can see I have folders within folders. The main one, called “Manuscript” by default, is basically the book in its entirety. I then use more folders for each chapter.  Right now, since I’m still drafting, I actually just have it broken into ‘events,’ rather than chapters. This is just a me thing and is what I figured out to help me keep better track of everything. 

So I have the Prologue, and then event 1.1 (act 1, event 1), 1.2, 1.3, etc.  In 1.3, as you can see, I have both chapter 3 and 4 as scene cards.  1.4 has five scene cards that will likely turn into 7 chapters, once I do a revision! 

All the various colors of text are revisions.  By default, the first draft is written in black.  

When you’re ready to do a revision, you can turn on revision mode and select which version you’re on. I’m on my third revision. I really like this function because it lets me see my progress. 

Now, inside all these folders you can see a couple different symbols there.  You can actually change the symbols of these things yourself by right clicking on the object in the navigation pane and selecting “change icon.”  I put the pencil on all my notes, so it’s very easy for me to know what to get rid of when I’m cleaning up and about to call something “done.” On Precedent, for example, whenever I publish a chapter, I go ahead and name the chapter folder in Scrivener and get rid of all the note cards so all that is left is what I actually published.  

Probably one of the best things about Scrivener, is when you want to get rid of something, you don’t have to erase it entirely.  On this project here, you can see I have a file a couple under the file selected for viewing called “trash pile.”  Whenever I remove large chunks of text, I actually just copy it over to a blank scene card so it’s not ‘lost.’  I then “move to trash,” so it’s not in the way, but it’s always available to me.  Scrivener does not delete anything you ‘move to trash’ unless you specifically move to that trash bin and make it delete it.  This is great because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ‘thrown something away’ just to realize, sometimes months later, that that exact scene would work perfectly now! And good thing I saved the draft, so I had something to start with!  

Now, back to these ‘scene’ cards.  Scene cards are just the files you actually write on. I don’t know if Scrivener calls them that or not, but they’re set up like notecards. I don’t know if you ever did the notecard method in school, where you wrote major points on note cards and then arranged them into a logical order on the table? That’s basically what this is. 

To get to this screen, I selected the folder for section 1.4.  You can pick any folder you want, even the over all manuscript to get here.  Then you pick the view option, where the top arrow is pointing.  The first view option shows it as a document, as my other pictures have already demonstrated. 

What the notecards are going to show you is your synopsis, if you have one written.  Each and every file, even the folder itself, has a spot for ‘synopsis’ and ‘notes,’ which do not count into your overall word count.  It’s really nice for keeping stuff out of the way.  I’ve found I prefer having my notes as actual scene cards, but the notes section is handy for throwing important things.  I also save the link to where I’ve posted stuff on tumblr for easy saving or research so I don’t lose anything.  

If you do not have anything written in the synopsis section, the card will just show as much as the text as it can in a dark grey, rather than the black ink of the synopsis.  I rarely use the synopsis section, so you can see all my documents just have the first bits of text.  

On this screen you can start dragging around cards and move them however you think things need to line up.  This works remarkably well if you write in a lot of small scenes, and need to reorganize because you realized that Tim needs to have a panic attack before he faces Ra’s.  Or whatever.  You can also reorganize at any point in the navigation pane itself.  I drag stuff between folders all the time.  That’s another reason I love having my notes on actual scene cards, because a lot of times I end up punting scenes off into the future, and it makes it way easier to drag and drop it into the next chapter folder to deal with later.  

Another feature I really like is ‘targets.’ 

To get here, I selected the overall manuscript, and then switched to the third view option, up there next to the note cards option.  It shows me my whole book this way, as well as the status of each folder or document (which I have to set myself.)  It also shows me if I had a target word count, and how close I am to reaching it.  I like my chapters to be about 3k words, so I make that my target. (set your target by clicking on the target icon on the bottom right corner of a document while in document view.)  The purple goes from a dark purple to a lighter one the closer you get. (This is because I am using the ‘theme’ “Purple Haze.” The color is based on your theme. I forget what the default is.)

You can also set daily word goals, and up at the top, below the project’s name, it’ll show you progress toward that goal. I’ve written two words today.... so I don’t have a progress bar yet.  The bar above the project’s name is for the overall word goal set. I have this project set to 100k. 

I think that’s pretty much it.  The only other feature I use regularly I haven’t mentioned is the split screen.  

Basically, click where the arrows are pointing. When you’re in just regular view, it’ll look like a split screen, rather than a single document view button.  When you hit it, it opens your currently selected document twice, on both sides of the screen. Click on the bar for the document you want to change and then select whatever you want from your navigation pane.  I use this mostly for putting my notes on one side and my actual working document on the other. Yesterday I was using while revising, throwing anything I didn’t want anymore into my ‘trash pile’ by just dragging it across.  

Once you’re done with something, you can run spelling and grammar check (because it does not check as you go, unless you go into settings and make it do that. It’s turned off by default. I find the squiggly lines distracting, so I love this feature) and use the various text tidying tools, such as the one that turns all multiple spaces into single spaces! 

So yeah! That’s Scrivener. I love it so much. It has made writing so much easier. I wrote most of Life Happens in a single Microsoft Word document, and that was a huge mess and horrible and really difficult. I’ve written two long fics in their entirety now on Scrivener and I won’t ever go back.  

Oh, and if anyone was curious, this is how I use Scrivener for my one shots: I just label the folders with the main relationship or the collection they’re from, rather than treated the folders like chapters.  I then name the scene cards either with their actual titles or a brief description (if I didn’t give them titles) to let me know what’s been published and what isn’t done.  

[mfackenthal]

The MFackenthal Show and @maxattack-powell!

banner by @whenyourheartskipsabeat

Hello all!  Welcome back to the MFackenthal Show!  I am so glad that you are here today.  If you’re new to the show, I encourage you to go here to find past episodes.  There are only a few.

The MFackenthal Show has officially been green lit for more episodes!  We used to only be able to afford to run the show every once in a while, but the people have spoken - they want to see the show more often!  The funding came through and we hope to give the people what they want!  Do you want to be on the show?  Do you have someone that you want to see on the show?  If so - reblog or comment or send a message to let MFackenthal know!  We’ll see what we can do!  We have this show and two others lined up for you!

I could not be more excited to bring you this next guest.  She has been with the fandom for quite a while.  She was one of the first people I started communicating with on a regular basis.  She has talked me up, supported me from the beginning and though she hasn’t written much lately - when she does drop a chapter - it’s long and it’s worth it!  Please welcome to the stage @maxattack-powell!!!!!  (Insert Cheering here!)

(Megs greets Max with a hug - which means that Megs essentially runs and leaps into Max’s arms.  Max is fairly tall and Megs is barely 5′3″) 

Megs:  Max, I am so happy that you are here!  Can you believe that you’re here today?

Max:  Haha, yes - I can.  But I am honored to be here.

Megs:  Max, sit with me.  For those in the audience who may not know you, tell us about when and why you joined the fandom.

Max: Yanno, I always made my best guess at this before, but I knew you were going to ask me this - so I looked it up.  Did you know that now there’s this Official Tumblr blog called @memories, and it knows down to the minute when someone joined? Let me go check it… *digs through the blogs posts* Okay, it was apparently 07/31/2017 at 1:17:15 PM, which means it must have been on the weekend because of the time of day haha.

As for why ... hmm, well… I found the Choices app one day, when it only had like… three series I think! Anyone else remember that time? 

Megs:  I do!  Because I was playing Hollywood University I think I downloaded choices the day the app came out.

Max: Awh!  Well, I fell in love with The Freshman Series. Mostly because of Chris Powell and Zack Zilberg, and a long time ago I was in another fandom that had tons of fan fiction/art… so I googled “Choices Chris Powell” and any other combination I could think of looking for possible fanfiction. The fandom was almost non existent at the time. There was actually one person, who has long since left the fandom due to fandom dramas - we all know the kinds I’m talking about - but a few others had started posting their works as well… and I got hooked. Eventually I felt the bug to write how I felt TF should play out as well, and here I am *looks back at the “joined tumblr timestamp”* uhh… 20ish months ago!  Haha!!

Megs:  LOL, when you put it that way it doesn’t sound like that long ago ... lets call a spade a spade - that was almost 2 years ago!  That’s amazing!  You have to have seen so much in this fandom!  What is it that keeps you around?

Max: There are so many awesome people in this fandom, in this world we’ve all created for our pixelated loves lol. Soooo many creative minds to follow and enjoy. The content people share, original or repost… it’s great. 

... Unfortunately it is also a double edge sword ... the drama, the jealousy, the rumors, the hate, etc. I’ve sadly seen far too much and it comes in so many forms… it’s unnecessary.

Megs:  I couldn’t agree more!  If you could tell the fandom one thing - what would it be?

Max: It would be that we’re all here because we want to have a good time. No one came here to get ridiculed, to be scrutinized or chastised for their opinions, their likes or dislikes. Real life has enough of that going on. We are all individuals - if you want to be treated nicely, fairly, etc. you must also do the same to others. There is no reason someone must agree with you or anyone else. Live and let live. Embrace our differences as it makes us who we are. Most of the issues I see stem from a simple difference in opinion. That is ridiculous. Everyone’s entitled to their own thoughts. We must build each other up, not tear one another down. No one here owes anyone anything, now go have some fun.

(The room stands up in applause!)

Megs:  You should definitely stand up and take a bow, Max! 

(Max does just as Megs suggests - but she also makes Megs stand up and do the same. Laughing, they both sit back down.)

Awh, Max ... okay, let’s get back to you.  We know that you’d fight anyone for the position of The Chris Powell Appreciation/Fan Club.  And for those who don’t know, Max has been retelling the full The Freshman series, interweaving dialogue and plot from PB but also adding much of her own content.  MC and Chris get a backstory.  Chris gets best friends from back home.  What is your favorite piece that you have written?

Max: Oh geez hahaha. Um… can I just say The Freshman Chronicles as a whole? I’ve written for different fandoms, and I have original WIPs but I’ll stick to the Choices fandom for this answer. I’ve put a lot of time into TFC. Tons of additional story work, research on characters and their backgrounds, PBs and my own OCs. You should see my file folder setup haha. It’s crazy… I have so many docs, pictures and gifs. Most organized by location (Hartfeld, Boston, New Haven, Cherryfield, etc.), then by character… and on some I get more detailed and split them by emotion and situation.

Megs: By what again?

Max:  Emotion and Situation ... Yeah. I warned you it was crazy! *laughs* TFC was the reason I joined tumblr really. Instead of staying a Nonny and only reading others posted works. I wanted to comment, like and reblog what I enjoyed, while I also worked on my own contribution to the fandom. I had a vision for Chris and MC that had more than the game could give, and I wanted to see if i was still any good at writing since it had been years and years… it’s funny to see how different my current posts are from my first over a year ago. Makes me want to go update a few because they could use a little help *awkward laugh*

Megs:  I’m sure we can all relate to that!  Hmmm ... I’m starting to get a feel for this, I think, but what is your writing process?

Max:  Lots of planning, mostly in my head. When I feel like I have a decent concept I might type out some notes or work it into my outline (another crazy thing I have going for TFC because it’s so big haha). But usually, once I hatch out a basic plan on where I’m going… I just start typing. Keeping the general plot and main points I want to hit in mind, I simply start typing… keeping it as organic as possible. It usually works out well. 

Megs:  Do you have any advice for other writers?

Max: First, and most importantly… do it because you enjoy it. Don’t do it for likes, reblogs, popularity, etc. If you’re having a good time dreaming things up and typing them out, that’s what’s important. The rest is just an extra bonus. Also, don’t give up. It’s easy to become discouraged, frustrated, distracted and more… but remember - your creative cells can’t be running all the time. They need to rest just like your body. Take breaks… go read, play games, hang out with friends/family, watch a movie… whatever. Just do something to help you relax, to reset and you’ll very probably find inspiration and/or motivation to continue. Remember, this is for fun. *wink and finger guns*

Megs: So what do you do for fun?

Max: I actually have a few things I do regularly. A big one is making costumes/props for conventions, small productions, etc. I also train and show horses. I do the same with my dogs, but more for competitions and not really any shows. I’ve always drawn, sculpted, painted since I was old enough to hold things with my hands… and about a year ago I started learning how to do it digitally as well. I run (not at all for fun haha) and play hockey (totally for fun), follow comics and watch anime. I've restored houses, cars and old furniture. I like to read as much as I can - that’s an important one. I also play video games. Something I’ve done since I was young… I've even competed, and won, a few gaming tournaments.

Megs:  You don’t know how to be bored do you?

Max: LOL, Megs.  Yeah, um, so there’s a “few” *makes air quotes* of my never ending list of interests haha. Gives me a lot to talk about with people, eh?

Megs: Not that I can understand how you’d have time for this ... but what do you do to help pay for your many activities?

Max:  Oh like, my job? Well that can be a simple answer… like “I work in software” but the more interesting way to say it is I use my MBA, experience in business, the financial industry and technology to improve and stabilize my customers environment through technological solutions that fit their specific needs. *presses lips together* I solve problems by designing solutions. Bored yet? Hahaha.

Megs:  No!  That sounds wonderful!  Who doesn’t want their stuff to be designed better?  Any chance you could start working for tumblr?  Some of us have a few complaints ... tags ... mobile losing our work ...

Max:  I’m not sure they could pay me enough to help them with all of their problems!  But, tumblr, feel free to send me an offer!

Megs:  Seriously - send her a 6 figure offer!

Max:  Okay, Megs, well now I have a question for you.

Megs: Uhhhh, Max, that’s not exactly how this is supposed to go. 

Max:  Yeah, don’t care.  Your fans need to know ... Hoooow do you find the time to read and review so much?! And I know that’s just in this fandom.  I know you read books and you may read for other fandoms!?  Seriously, it’s awesome. We need to clock your page flipping speed haha.

Megs:  *blushes* Oh my gosh, you have to stop!  Here’s the key to how I do it ... I wake up at 5:30am and read for about 30 minutes.  Then I workout and start my day.  I read in line at the grocery stores.  I read on my breaks at work. 

Max:  Oh my gosh - you’re such a nerd and I love that!  Okay, nerd, what is your favorite thing to do, besides reading all the things of course?

Megs: This show, of course!  And, of course, getting people to do silly things on this show with me.  For instance - with as athletic as you are, I hear you can’t jump? 

Max:  Megs, shhhhh.  You told me you weren’t going to bring that up.

Megs:  I did no such thing! (Meg says while laughing) I said I might not bring it up.

Max:  Uh huh.

(Kris Kross’s “Jump” starts playing in the studio)

Megs:  Come on - show me what you’ve got! 

(Megs starts “singing” along and jumping along with the song. Max stays seated.  Megs finally pulls Max up into a standing position. Max plays along and “jumps” next to Megs - getting no air at all.)

Oh, come on Max - put some real strength in to it.  Jump! Jump! Jump!

(Max jumps and gets the smallest amount of air time.)

Max:  *laughing* Megs - I’m tall!  I don’t need to jump to reach things!

Megs:  *laughing* That must be nice.  I got good at this type of jumping because I had to learn to jump up and gently grab things from the grocery so I didn’t knock everything down.

*continuing to jump around the audience - getting everyone to join her* And that’s all for the show today today, folks!  Thank you for watching!!  Have a great night!

[biopsychs]

What I Learned From University (2nd Year)

See what I learned in first year here

Adjust how you study → I have a different study method for each class. Even if the content is similar to another class or you’ve had the prof before, you have to personalize your learning.

You can skip class sometimes → My introductory microbiology class was the worst class I’ve ever taken and I love microbiology. The prof sucked and I found I could just catch up on notes on the bus and have extra time to sleep in. I rarely skip class but I realized my time was much better spent working on other things. Only skip classes if catching up on notes is more efficient/a better use of your time than actually going to lectures. Also, don’t be afraid to take a day off (when you can) if your mental or physical health is suffering.

Group projects suck → I knew this already but nothing could have prepared me for what I had to deal with in my one semester long research methods class. I wish I had talked to my TA  or prof earlier to explain what was going on and how I could fix it. (Side note: Use Google docs for group projects!)

Mentoring programs are a great thing to be involved in → I got involved with a mentoring program for women in stem at my university and it has been such a valuable experience! I have access and connections to upper year students and women working in academia and industry who are there to provide help and guidance. My only regret is that I was too timid to ask for help at the start -- take advantage of the opportunities you have!

Get larger projects like reports and essays done as soon as you get them → My organic chemistry lab reports always took so long to write so I would delay working on them. However, I eventually got into a routine of finishing my lab report (or at least 95% of my report) on weekends (my labs were on Fridays) and it made my life so much easier! Just get it done and you won’t have the looming stress of a big project or report hanging over you.

Go to social events on and off campus → You can be social in so many different ways at university! Find something you’re comfortable with or go just outside your comfort zone. I went to a pizza party for psych majors and it was chill. I also went to a pubcrawl and it was so much fun. If you’re hesitant, drag a friend along the first time but make sure you talk to new people!

Apply for summer jobs early → Lots of good summer jobs for university students are posted early! I check my university’s job board and also look for jobs that are meant for students (where I live the government will provide funding for summer students to certain organizations). Make sure you send in your applications in as soon as possible too! Even if the deadline to apply is in two weeks, some places will get in touch with applicants (and could potentially hire someone) before that deadline. Find out if your uni has a career advising office (or something like that) and check it out, if you need help with resumes, cover letters, interviews, etc.

Leave your options open  → If you’re unsure about your major or career path, leave your options open as much as you can! Use the time you have now to explore what you really like. Last year I made the decision to do a double major in biology and psychology, because I wanted to go to med school but also wanted to leave the option of research (in bio or psych) open. Now, I’ve decided to major in psych and minor in bio, with the intent to pursue clinical psychology. I took classes and got research experience that helped me make an informed decision about what I really like and want to do.

Get involved in research and use your connections → Get research experience as early as possible. This will help you figure out if you actually want to pursue research or not, and will be so helpful with applications if you end in a position where you’re doing your own research! I have found it much easier to get involved with research by having connections (like talking to a prof, grad student, or upper year undergrad student who is already involved with a lab) rather than sending out cold emails to profs and hoping they’ll reply. If you are sending an email to a prof/lab you don’t have any connections to, make sure your personalize it -- mention any prior experience you have and why you’re interested in that lab specifically.

Check your email constantly → As a general rule, you can never check your email too much. Make an effort to reply to emails as soon as you get them, because otherwise you might forget about them. In general, reply to emails within 24 hours anyways.

Take a summer class → I took a summer class on the psychology of motivation and it was totally worth it. I knew I would have to take a summer class at one point and I knew I would prefer to do it earlier in my degree (taking a summer class in my last year does not sound like fun). It was refreshing to see how well I could do when one class was my only priority and I was able to learn/retain the content so much better. It was also nice that I was able to take an upper level course (my previous psych courses had been only 1st or 2nd year level) by itself so I could get used to the increased demands. One thing to note is that summer classes go by really quickly (in my case 3 lectures were equivalent to 3 weeks of classes) so make sure you’re keeping up with the material.

Find your optimal level of stress → One thing I learned in my motivation class is that we all have an optimal level of stress. Think of it as an inverted U shape, with performance on the y axis and stress on the x axis. The highest point, the top of the U, is your optimal level of stress, where stress is helping you perform to the best of your ability. If you move past that point (either less stress or more stress) your performance is going to decrease. If your stress levels are high and anxiety-causing your performance is going to suffer. I found my optimal level of stress when I was studying for my first motivation midterm -- I was cramming the night before but because I had no other pressing responsibilities (like 4 other classes) I was able to feel stressed without feeling panic or test anxiety also. Find your optimal level of stress and see how well you perform. Remember that feeling when your stress levels are rising so you have a baseline to get back to.

Don’t get stuck as “premed” → Being premed is completely okay but don’t close yourself off from other options. I know so many people who are premeds and are also biochemistry majors. Some of these people don’t even like biochemistry but stick with it because they think it will make their application look better. Please study something you’re actually interested in. Med school is a great option but just make sure you have a plan B (and a degree that is going to suit this plan B). I know someone who graduated with their biochemistry degree and regretted it -- by the end of their degree, their plan was no longer med school and they wished they had done a general biology degree, w classes they liked, while taking a few biochem classes they liked. I used to consider myself premed but I realized clinical psychology is a much better fit for what I actually like/am good at. Just make sure you want to be a doctor for the right reasons is all I’m saying.

Morning classes are actually kind of okay → Everyone talks about how bad morning classes are, but I actually prefer them. I have a hard time paying attention in later classes and it’s really nice to have all my classes done by mid-day. Just make sure you keep a regular sleep schedule (i.e. try to go to bed/ wake up at reasonably early times so your body can recover better on the nights where you get less sleep) 

Always come prepared → This applies for so many things. Bring a snack, don’t forget your charger, do your readings. You’re never going to regret being prepared but you may regret not being prepared.

Be ready to register for classes → Know your time and date to register for classes and be ready to click register right at that time! I always make multiple schedules b/c often the lab times or classes I want to take are full. If a class is full, make sure you know what to do. Register on the waitlist. If there isn’t a waitlist, find out who you need to talk to (usually the prof or department head). Check back a few times a week to see if spots open up in classes, because a lot of people change their schedule. Don’t wait to talk to an academic advisor if you’re not sure which classes to take or have any concerns.

Quizlet is a blessing  → Quizlet is an app/website that lets you make flashcards and view other people’s flashcard sets. Study flashcards while you’re waiting in line for coffee or on the bus. You may also be able to find flashcards from people who took the same class as you -- use those! If you make your own flashcards be a nice person and share them with your friends :)

A bad grade is not the end of the world → In one class I got 35% on my first midterm and never managed to get a midterm grade higher than 68%. I was absolutely destroyed when I saw that mark on my first midterm and was ready to give up. Please don’t give up! I talked to my prof and was able to have my other midterms weighted more and I used my lab reports to bring my mark up. If you show your profs you’re working hard they’ll do what they can to help you out. It’s really easy to feel like your hard work is not making a difference, especially if you’re continually not getting the results you want -- this doesn’t mean you should stop working hard, it just means you may have to study differently, review material daily, and ask for help! If you fail you need to remember that you will have to work harder -- you have to keep up with the new material and relearn the old material. I wasn’t overly happy when I saw my final grade in the aforementioned class but, when I compared it to my first midterm and my feelings of utter confusion, I was satisfied with my grade because it showed my progress and improvement (and I also used it to motivate me to never let it happen again).

Realize that everyone is at university for different reasons → Some people have big goals, some people are still figuring it out, and some people just want to get their degree as soon as possible. There’s nothing wrong with being any of the above, just don’t expect everyone to have the same goals as you.

Know the deadlines for dropping courses → Even if you don’t think you’ll be dropping or changing any courses, write the dates down in your planner. My friend waited a few days too long to drop a math class that turned out to be extremely difficult and, even though she passed it in the end, she was stressed out all semester and her performance in other classes suffered as a result.

You’ll always be meeting new people and making friends → I lived off campus first year and felt like I had missed my chance to make friends. I shouldn’t have worried so much. Second year was much better in that there were a lot more familiar faces in my classes and I got to know other people much better through smaller classes and labs! Other people are always happy to make friends so just take the first step by starting a conversation :)

You can’t give 100% all the time → Some of the best advice that I was given this year was that you can’t give 100% all the time. You only have so much time and energy (mental and physical) you can give. For some tasks, the outcome from 70% effort and 100% effort may not be too different. Figure out what tasks those are so that you have enough energy to give 100% when you really need it.

[belabee]

Productivity Master Post

So, I realized recently that I’ve tried a lot of different things to try to manage my executive dysfunction. Not all of them have worked for me and some of them I’ve tried and love but can’t find a way to make it actually fit into my general life schedule, or tried and didn’t really like at all.

I figured I’d share them. The ones that worked, the ones that didn’t, and the ones that I love but don’t know how to yet implement. Since everyone’s different and what works/doesn’t work for me, might work for others. 

This will get updated as I remember things/try new things/etc. Each of the things will have links so you can take a look into them yourselves :) 

Right now I’m just listing them out - I’ll probably edit this and do some pros and cons as well.

I’m gonna put it under the cut though cuz it’ll probably get loooong

I’ll start off with some Productivity Methods

Getting Things Done

Book by David Allen

Process:

1) Collect tasks

2) Process

3) Organize

4) Plan 

5) Do

What started me on trying to figure out a productivity system for myself. In my experience, each person’s system looks different. It’s all just based on what works for you.

The two main concepts that I got out of GTD are

Being specific with my tasks with what needs to be done and when and by whom

Reflecting and Strategic Reviews: Looking at my system and seeing where my bottlenecks are, coming up with solutions, and being specific about it

Pomodoro Technique

Time management technique developed by Francesco Cirillo 

This one I will swear by forever. Basically it helps me focus on my tasks. The typical Pomodoro technique looks like: 25 mins of Focused Work time (1 pomodoro “pomo”), 5 minute break, and then after 4 pomodoros - one long break. 

Can be used to help you focus with anything - writing, cleaning, homework, anything that might end up taking a long time. 

I use Complice and the Captains log to help me with this one. 

Captain’s Log

A self-reflection method that I learned from the founder of Complice (linked above)

Basically if I’m doing a pomo, and I find myself getting distracted, or I said I’d do a thing and I find that I’m not doing it - I’ll whip out my captain’s log and note down what distracted me or what’s getting in my way of doing the thing.

I tend to use this when I’m doing my weekly/ review to help troubleshoot what I should try in the upcoming week or if there’s other areas that I need to work on first before doing the thing. 

Eisenhower Decision Matrix (aka the Urgent-Important matrix)

This one helped me out a lot at school. Basically it’s a 4-quadrant decision making system that helps organize and prioritize tasks. The 4 quadrants are:

Urgent-Important

Less urgent-Important

Urgent - Less important

Less urgent - Less important

Eat That Frog

an Anti-procrastination method

Concept of doing the least pleasant very important thing first, or if there are multiple unpleasant important things - do the biggest one first.

So far, I’ve found it works best if I add some social accountability to it - like, letting someone know that this is a Frog for me, and I will do it today. 

Things that work for me/I’m currently using:

Complice.co

https://complice.co/?r=ael4x5dmam (gonna plug my referral link :P ) 

This one I use to sort out my projects and goals. I currently have 8 goals - 2 of them are work related, and the rest are personal goals. When I was in school, I had a different goal for each course I was taking

Basically you list out what you want to get done on your goals that day - your “Intentions” - and at the end of each day you check off what you got done - your “Outcomes”

Complice has ready made spaces for weekly and monthly and yearly reflections, as well as integrated Pomodoro options and coworking rooms.

They also have a Goal-Crafting Intensive Workshop that they do at the beginning of the year which I found super useful and highly recommend. 

Passion Planner / Bullet Journaling

I only recently discovered bullet journaling, but I’m finding that I like the method because it can be as simplistic or as all-encompassing as you want/need. It appeals to the wouldbe-crafter in me, and I love stylizing my monthly/weekly layouts.

Passion Planner I’ve been using since I was in school. I find that that it works well with Complice, and provides me with an easy portable hard copy of my Tasks and Goals and Reflections. I used to be very online about my GTD system and relied heavily on my smartphone to manage my system. Over the years I’ve discovered that I get distracted way too easily using my phone for it to really be my main productivity management item 

A con to bullet journaling:

Super easy to get lost on pinterest, instagram, etc., looking for inspiration for your layouts. I’ve wasted many a day doing this :P

Habitica

Gamifying your tasks and habits. Basically - you’re a character in an RPG, you gain points and gold for completing your ToDos, Daily Habits, and  

I find that it helps with providing a certain level of social accountability (Guilds, Challenges, and Parties)

Workflowy

https://workflowy.com/invite/ff47f75.lnx (another referral link plug :P)

Started using this one when I started bullet journaling, it helps that it integrates well with Complice.

What I currently do - I use Workflowy to collect my tasks for the individual goals that I’ve laid out in Complice, and then I put what I need to get done Today into my day’s Intentions on Complice.

Beeminder

Accountability that stings.

Basically, I make a commitment, I lay my credit card on it, and if I don’t do the thing that I said I’d do - I get charged for it.

Provides pretty graphs to see your progress on doing the thing, is basically a free service if you do the things you said you’d do. 

Super helpful for eating frogs - if I can’t motivate myself to eat the frog on my own - you can bet that I’m more likely to do the thing if it means that it’s gonna take it out of my credit card.

Super good if punishment motivates you more than reward does.

IFTTT - If This, Then That

Love this service. It syncs services to other services that might not have a good integration with your fave apps on their own. 

Works well with Google Home devices

Google - Gmail, Calendar, Drive (Docs, etc.), Hangouts, Groups

Our overlord has so many things - tbf, it’s competing with Microsoft Office, so it’s kinda gotta. 

Gmail can integrate with so many different apps and services, and can be used for a GTD management system as well. 

Calendar - my favourite part is that it’s shareable. When I did shared living, I could easily know my household’s schedule without having to ask them every time. I’m also polyam, so when I had multiple partners and was living with half of them - it made scheduling time together easy.

Hangouts - super useful for staying in touch with peeps. It’s been phased out of my life a little with the introduction of Discord. and I hear that Google might be actually discontinuing it soon (just like they did with Inbox - I’m still mad about that)

Groups - I mostly use this in my inbox. But good as a forum option. I know of shared house dynamics who use this to stay up to date with each other - do house announcements (i.e. when the plumber will be here, etc.) This one has also been phased out with Discord for me

Discord

Great communication service for groups - I haven’t explored it’s integration options fully - but I definitely like it better than Slack

I currently use it for my house (in addition to various fandom groups) - to let my family know if we need to buy x grocery/house item, or let them know I’ll be going away for the weekend, or won’t be home on time for dinner etc., I also use it with my IRL friends - we use it to plan get-togethers, share memes, etc. 

I think most peeps know about this already - but shoot me an ask if I need to elaborate more.

Things I’ve tried but haven’t been able to successfully implement

Asana

A teams/group project task manager - used it when I use to do group living (i.e. a bunch of roommates). I’ve found it less useful now that I live with my family - mostly because it’s doesn’t mesh well with my family dynamic - but I can see how other families could make it work.

Trello

good project board - but it’s definitely more of a teams thing - or a group project thing. I haven’t been able to make it work for my own personal projects and goals. But that might be because of how my brain visualizes tasks - so it might work for others.

RememberTheMilk

This integrates super well with David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

I’ve found that it was good when I was using my phone as my main productivity management item - but I’ve found it less useful now that I use my passion planner.

if you purchase the Pro subscription you can use the location tags to get reminded of tasks when you’re at a certain location (i.e. reminded to submit x paperwork when you get to your head office, reminded to buy x item when you’re at or near x store)

Works well with Google assistant as well so if you have a Google Home device, you can sync your reminders.

Slack

Communication service for teams, groups.

different channels etc.

Good integration with different services (see Beeminder in particular)

I don’t find it as intuitive as Discord though. But I know tons of groups find it helpful and useful for planning and organizing. 

Microsoft Office365 (Outlook, Teams, Sharepoint)

A lot of businesses, organizations, etc., use these - but I find that unless you’re pretty tech savvy already, learning how to use it is pretty hard. It’s not the most userfriendly and it definitely doesn’t play well with others. If you don’t already have an Office365 account it won’t work well for you, and everyone on your team needs to have an Office365 account too. Not to mention you need to have the appropriate Office365 subscription to get access to all the best apps.

But if you do have the money and everyone on your team has an Office365 account, it’s super useful - Sharepoint is great for sharing info to the team, sharing and editing documents, integrates well with Teams which now has a Shifts app (which replaces the old StaffHub app). Teams is good for having the more informal chats with the team.

I find that if you know how to use all the apps and services, it makes it super easy to work at any location. I have multiple locations at my work - and I find it really easy to continue working even if I’m not at my main desk.

[screwtheprinceimtakingthehorse]

Plotting, Scenes, and Outlines: Digital Tools to Help You Write

So, I made a thing a while ago about how I outline chapters and plots and organise my notes using a good old notebook and pen(cil) in order to turn stuff into words.

Since then, the way I write my stories has changed quite a bit: I’ve gone 90% digital/paperless, and I’ve started using a couple new apps for outlining and writing itself.

Two of the apps I use most are Trello and Scrivener 3, both of which you may have encountered in the wild before. Trello is a web app most commonly used in project management and software development. Scrivener is an app for journalists, (script) writers, and authors of all other kinds of fun stuff. Disclaimer: this isn’t sponsored, I’m getting no money for talking about these apps. I’ll also list alternatives for both that I’ve either used myself or read good things about.

Long, long post under the cut.

Trello has entirely replaced my notebook and pencil when it comes to outlining plot/narrative and chapters. Trello is neat because it works on all platforms (web, desktop, mobile) and offers unlimited boards and teams even on the basic free tier. Its boards are highly customisable, but not too customisable.

You can add descriptions, images as covers, links to external websites or Google Docs/other cloud storage, if that’s where you house your writing. My favourite plugin (Trello calls them power-ups) is “Custom Fields.” With it, you can create, you guessed it, custom fields to plug info into and display on the front of your cards.

I use them to be able to see at a glance which mission or plot connection a scene is tied to, how many words I’ll roughly need (or shouldn’t exceed), and which POV I’m writing it in. This way, I just have to take one look at my board before getting started on a scene, and I know what’s up.

Trello also lets you set due dates for cards, and you can use labels to colour-code, if you’re into that. I use labels to mark which scene I’m currently working on (blue), which ones are tied to rewrites (yellow), which ones I’m thinking about removing (red), and which ones need some research or quotes from existing lore (purple — fitting, because most of the time that’s Outsider speeches, because that guy never shuts up).

Once I’m fully done with a scene/chapters, it’s all marked green; leading to this absolute vista of bliss:

Now, Trello operates in lists and cards; which is based on the project management philosophy Kanban. The usual Kanban lanes are “To Do,” “Doing,” and “Done.” Very simply: the goal of Kanban is to divide your work into parcels that are big enough to warrant making a card for, but small enough that, ideally, you can move one or more cards on your board into the next lane every day and then pull the next task that’s waiting for you.

I’ve bastardised that system a little by naming the first couple lanes in my board “drafting, “rewrites,” “editing | final draft,” and “posted.” That way, I can track my chapters’ progress as I write them and then put them through editing. The remaining lists, however, are numbered by chapter, and then each contain a certain number of cards — one card per scene.

I have a separate lane for rewrites tucked in there because there’s always small shit I forget or figure out after I’ve finished the first draft of a chapter. I use the due dates to remind myself when a chapter is going live (not necessarily to mark the task as done — as you can see, I had some chapters in November that went out later than planned) and by what date I should have the rewrites done to give myself time to edit. By that logic, Tuesdays are rewrite days, Thursdays are editing/posting days.

Scenes, and therefore cards, can be more or less complex: they can be short intros or really long sequences containing two or more plot points. That’s what checklists are for. If we look at cards as tasks, you can define sub-tasks for each one, and check them off as you walk through the scene; rather than having to make a card for every plot fart. This is where that Kanban thing comes in: tasks have to be big enough to bother making a new card for them. Conversely, they shouldn’t be so complex that it’ll take ages to mark them complete without seeing any progress on the board (even though in this case, moving cards every day isn’t the priority, but interacting with them is). Plus, just using the chapter cards and then making checklists with one-line entries for every scene would rob me of the space I need to include all that other info — POV, plot connection, etc.

The other important thing about Kanban is visualisation: if you’ve got a bunch of cards stuck in one place on a board, it’s easy to figure out where the bottleneck in your own or your team’s workflow is. Since it’s only me working on these boards, that’s not so much the deciding factor, but these lists still help me visualise my story. Like on my murder board, I’d be able to draw strings from card to card, following a subplot. And you can, in fact, connect cards to each other, to remind yourself that if scene A changes, this might affect a plot point that’ll come back to haunt you in scene B, ten chapters later. (Trust grandma: it happens.)

Trello isn’t the only app that can do this, and it certainly isn’t the only app you can use to outline. Since I work in project management, I’ve seen the arse end of a lot of apps and task tracking systems, and for me personally, Trello hits the sweet spot between feature complexity and interface simplicity. I can put a lot of information in there, but it’s also always ready to use and all I need to make a card is a headline; I can quickly type in an idea and then go back to what I was doing. If you want to collaborate on a project with someone, add them to your board or team. And the best thing: it’s free.

Alternatives to Trello (all with free tiers):

Asana

MeisterTask

Freedcamp

Scrivener, on the other hand, isn’t free — in fact, it’s quite pricey; and that’s why I’ll talk more about how I organise my writing/word processing in general rather than with Scrivener in particular, because I realise that 45 bucks is steep. For me, it’s more than paid off — I’ve plugged nearly half a million words through this thing since I bought it a year ago, and coming from MS Word and Google Docs and lots of loose paper, it’s made my life a whole fucking lot easier. Stories of the Street has 27 chapters and is gonna be exactly 100,000 words long. I bought it because it brings a lot of features together and handles all sorts of text and image files; and can also compile for epub and online publishing platforms. (Even though I still use Pages to make my ebooks because I had it all so nicely set up.) Mainly, I got Scrivener for the convenience of having everything in one place. It has a lot more features than I actually use on the daily.

Still, all the things I do to keep myself organised are things one can achieve with other apps, so the price tag shouldn’t matter.

The main ways that I’ve stayed sane while writing assassins don’t take sides from You Know Who I Am onward are these:

outlines, or: keeping everything in one place/on one screen to avoid getting lost in folders filled with tiny files (and accidentally deleting shit I shouldn’t have)

outlines the second: separate documents/sections for chapters rather than one long doc with ALL THE WORDS (use heading formats and the table of contents function in Google Docs, I beg of you)

writing/word count goals rather than the diffuse feeling of ‘oh god oh fuck I’ve got 70k words still to go AAAAHHHHH’

track your changes as you draft

Now, the main reason I prefer apps that also know how to properly outline and organise snippets over Word and Google Docs is the latter two’s limitations in folder structure once you’re inside a document. Simply put: there is none. You can have the miniatures and outline run along in the sidebar to help you navigate, but that’s kinda it. I wrote It Seemed the Better Way and Who By Fire entirely in MS Word, with notes scribbled into my notebooks and at the end of each doc, on a separate page; which had me either leafing through my notes or scrolling up and down 70 pages on the regular. I sighed a lot.

^ I love how I never bothered to rename Papierkorb to bin

In Scrivener and other outlining apps like it, I can create as many folders as I like, and I can stick one main document for the chapter in there, and then as many additional notes as needed. If I’m writing one scene but having an idea for another, I just gotta hit cmd+n and type it out, then I can go back, and I don’t have to worry about saving or naming it, because it doesn’t leave the project/folder/context.

^ I nearly screenshotted You Want It Darker by accident and spoiled everything

With page breaks and headings, Word and Google Docs would’ve let me do the same thing, it would’ve just been more fiddly — and I’m lazy. If you’re looking for other writing apps that also let you outline/organise your stuff in folders, there’s plenty of free solutions:

Bear has a free tier

workflowy is a very simple, web-based outliner

Evernote

Day One

Simplenote

Hemingway (free in the web version)

Reedsy (designed for Writer Go Crazy Month, aka NaNoWriMo)

Agenda

If you’re working on a bigger project and it’s overwhelming you: set yourself writing step-by-step goals. Picking something steady, like 500 words per [temporal unit of your choice], takes the pressure off. It’s like Writer Go Crazy Month: if you toil faithfully every day for a month, at the end you’ve got that novel. I’ve toiled faithfully nearly every day for almost two years now, and I’ve gotten, by that count, ten novels out of it. Scrivener calculates my daily session goal from the amount of words I still have to write and the days I have left to do it. So if I slack, that daily session goal goes up, if I write more than I have to, next day I don’t have to do as many words. There’s a lovely certainty in that: I know that if I do my words, I will be finished by X.

^ it currently takes six hours to read Stories of the Street. Jeebus.

Even if you’re not working under a (self-imposed) deadline, setting an arbitrary one can give you something to work towards. I talked a little bit HERE about habit-building and working up the discipline and patience. There’s also this wholesome post about how mental health can stand in the way of routine. Neil Gaiman also made a decent point about inspiration HERE. Sometimes, you’re not motivated. Sometimes, you’re not inspired. If you want to finish that novel, you gotta write anyway. Don’t feel bad for the days it doesn’t work; but feel good about the days it does. Start slow, and set yourself achievable goals. Friends have called me a writing machine more than once this year, and to an extent it’s true. I’ve trained my brain to be one because it let me; and it’s down to building a solid habit that I’ve been stubborn and writing nearly every day these past couple months even though autumn/winter has been tough and stressful af.

Also, note: I do it this way because I know, at the beginning of the fic, how many words I’m going to need. Figuring that out came by a steep learning curve. But it’s because I outline that I know how many chapters I ought to budget for, and then I settle on average chapter length, and then..... [snoring noises from the Void]

^ here’s another director’s cut for you: adorable assassin trash dads

Draft tracking: if the word processor of your choice lets you track edits, USE THAT. If you can use more than one colour, even better. It’ll help you see how your concept of a scene or dialogue changes while you go through it again. I always try to get two rounds of editing in, one for rewrites and one final line edit. I talked more about my editing process HERE. Bottom line: whether you edit is up to you, but it can help.

So, this was a look into my writing life in the past months… it’s been a wild ride, but with improved tools, it’s definitely become easier from an admin standpoint ;)

If you have any questions about these or other apps, Kanban, task management, writing and/or editing, send me an ask or hit me up on twitter!

[todaydreambelieversfic]

Author Spotlight: Kuhlaine Day 2

Author: @kuhlaine

Share one of your strengths.

Personally, I think my dialogue is one of my strengths! I'd like to think I write characters who sound believable. I try to read all of my dialogue-heavy scenes out loud to see how things flow. I also wrote a couple of one act plays in college so I've always been a bit more focused on dialogue when it comes to my non-fic writings!

Share one of your weaknesses.

I use way too many adverbs. Every creative writing professor I've ever had has called me out on it, and I've yet to learn my lesson.

Which fic has been the hardest to write?

Probably Even Then, Especially Now. It was a SUPER fun fic to work on, but keeping track of the dual timelines got a bit complicated at times. It was a delicate balance of trying to remember what the reader does and doesn't know at any point in time, and writing moments that make sense both with and without the context that comes up later on in the story. It was a really fun and rewarding challenge though!

Never Read the Comments was also a bit more difficult than I expected. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the timeline of when videos would be posted, and cross-referencing the actual Bon Appetit Youtube channel to see what types of videos performed well and how many views they would get on average, plus reading actual comments on different kinds of videos to try to find inspiration!

Which fic has been the easiest to write?

Six Feet Apart! I've been quarantined in my Brooklyn apartment since March, so that fic was just the rom-com version of what I've been doing since then.

Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

It's a combo! I'm very lucky that writing is not only my passion and my hobby, but also my career! I write almost every day for work, and I love every second of it. But, I write fic throughout the day as a hobby to keep myself busy and creatively occupied. I spend a lot of my work day waiting for folks to get back to me with edits or assignments, so writing fic keeps me sharp and ready to dive into a new project at a moments notice!

Is there an episode or character or arc above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?

Kurt in general is the character that I think inspires me the most. I think he's a super well-thought out and compelling character with an equally intriguing back story. He's also the character whose voice/thought process I understand the best, and since my favorite Kurt pairing is Klaine, I find myself drawn to Klaine fic!

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Write what you know! I know that's super cliche, but the most fun I've had was writing settings and stories that I know very intimately! Whenever I have to do research for a story I find myself getting bogged down by the details and familiarizing myself with everything I possibly can before I start writing. Sometimes I'll even spend more time researching than I do writing, because I become too caught up in trying to make sure I have every minute detail right.

What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Just sit down and write. This is more of a personal thing - I know that just getting a push from an outside force helps some people, but it's always been the opposite for me. The minute someone tells me to do something I don't want to do it anymore - I guess I'm a bratty child at heart. My mom always used to tell me to 'just go write something' whenever I was bored during summer or winter breaks. But I can't just write, mom! I need to be inspired!

I write whatever I want, whenever I want. Forcing myself to sit down and write never works for me, it just gives me a headache and a page full of incoherent ramblings.

If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?

Ooooo - I think I'd probably go with One More Day is Not Enough. I'd love to see the Kurt/Quinn confrontation play out on screen. Plus, I have a very detailed playlist of songs I listened to while writing that fic and I'd love to get to see those scenes play out with all of those songs that inspired me while I was writing!

What’s your process? Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order? Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines? What are the perfect writing conditions for you?

I always start with an outline! I had an awful habit of never finishing my fics when I was younger - and I also didn't outline my first fic that I started posting in 2018, Cross the Line. If I don't have an outline I get very easily distracted and start to lose my grip on the plot over time. My initial outlines are usually just complete stream of consciousness scribbles in my Notes app where the only goal is to get to the end of the story. From there, I type up a more presentable version of the outline into a Google doc. I don't always stick to my outline, I'll sometimes tweak or shift certain storylines, but I always stick to the general arc of the story, which is what's most important. This is just super helpful for me because I always know where the story is going next - if I don't figure that out from the beginning, I'll write myself into a corner.

Personally, I can't write things out of order because I'll start to forget which details I haven't introduced yet, so I always start from the beginning! I almost always have a chapter or storyline I'm really excited to work on, so having something to look forward to helps motivate me during less exciting chapters, or when I'm in a bit of a slump.

Perfect writing conditions for me are standing at my desk (I finally invested in a standing desk after months of working at my awkwardly low desk, ha!) with a really awesome playlist and some iced coffee.

***

Check out Kuhlaine’s Fics

Six Feet Apart -  Having to shelter in place in New York is already difficult enough, but when Kurt Hummel's roommate decides to head back to Ohio to ride out the pandemic with her family, things become infinitely more complicated. At the very least his new quarantine roommate, Blaine, isn't too bad on the eyes.

Never Read the Comments -  In which Kurt Hummel, Blaine Anderson, and whether or not they're in a relationship, become the Internet's latest obsession.

Not Quite Friends, Not Quite Lovers -  Kurt Hummel has very little faith left in the world. But, the world gives him Blaine Anderson.

[dancingbabya-notes]

So I’m gonna complain a little bit.

I’ve been using word since I was a little kid. I would change the fonts and make them funny colors, put images that I just right clicked and saved on to my computer in the background of pages and pages of original stories with no plot, and I had to use it (and willingly) for school for years.

But one of the things that got me was the recent dilemma of not being able to edit my own personal documents through the word app, or making new documents to add to my personal onedrive.

Everything needs a subscription now and it just boils my blood, if I’d known I would have figured out a way to fire up my old tower and use word on that computer because I used a disk to download that office. Every time I open a new document it reminds me that my “subscription” has expired. I don’t care, I really don’t. Microsoft has its finger is everything and honestly fine.

I stopped using google chrome and changed to Firefox, but I’ll use docs for writing if it’ll mean I can copy paste my miles of notes into an easy to access document without have to fuck up the formatting and use sticky notes. It’s only my Microsoft email that I have problems with, it’ll just sign me out on my phone and that’s the only place I check my emails because going through the website is a nightmare unless I’m organizing my emails.

TLDR: I’m just upset that subscriptions are taking away the ease of access that was available with just having an account. Just take my blood, I already promised my first born child for having roof over my head— fucking capitalism.