#and then went deeper with brainstorming for bullet points

[imissjensi]

i was going through docs on some of my old kotlc ocs to scavenge for parts to use on a new project, and tell me why in one character profile i specifically mentioned that a second character’s backstory was all figured out and was written in paragraph form rather than my normal bulletpoint brainstorming, but when i went to the second character’s page it was the most bare of them all and whatever ideas i did have were all in my head

[katescapstone]

DES 302 - Mid Semester Break Week 1

This week for semester break, I took it quite easy. I had planned on getting lots of work done throughout this break, but so far, that hasn’t gone to plan. I went home this week to visit my family and found myself to be quite busy. I tried not to let the lack of work completed stress me out too much, as I found it was a much-needed break. I think the break I had this week would help me recharge and set me up for the rest of the semester!

However, there were a few times throughout the week when I had a couple of hours to do a little bit of work. During this time, I started to work through the first high-fidelity prototype that I want to have done by the end of break. I started by looking at the aesthetics and coming up with a name for my publication. The name I decided on was “Beyond Words” I think this has a great deeper meaning for the idea of my assignment. I think it explains how we need to look beyond the obvious struggles dyslexic individuals have to empathise and understand what dyslexia really is. Therefore, Beyond Words is a great fit for my publication. 

Figure one: Name Exploration from my Miro Board. My own work.

The next thing I played around with was the style of my first prototype. I was getting quite stuck on this step and started brainstorming for illustrator a number of different looks. I wasn’t liking any of them! This is a step I am still quite stuck on, and I hope to figure it out a bit more in the next week. However, I understand this is a significant step for my publication; therefore, I don’t want to rush it. Here are some of the ideas I have come up with so far. (They is not very good 😬)

Figure two: Concepts for the prototype from Illustrator. My own work.

The final thing I worked through this week was getting the information I wanted to put in my publication. I am still quite early into this step, and so far, I have just laid out what will go on each page and some bullet points that I want to include on this page. This is another step I can’t rush. The information is one of the key points for conveying my idea.

Figure three: Brainstorm for pages from my Miro Board. My own work.

Overall, I feel refreshed from having a chill week. I am glad I took time to relax and not stress myself out. Over the next week, I would like to spend much more time on my assignment. I want to go into the second half of the semester feeling prepared and ready to get everything done to a high standard. I feel this break has given me more motivation which is something I have been lacking the past couple of weeks. 

[boba-beom]

it's honestly so great, i really missed being here. home. with the people i love. i spent most of my life here and sometimes, i really miss it and i wish i could've been able to stay here for uni as well. that happens when you live abroad i guess, you long for your home, for your people, for your language, for your culture and your food.

omg you had your birthday?? belated happy birthday 🥺 i hope you had an amazing time with the people you love❤️ i haven't known you for that long, but i really enjoy talking to you and seeing your posts on my notifs. you always manage to bring a smile on my face c:

LMAO NOT THE "you're getting older" message pls😭 i don't know much about the whole situation, but he seems confusing? is he being friendly or is this going to become some sort of casual thing between the two of you? idk if you've ever watched friends, but there's this submarine guy phoebe went out with at some point and basically he resurfaced every 2 years and they had the most amazing time together. so it could be something like thaaaat? or it could be just him being friendly. guys are so confusing honestly😭

ah, i swear, rediscovering things is a whole new experience and i'm sure you'll enjoy it as if it's the first time. i just love it when muscle memory kicks in, cause it feels like "wow i can't believe i remember this" and also "damn it, i AM good" LOL. what type of guitar do you usually play though? classical, acoustic or electric?

ahh, you're welcome. honestly at this point i'm convinced that you could write about a trashbag and i still would like it, because your writing is that good. it captivates you in its own way and i enjoy seeing all these scenarios i've never thought of or seen before on here (• ♡ •)

that sounds like a good idea. i hope everything goes well with your coursework and you get a good grade. you got this!!❤️

when it comes to university, i start my next semester in april and my timetable is such a mess, i'm really not looking forward to the next semester in a way lol. but on the other hand, i'm super excited for some of the lectures and seminars i'll be attending. we're finally taking two clinical psychology lectures and this one seminar about mental disorders. the clinical part has always been my main interest ever since i started my bachelor's, so i'm excited to finally dive in deeper. oh, that reminds me. what are you studying if you don't mind me asking?

that's so true smiles, thank you🥺❤️ i'll definitely tag you once it's out, thank you for being so supportive❤️❤️

ohh the uni trip sounds so exciting, i hope you had a good time!! and it sounds like you've had a very productive couple of days!! hope you're also resting and taking care of yourself <3 pls that post made me so soft, it was so well written and i just loved the moments between mc and beomgyu🥺 really showcased how well they matched each-other, almost fitting perfectly into one-another like two puzzle pieces. i also use bullet points to write sometimes haha they really do help with planning/brainstorming and then also connecting everything into one once you're done.

i've been pretty well tbh, just eating a lot and having a good time with my friends and family hehe. i can't believe i go home in three days though, these past few days really felt like a fever dream.

of course being in the comfort of your own home is the best over anything, but I'm really happy you got to spend time with your loved ones <3

this was longer than I expected lmao

and thank you! yes, it was only a small celebration since I had quite a loud one last year. plus I only stayed home for 3 days since I had uni a couple of days after my birthday.

it's funny actually, yesterday he went to my home city for an interview and he was there for two nights, but last night was his last night in the city and I was added to a group call with him and our bsf. my bsf left the call around 2am but he and I kept talking until 6am :') and he had a train to catch at 10am... it was nice, I feel like I did genuinely get to know him a little more without having our bsf there to prompt us to talk. but I feel like I enjoy talking to him, but I think I'm going to leave it at just friends... for now since that's all what it feels like at the minute :>

that's so true! and I have an electro-acoustic guitar!! I do want an electric guitar at some point though, or even a bass too. are there any other instruments you want to learn or have played in the past?

and pls, you're too sweet :') I do have the tendency to use flowery terms and what not, I can't help it though hehe but thank you so so much for always being so interested and I love hearing your feedback because I always wanna know what goes on through someone's mind or their thoughts about anything of mine that they've read.

but thank you! I've been progressing well, but I do need to make timetable or a schedule for things I need to do, slowly but surely I will be okay!

I hope your next semester won't be too hard on you! omg my sister does psychology too and clinical is something she's wanting to do :> I do interior architecture and design! I'm loving it, truly, but it's just the fact the deadline's coming closer is something that makes me anxious about my work is all.

I had a long rest over the weekend and I've been back on the grind since monday so I've been keeping on track with what I've been wanting to do! and yes, that piece was written a little differently than what I usually do but, again, thank you for liking it so much! I'm happy my imagination was envisioned well to you<3 and for writing, everyone has their own ways, as long as you enjoy the process then go for it!

I hope you have/had a save flight, my love! as always, there will be more times when you can come back home and spend time with them again! it's just something you can look forward to next time, yano? rest up and I hope you have good days ahead of you 💕

[authorlaurawinter]

#ShowYourProcess

Rules: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Dropping this for The Curse of Broken Shadows

1) Inspiration

Basically, Brela was the inspiration.

Every time I write something new, I try to challenge myself with something new. The first book I ever wrote was to prove to myself that I could. The second was to prove I could write a sequel. The third was to test out writing in a different perspective. The fourth was to write a series and create my own world and magic system.

With TCOBS, I wanted to write adult fantasy with romance and magic but also test myself to see if I was capable of writing epic fantasy. Add in my signature flare - a FMC who is absolutely, unapologetically herself and makes all of those things above stand out on the page. Enter Brela, whose character creation alone formed the backbone of everything that happened in this book.

2) Preparation

As a chronic obsessor of having the perfect first line before I can even start writing, I spent weeks writing on a different project while I ‘brainstormed’ TCOBS. Read that as I procrastinated writing the project that was slowly consuming my every thought because I was afraid to start. I came up with so many excuses:

“The magic system isn’t perfect” - spend days altering the names of the core magics and their affinities.

“I don’t have the world set up” - create a map, name all the cities, oh but wait what if I need to add something later, I should make up a ton of other cities just in case, oh and those cities will also need history and people and maybe a story that makes it unique...

“i’m not quite sure what the ending looks like” - so why even start?

Until I just went for it. I said “screw it” and just wrote the characters to see what story they wanted to tell.

3) Art Process

Because I had the five characters (two main) already fleshed out, it was mostly about writing their adventures based on how they would react to situations. I knew the basic timeline of events until the middle of the book and a few scenes that I knew needed to happen for the plot that were scattered through the last half, so it was just about letting the characters dictate what happened in between.

The fleshed out chapters were the hardest to write because I had this idea of what needed to happen and I tried too hard to make it perfect the first time around. The other chapters were easy - just having the characters do what they do - and I found those days the most fun because it shaped what was to come in a way I didn’t expect when I started out.

I’m an “edit while you write” type of person. Usually to start the day, I read what I wrote the day before, make edits or changes or just add detail, then continue where I left off. At the end of the day, if I have thoughts about what needs to happen, I’ll write the bullet points at the end of my page so I know where I wanted to go. If I am stuck, I’ll leave it blank and let my brain daydream about it to figure out the next day.

4) Thoughts

I definitely covered some dark elements in this book, which made for a lot of challenges but also a lot of fun (that sounds morbid). It really forced me to look deeper and explore the spectrum of human emotion. Ex. I wrote a character with stockholm syndrome which gathered a few negative comments from reviewers who didn’t understand why she or her friends didn’t intervene to stop her from going back to that person. There was also other triggering moments that were explored and the consequences of those memories/thoughts/actions. In the end, it made my characters who they were in this story which might not go over well with others.

I also love this book because it really focuses on characters over other things. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a plot, but at its core we get to see characters flourish separately and together.

Plus, there’s a found family of assassins. And knife flirting. It’s the best.

--------

Sorry, y’all it’s been a lifetime so I don’t know who has done this yet. Tagging anyone who wants to do this plus @avrablake, @emelkae, @mel-writes-with-her-dragons, @the-orangeauthor

[msmarvelwrites]

The Winter Ghost - Chapter 17

Info: A Devastating car crash causes you to lose your memory and start over. The only thing left in the wreckage was the horrific nightmares which plagued your mind. If you knew what today would entail you would have just stayed in bed. But you didn’t and because of that, everything you knew was about to change.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Warnings: swearing, fluff, foreshadowing smut?

W/c: 2.3k

A/n: I know I know, it’s been quite a few nights since I last posted since I usually try to every few days... This week has been a whole long seven days. And honestly I needed to charge my battery and take a break from writing for a minute. Anyyways, thats boring, and this is not. Were almost done here, and I’m so excited to move onto some imagine’s I’ve been brainstorming! Hope you enjoy! 

Bucky’s breath fanned across your collarbone, drifting in and out of slumber. How he could even attempt sleeping after the day's events was, quite frankly, astonishing. But you didn't dare wake him, afraid you wouldn't get a chance to be this close to him again. 

It was easy enough to conclude how you felt about the past few days as confusion. Specifically speaking, you knew it went deeper than that. Your memories had kicked you in the teeth, reeling from the guilt and grief that Tommy was dead and it was all your fault. Yet in the matter of hours, you had fed him to Hydra. You knew exactly what they would do to him when they found out you had escaped. You also knew that when the team circled back to dispose of the Hydra base, or what of it was left, Tommy would be gone. For good this time. 

Bucky’s body shifted, leaning in closer to you. Your heart raced as a small sigh erupted from his chest, vibrating through you. 

And then there was that. You weren't sure when that feeling of butterflies had come back when Bucky looked at you, but nevertheless it had. Part of you thought you should be sorrowful after your ‘almost’ fiance ‘almost’ shot you. Maybe take a day for bereavement, and yet, the idea of pressing pause on Bucky, after all this time, felt impossible. More to the point, you were tired of fighting between what you thought was morally right about how your heart beated ten times faster when he was around.  

“Do you hate me?” He hesitated under his breath. The rest of the team had all taken their seats at the front of the aircraft. Even still, he spoke as though he was afraid they would hear your confession. 

Your eyes met his, looking for some sort of punchline, but none came. Silence hung heavy around his question, and you swallowed deeply. 

Did you hate him? There was a time not so long ago that you would have been an easy question to answer. He hadn't stolen the life you thought he had. No, Tommy did that all on his own.  He betrayed everything you had built together. He wasn't the man you thought you knew. Bucky, on the other hand, always had been. You knew about his past. He had spent countless nights wrapped in his arms dredging but old and broken memories about his time with Hydra. The only thing you knew for sure was he made you feel like you belonged in a world that you thought had written you off years ago.

 Maybe, if you hated anyone, it was yourself. How long had Tommy been lying to you?  How could you not have seen it? How many nights had you spent in your bed, giving yourself to him, trusting him, believing him? 

“Thats a loaded question.” He murmured before you could answer. “I just mean, I miss this… Miss, you.” 

You worried on your bottom lip, watching as he huffed out a breath and accepting your silence for an obvious answer. Before he could pull away from you, you took his hands in yours, starling him from the sudden warmth. 

“I- I don’t think I ever hated you.” You offered honestly. 

Bucky pursed his lips and looked you over quizzically. “Could’ve fooled me.” He chuckled, leaning back into you as his breath steadied again. 

“I know I never really got the chance to- uh, apologise...” You tried the word on your tongue, but it tasted bitter. How do you ask for someone's forgiveness after attempting to murder them? “I don't really know what to say…” You mumbled, feeling the walls you built around yourself behind to crumble. 

“That’s cause’ there's nothing to say. Listen doll, of all people you don't need to apologise to me for homicidal tendencies. I get it.” He teased. You appreciated his light hearted approach, but his words send a lump to appear in your throat. Was that what it boiled down to? After a long day of dark thoughts and murderous rampages, Bucky would be there to understand. You weren't sure if the sentiment was romantic or the plot to a Tim Burton film. 

“And besides, I kinda’ deserved the ass kicking.” He signed, smiling into your shoulder. 

“You kind of did.” You chuckled. 

Huh…?

Were you making light hearted joking about attempted murder? Is this who you were now? Honestly, it wasn't the worst thing you’d done. Besides, there was something so comforting about the way he accepted you. Flaws (and boy oh boy were they flaws) and all. 

“Okay. So I'm not sorry for putting you on your ass.” You specified. “But I am sorry. For what I said after. I don’t know where that came from. I don't really think those things about you. You’ve never given me a reason to before.” Bucky huffed, and you could physically feel him stiffen. 

“I lost control, Y/n. I gave you a perfectly good reason...” He noted. You didn't have the heart to tell him that ever since that fateful day in the hallway all you could think about was the aching in your core and how perfect his death machine of a hand fit around your throat. 

“It doesn't matter…” You spoke, running your fingers over his flesh ones, until they locked into his. “I’m fine. You're fine- ish, right?” You chuckled, motioning to his chest now dried with blood, “I don't blame you.”

He squeezed your hand and signed into your shoulder. Everything about this moment was perfect. The impending doom you had left behind was just that. It felt long gone as you stared into Bucky’s arctic eyes and breathed in his scent. Comforting, familiar, and something you weren't ready to comprehend. It sent shivers down your spine and made your legs clench together at the thought. But now, sitting in the back of the quinjet avoiding the loud stares of Wanda scrutinizing your every move was not the time. There was no doubt she was reading your loud heated thoughts, and so desperately, you tried to quiet your want. 

……………………………

When you landed, medical was at the ready, helping Bucky out of the aircraft and into the compound. Shuri tried to force you apart from the injured man long enough to convince you to go for a check up also. 

‘I feel fine. I’m fine’ you tried to argue, but it was no use. Her mind was made up and you were smart enough to know when that happens, there's very little one can do to change it. 

You sat in the small lab, letting Shuri pry and pron at you, asking question after question but your mind was distant. Distracted. There was only one person you wanted to be with, and right now he was down the hall, having bullets plucked from his body. 

The overwhelming need to be near him was sudden, but not unwelcome. Try as you may to push it away, it krept back in, startling you every time. You could play dumb all you wanted, but now that he was not next to you, youre only mission consisted with getting him back. Were you confused? 

Yes. 

Did you understand what you were feeling? 

Not entirely. 

How did Bucky make you feel?

Brave… Loved… Horny? All of the above. 

Yes, yes and yes. There was no denying it. As much as you wished it was more complicated. Your entire core was drawn to him like a magnet and your brain was just along for the ride. Heart stuttering and mind foggy. 

Shuri gives you a once over and taps on your shoulder, yanking you from your thoughts. “You okay?” 

The question was simple. And yet, the words wouldn't come. 

You cleared your throat, physically shaking your head and clearing your racing thoughts, “Yes. I’m okay. Do you think I can go?” 

Shuri smiles knowingly, a chuckle bubbling out of her small chest. “He’s fine, ya’ know. Doctors said they extracted the bullets easily. He’s probably all healed up already-”

Her words were cut off by your impatient foot, bobbing anxiously for the answer to your question. 

“Yes. fine you can go.” 

You practically jumped off the lab table, swinging the door open and shouting a thank you over your shoulder on the way out. 

When you entered Bucky’s medical room, it was quiet. Turning the corner you could see he was sitting on the edge of the bed, staring out the large floor length window that looked out to the rolling mountain of Wakanda.

You tried to step lightly, not wanting to alarm him.

“Can't sneak up on a trained assassin.” 

You jumped, clutching your heart at his sudden voice. He chucked, watching your panicked face melt into a smile. 

“Guess not. How ya’ feeling killer?” You smirked, taking a seat on the windowsill across from him. 

Bucky squinted, looking at you skeptically, “I don't know if you're tryin’ to be funny or-” 

“I'm not. That was a stupid joke….” You scoffed as you bathed in the awkward silence that followed. 

There were so many things you wanted to say. So many you wanted to do, and yet your body was frozen, staring at the floor unable to meet his intense gaze. You could literally hear your heart beating in your chest and your face growing warmer by the second. 

“So.” you finally choked out, forcing yourself with all your might to look up. His eyes were soft and full of reassurance. Something you so desperately needed at the moment. Maybe the old Y/n could convey her emotions, but the real one was a total disaster when it came to this sort of thing. 

But that's what you were doing wasn't it? This is what it had all led up to. The kiss, the midnight conversations, the unyielding sexual tension. This was it. 

“So…” He repeated your words, coxing your next ones. 

You chuckled dryly, clearing your throat and starting again, “So, about what happened back there.” 

“When I got shot or when we kissed?”

“Both I guess?” 

“You guess?” He quipped, amusement dripping from his mouth. He was loving this. Watching you fumble over your thoughts. Of course he did. Smug bastard. 

“Listen, I’m not good at this stuff. Obviously. So could you just tell me how it is. Was that some heat of the moment thing? Like before. Because if it was you just gotta’ tell me.”  You finished in a huff. 

Bucky signed, running his flesh hand through his hair. “It wasn't.” He finally spoke, “not then and not now. I was such an ass, pushing you away like that. I just didn't- I guess I still don't think I deserve something like you… Touching me like that.” 

You soaked in his words. Watching his lips intently as his tongue darted out and wetted the bottom one. In a breath, you crossed the room and took the open space beside him as an invitation to sit down. 

“Will you please let me decide what I deserve from now on?” You smirked, looking up  at him from behind your lashes. 

“Yeah, I think that's best.” he chuckled, leaning into you. 

“How’re you feeling?” You mumbled, listening to his breathing steady as he signed into the comfortable position you were both in now. 

“Better. Thanks for that by the way. Wanda’s never used her power on me like that. It really helped.” He spoke, softly, as you waved him off, motioning ‘it was nothing’. 

It felt like the first time in a long time you had spoken to Bucky without the nagging desire to murder him. 

Maybe this is what people talk about when they say you should ‘grow’ with your partner. You're sure that they weren't referring to homicidal rage… But still. 

You looked up to Bucky, watching as he softly bit down on his lip. Without warning or much thought for that matter, you swung your leg around, purchasing yourself on his lap. You would like to believe it was with agile and ease, but the motion sent Bucky back against the bed while you fell against him, straddling his hips.

“What was-” You shushed him with your palm over his mouth, coaxing a deep moan from the back of his throat. It sent a shiver down to your core, but that was a problem for a later time. 

“I want to try something.” You breathed, pulling your hand from his lips and swifting replacing it with yours.

He reacted instantly, his hands settling on your hips as yours pulled at his hair. You melted into his touch as his tongue softly traced the bottom of your lip, deepening the kiss. You could feel his pants tightening around him as he ground his thick member against your core. He was unrelenting as you gasped for hair, pulling away and resting your forehead on his. Had it not been for the room being made entirely of glass you were sure you would have lost your pants. Honestly, you were still considering it. 

“I just wanted to know what that felt like without my life being at risk.” You spoke over heavy breaths. 

Bucky chuckled, his swollen lips turning up into a smile. “And?”

“Eh.” You shrugged, causing Bucky to gasp and he flipped your over, gaining the upper hand. His icy blue eyes, now blown with lust. You're breath caught in your throat by the new intimate position, flexing your thighs shut hard and suppressing a moan. 

“D-did you get the ‘ok’ to leave?” You stuttered, feeling your body tremble under the radiating heat of his. He nodded his head, a few loose strands of deep auburn hair falling from his bun and onto your cheek. 

You bit down on your lip, watching his chest rise and fall above you, feeling the electricity that emanate around the room. The idea that this could very well be a huge mistake crossed your mind and maybe if you were stronger you would have listened. Maybe you just didn't care anymore. Or maybe, it was possible this was exactly where you needed to be. Where you belonged. And so, without hesitation, you slid yourself out of Bucky’s grasp and pulled him down the hallway towards his room.

.......................................................................

A/N: As always, thank you to @cutie1365​ for just being you! Thank you for all your help with this my friend! Were almost done! Like and reblog if you enjoyed! See ya soon! 

@projectcampbell​

@calwitch​

@kalesrebellion​

[iluxia]

Unsolicited writing advice???

A ton of you have commented with such kind and complimentary words about my Naruto fic Hiding in the Leaves and its characterization through the shifting POVs. Thank you all! I’m gratified to hear that you’re enjoying it. Some are asking how I shift perspectives and still manage to keep the characters in line. Actually, a fair number of readers have asked for actual advice, so here we go. This is a lot of writing babble, I hope it makes sense but feel free to drop me an ask if anything is unclear! 

(1) I read a lot. I read all the time. Easily a book a day, maybe two days. And when I do, I practice critical reading—or as they say, reading like an editor, so I can pick at techniques other writers use. Writing is an art you learn largely by example. A lot of what I read influences what and how I write, so when I need to change my tone or voice to fit a different character, I usually read something that matches what I want my prose to sound like, on top of using techniques like changing tenses and playing with vocabulary choices. 

I recently had the chance to flex these writing muscles because I went from writing two very distinct human voices (Tony Stark & Stephen Strange) to writing an alien voice (Loki). It was fucking hard; those in the Marvel fandom might know what I mean. Tony and Stephen are both human, born and raised in America, with specific life experiences that inform their daily decisions and personalities. Loki, on the other hand, is an alien: raised in Asgard, stolen from Jotunheim, well-traveled throughout the Nine Realms, and moreover raised as a prince. Just stop and think about that. When your characters do not have the same experiences that you do, they’re bound to not have the same earthbound concerns that you do. Anthropomorphizing non-human (or even non-living) beings is an age-old practice, but to be faithful to his character, I tried my best to twist my writing voice into a different shape—a shape that more befits the prince of a realm that is somewhat humanoid but very different from what we know on Earth. And in order to do that, I did four things: 

I changed my prose from past to present tense; it sounds more immediate and assertive

I read three books, written in present tense, where the prose mimics what I imagine Loki would sound like in his own head

I made a huge spread of everything about Loki (both canon and my own orginal additions) that would inform his motivations, internal concerns, emotional responses, and decision-making processes

I drowned myself in Loki fanwork

Immersion is key! If you saturate your brain in a specific type of rhetoric or style, that’s what’s likeliest to come out of your productive process at the end. So controlling what you read/watch/listen to will help control your writing style too.

 (2) This further breaks down what I just said in the third bullet point above. Before I start writing from a specific character’s perspective, I’ll take the time to brainstorm and build that character from the ground up. This might take a day or two and includes a staggering amount of detail—just as much detail as mine or your life might comprise. Silly little things like favorite colors and foods, hobbies, dislikes. Oftentimes, if you’re a fic writer, this is easier because canon gives it to you. Those amazing wiki-pages exist to make your life easier in this regard. (Bless.) What canon doesn’t give you is where you can dig in. Go deeper. Pin your character down. Think about more serious considerations like emotional triggers, conscious motivations, subconscious motivations, coping and defense mechanisms. When hurt or under stress, are they the type to lash out or curl in? Are they the type to hold on to a grudge, or do they prefer to forgive and forget? Do they get hurt easily or do they have a thick skin? I imagine the character’s relationships in life, I rank them and network them in my head. Who do they run to when they need advice? Who do they like hanging out with when they’re happy? Who annoys them, who inspires them, who scares them, who do they want to be like? Even if these questions aren’t necessarily things you might discuss in your fic, it helps inform this person you’re writing about, so it helps you keep a clearer and more consistent mental picture of them as you go.

But most critical of all, I sit and imagine myself in their shoes and think of how they perceive themselves. That is a major factor when writing, because that’s what their head-voice will sound like. And if the story is written from their perspective, then that means you, writer, are writing in that head-voice!

Here’s a more HITL-specific example (I’ll try not to spoil too much lol):

Sasuke

How he sees himself:

Ordinary; not very impressive as a shinobi, but not absolutely terrible either – just ordinary

Average looking

A slow, impatient learner

Awkward with people, but polite and with good intentions

Emotionally stable

A good reader and listener

How he actually is from someone else’s POV:

Incredibly skilled for his age and level as a shinobi

Actually quite handsome

An intuitive learner, very tenacious and will keep at a task forever until he gets it just right; perfectionist much

Quiet, polite, notices a lot about how others act

Absolutely does not handle emotions well

Selective listener; sometimes only hears what he wants to hear

Rationales:

He’s surrounded by a clan of perfectionists and overachievers who constantly laud his aniki for being a genius while paying him no attention. Of course he thinks he’s ordinary.

No one ever compliments him for his looks in the clan compound, and what he sees in the mirror looks just like a younger version of everyone around him. Of course he thinks he’s average, even though he actually has looks.

Because he’s largely self-taught (except for when Obaa-sama teaches him), he thinks he’s slow. (Ever learned a new skill or maybe even a new language by yourself? I have. I can tell you that my perception of how much time I spent learning ‘basics’ was skewed.) He also holds himself to a higher than normal standard because that’s what gets him positive attention (or attention at all) within his family. Add the fact that Itachi was there blazing through everything before him, and it’s suddenly easy to understand why Sasuke thinks the worst of himself as a student. But he (and Naruto) are actually fast learners—we see this even in canon—and both of them boast high levels of natural intuition, or as I (the neuroscientist) likes to call it, pattern recognition. Some people are naturally better at this than others; there have been extensive tests done to show it. But we also know intuition can be trained, so the more Sasuke works at something, the better he gets, and the faster he learns the next skill—as long as the learning is patterned. Which is why Orochimaru, who has picked up on this trait, walks them through learning each jutsu in a stepwise manner every time.

Sasuke doesn’t have a lot of social interaction outside of his family. The Uchiha clan in this fic is very segregated from the rest of the village, so if you’re not active as a shinobi, you probably don’t get out of the compound much. Interacting with people probably intimidates Sasuke a lot so he feels awkward about it and reverts back to habits of politeness and silence that he was taught from childhood. That doesn’t mean that he’s not paying attention, however; Sasuke is naturally observant and remembers a lot about how people act (and not so much what they say). I have a theory about this related to the Sharingan but I won’t go into too much here because it would be a straight-up spoiler, sorry. :D

He thinks he’s emotionally stable because he doesn’t remember many incidents of severe emotional upheaval in his life. That’s because he hasn’t had them; apart from the whole thing with Itachi, he’s been fairly sheltered his whole life. But he actually doesn’t handle emotions well—something he’s about to find out soon enough—and for the same reason! He hasn’t been exposed to an extensive range of it.

Because he’s largely self-taught, he has confidence in his reading skills. He also remembers all of Obaa-sama’s stories so he thinks he’s a good listener. Well, he is—to an extent. If he wants to listen, he will. If he doesn’t, he’s just as proficient as Naruto at pigheadedness. (I think it’s an Uchiha trait too lmao.)

That was a lot, right? But you can see that if I’m writing from Sasuke’s POV, I have to keep a different set of pointers than if I’m writing from Naruto’s POV about Sasuke. The way I think of it is like changing lenses or shades depending on the light outside.

A few more techniques/guidelines I use:

Stay consistent with vocabulary. Orochimaru is far more verbose than the rest of them, Shikamaru right behind him, and Naruto uses shorter, simpler words. You can even assign particular words to a character, a word only they would use when referring to something. This applies to how your character addresses other people too, i.e. Orochimaru calls them ‘little ones’; Shikamaru calls his dad ‘oyaji’ in front of his peers but ‘otou-san’ in front of his sensei; Naruto is quick to give people nicknames and most of the time it sticks.

Watch the adjectives; different people describe things differently. Orochimaru uses more nuanced words that can mean different things depending on the situation and mood; Naruto thinks in terms of emotions, a lot of how does this make me feel; Sasuke is very visual and notices a lot of colors.

Use speech habits wisely; how your character talks should reflect their life. Just like accents, speech habits can tell a lot about a person. Sasuke always speaks politely because it’s how he’s supposed to talk at home, otherwise there’d be trouble. Naruto grew up in a poorer district and had no one to really teach him how to talk politely, so he’s very casual. Shikamaru cusses at age eleven because his parents and family are incredibly laissez-faire and honest around him, so he thinks it’s acceptable and normal (and he was never reprimanded for it).

Play with your tenses. Writing in past tense sounds and feels very different from writing in present tense. Depending on your character, one or the other might sound more appropriate. There are some expressions and figures of speech that sound fine when written in past tense but awkward when written in present tense, so that will end up inadvertently changing your prose a bit, which can be useful.

Read your work out loud. Cardinal rule of prose-writing. What looks good on paper doesn’t always sound good when read out loud. If you read it and it doesn’t sound like how your character talks, time for a vibe check. You might need to change a few words and move sentences around, or you might need a complete overhaul… an editor (and I mean an editor, not just a beta-reader) can usually help you out.

 A note about editors vs beta-readers:

There is a cardinal difference! A beta-reader is usually not professionally trained but should be experienced enough to point out things that aren’t right. In fandom, I’ve found that beta-readers mostly focus on a story’s general feel, flow and readability, sometimes character consistency, sometimes they point out typos and mistakes. An editor goes further than that. I’m fortunate to have Tria (aventria) who has edited my work for, gosh, 14 years now, fuck, we’re old! I call her my editor because when she goes through a piece, she will fix everything and make my draft bleed and I love it. (I actually get a little upset when she doesn’t fix anything, even if that means everything was good.) As an editor, she does a vibe check and looks for typos/errors, yes, but she also critiques the prose extensively. She can rearrange phrases or entire paragraphs for better flow. She will cut out entire scenes or make me rewrite them if they’re that bad. Like a copy editor, she looks at stylistic inconsistencies, grammar errors, and iffy word use. She’ll usually suggest or replace the offending word altogether. She has a lot of freedom with the work and can actually kick a piece to the curb if it’s really that shitty. She also questions plot progression, character development, and the relevance of a scene. (She’s made me cut out many, many scenes.) – That all being said, it’s not easy finding an editor, much less a good one. It also has to be someone you trust to have this much power over your work. It’s worth it, however, and my writing has gotten so much better because of the help.

If you’ve read this far, wow, thanks! You’re also probably thinking, “Shit, she takes this too seriously. It’s just a fic.”

I have… gotten into fights in the past before because of this. I feel strongly about the stuff I write. Just because it’s fanfiction doesn’t mean it isn’t a labor of love. I’m a perfectionist by nature, so that’s why I put so much time and effort into what amounts to ‘just a fic.’ And you know what? At the end of the day, writing it gives me satisfaction and happiness, so I will keep pouring into it as much as I can. It’s just a bonus to hear that other people are enjoying it too. (Yes, I’m one of those weirdos who intensely enjoy reading my own work…)

 Aaand the final point:

(3) I double-majored in psychology for undergrad and have by now accumulated thousands of hours of clinical hours spent using the theories and techniques I learned from those classes on real people. I’m also specializing in neuroscience, so a portion of my time is spent in psychiatry. Characterization was actually not one of my writing strengths at first, but I definitely noticed leaps in improvement after my clinical rotation started. People skills are just that: skills which are honed with practice. It’s amazing how much you learn about how people think and what make them tick when you interact with a whole spectrum of examples: from your neurotypical everyday well-adjusted person, to high-functioning neurotics and obsessives, to patients who have suffered complex stroke syndromes, to encephalitic brains burning under septic fevers, to druggies stoned so high they’ve breached the atmosphere, to patients whose brains are growing insidious tumors, to schizophrenics and catatonics and the depressed. My job also allows me the rare opportunity to interact with people from all walks of life. All I need to do if I wanted insight about how life is for soldiers who served in an active warzone, for example, is to hit up Bill at the ICU and ask for stories about Korea and the Gulf and Vietnam. Or if I wanted to know about how to survive the Rwandan genocide, I could sit down with Amida, who survived it as a barely-teenager with her brother and sister in tow while only “losing my innocence and an eye.” Or I could talk to Heather, who is building a life with her husband and two rambunctious children, for a perspective on the daily concerns and delights of a ‘perfectly normal and ordinary’ working mother. (Her words, not mine; Heather is amazing even if she eats the doctor’s lounge out of Tita Annabel’s cookies.) Anyway, you get my point. When I write, I almost always write about people, so it makes sense that a lot of my inspiration comes from people too. A lot of my original characters—and even some that are not—often speak with the voices and inflections of people I know in real life. You probably have people with interesting stories to tell in your life; you just have to work up the courage to ask and take the time to listen. You’d be surprised at what you learn!

A few helpful writing resources: (most of these are classics)

The Elements of Style by Strunk & White

The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman

How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren

And more books that helped me get into people’s heads:

Hallucinations by Dr. Oliver Sacks

The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon

Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon

The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo

Admirable Evasions by Theodore Dalrymple

I hope you got something out of that. Again, feel free to drop me an ask if you have any questions or want to chat!

[tinsley-goldsworth]

band-aids don’t fix bullet holes (chapter 3)

read chapter 3 on ao3!

Summary: when agreeing to date ricky, c.c. didn’t sign up to get involved in ricky’s messes

Wc: 2017

Tw: mild violence

~

The name Banjo McClintock was foreign on C.C.’s lips but that was his new identity and he had to get used to it. All his life, C.C. Tinsley had never been one to make rash decisions; he always played it safe. Now, he had made probably the riskiest choice he had ever made and he was having doubts. C.C. wanted to get away from the city for a while but he just didn’t know what Ricky intended for them to do in the new place. Logically, it made no sense for C.C. to abandon the stable life he had lived to run away with Ricky but maybe that’s why he agreed.

Maybe that’s why he agreed to it. Maybe C.C. was tired of playing it safe. Maybe he liked the rush of adrenaline electrifying his veins. Sure, he had plenty of experiences where pure adrenaline coursed through his systems but whenever he was around Ricky, there was a different kind of adrenaline that seemed to spike in his systems. Ricky was unpredictable but smooth, sly and cunning but sweet and beautiful. Maybe, ever since Ricky made his return into C.C.’s life, C.C. wanted to live a different life, a life with Ricky without the guilt of being a detective and dating a criminal.

The fake passport worked like a charm and the people at the airport didn’t even bat an eye at his ID. Ricky arranged a flight for C.C. to Las Vegas because Ricky had some business to finish (or as he said, “Loose ends to tie up”) before they could run away together. C.C. wasn’t too stoked about the idea of meeting Ricky’s “work friends”, some of which he might have encountered when doing his job, but Ricky assured C.C. that they wouldn’t hold his past against him.

Of course, Ricky booked C.C. first class seats so now C.C. got to be that one douche in the first class seats who watched all the regular passengers walk by to cram themselves into normal tight airplane seats. As the plane took off, C.C. recalled a conversation he had with Francesca before leaving. He told her what he had agreed to and frankly, she wasn’t too surprised. C.C. asked what would have happened if C.C. turned Ricky down and Francesca had replied, “Ricky probably would go on a killing spree out of anger, get really sad, and then go on another killing spree to get your attention. You can’t really say no to a serial killer.”

When C.C. arrived in Las Vegas, he directly went to the hotel and Ricky was already in their hotel room, looking more beautiful than usual in a sleek black suit. He wasn’t surprised at how ridiculously elaborate the hotel was based on his flight to Las Vegas. He greeted Ricky with a sweet kiss and asked, “Missed me? What’ve you been up to here in Vegas?”

“Just ran a couple of errands. I picked out a suit for you to wear for dinner! How was your flight?” Ricky asked, looking in the mirror as he adjusted his bowtie. C.C. walked over to the suit Ricky chose and was in complete awe at how amazing it was. The suit was made of the finest material C.C. had ever felt and the suit was a spectacular shade of royal blue. It was so smooth that the light that bounced off of the sleek surface made it shine with a stunning glimmer. Ricky walked over, standing next to C.C., drinking in his surprised delight. “When I saw this suit, I immediately thought of you and how this suit would bring out your beauty.”

“Wow, I guess I really am your trophy husband,” C.C. replied, half-joking, half-serious as he ran his fingers across the surface of the suit, still not believing his eyes.

“If you want to call yourself that, sure. Now, get dressed and let’s go get some dinner,” Ricky turned back to the mirror, smoothing out the wrinkles in his suit. For some reason, C.C.’s mind kept drifting back to the phrase “trophy husband”. He knew that he and Ricky had a solid, healthy relationship but it felt awkward to drop his work to run away with Ricky. Dinner didn’t provide much relief from his thoughts as C.C. was forced to meet a couple of Ricky’s friends and although they were not terrible, C.C. still wondered if he would ever be able to live his old life again.

After dinner, Ricky and C.C. went back to their hotel room and as C.C. sat in bed reading the newspaper, he couldn’t seem to focus on the task at hand. Ricky noticed C.C.’s uneasiness and scooted across the giant bed that they sat on. “What’s wrong? You look tense.”

“I guess I’ve just been thinking too much. That’s all,” C.C. answered, setting the newspaper aside on the bedside drawer as he leaned against the headboard of the bed and sighed. Ricky began pressing small kisses on the side of C.C.’s neck, knowing that his kisses always helped ward of his constant stream of thoughts. As he placed kisses, Ricky murmured, “What’s been bothering you?”

“I just… I mean, I love you but I gave up my job and my past life and I still don’t know where this is going,” C.C. rambled, sighing as Ricky shifted positions so either one of his legs was next to C.C.’s thighs. He began kissing C.C. with more ferocity and hunger than before, making small lovebites on his boyfriend’s neck as he straddled his hips.

“Don’t worry, I have this all handled. I just needed to finish up this job before we can start a new life together. Besides, you’re hooked now. You can’t get enough of me,” Ricky joked between kisses and C.C. laughed. The subject was dropped and no more words needed to be spoken other than each other’s names.

-

Ricky was a man of his word and as he promised, he managed to start a new life for him and C.C. Since he already gave C.C. a new identity, Ricky simply changed his identity as well and found them a place practically in the middle of nowhere. The place was a small, humble house that made C.C. feel a lot cozier than he would have been in a large, expensive house. Ricky didn’t mind living in a simple house and the couple took this chance to restart their lives together without worrying about the “criminal-detective dilemma”.

In their new life, Ricky and C.C. act like a normal couple instead of constantly hiding and avoiding going out in public. They could go to restaurants on dates and not worry about the police storming in on their nice meal to arrest Ricky, and they could go furniture shopping without worrying about the locals identifying C.C. from a case he worked on.

The neighborhood the couple settled in was easily an ideal location as it was surrounded by enough forest to admire on walks but not enough forest to get lost in. The people in the neighborhood were kind and accepting and didn’t really mind that C.C. and Ricky were a gay couple. Nobody was nosy enough or just didn’t care enough to try to ask the couple about details of their personal life. The neighbors all knew Ricky and C.C. by their names and knew they were dating, but never asked a more intrusive question than “how are you doing today?” And never even once questioned why none of their family members ever came to visit during the holidays. The houses weren’t tightly packed as they were in the city; instead, the houses were more spread out, which helped Ricky and C.C. avoid awkward driveway conversations in the mornings.

C.C. sometimes missed his job as a detective but with his new life, he was able to delve deeper into his interest in journalism and eventually began to write for the town’s small newspaper. In addition to getting a magnified look at what was going on in the neighborhood, C.C. also got to learn new information by writing for the newspaper. It was hard to adapt to this new life and job at first, but C.C. eventually found that he enjoyed his new life a lot.

Ricky had picked up the hobby of cooking and he and C.C. were as content as they could be. They had each other, an accepting community, and a comfortable home with satisfactory jobs. What more could one need?

C.C. had thought that this euphoria of living this new life would never fade and that the rest of his life would remain perfect but to his dismay, he was wrong. His perfect life began its descent downhill when he returned home from a late evening newspaper brainstorming session. C.C. had unlocked the door, a bag of groceries in hand as he opened the door and called, “Darling, I’m home! I stopped by the grocery store on the way back. I finally got the lemons you needed!”

Eerily, there was no reply from Ricky and C.C. carefully closed and locked the door behind him, walking into the kitchen and expecting to see Ricky engrossed in a book, face illuminated by the dim light of the lamp. Instead, he was met with a stranger, sitting at the dining table with a worried look on his face. C.C. set down the grocery bag, picking up a knife from the kitchen table and pointing it at the stranger, who was staring at him, “Who are you?”

“I was sent to warn you that Ricky isn’t who he seems to be. He told you he left his old life behind but he’s lying,” The stranger grimaced, almost as if it pained him to say Ricky’s name aloud. He opened his mouth to continue but Ricky abruptly appeared in the doorway with a throwing knife and landed the knife into the stranger's forehead. He fell to the floor with a gasp, blood pooling around his head like a gory halo. C.C. was so stunned at Ricky’s sudden appearance that he dropped the knife he had been pointing at the stranger back on the kitchen counter.

Ricky casually took out the throwing knife from the stranger’s head and cleaned it with a towel. He gave C.C. a pointed look and calmly advised, “Go upstairs to the bedroom. I’ll handle this and be right up.”

C.C. walked up to their bedroom in a shocked daze. He had watched people get murdered before but he had never seen his boyfriend murder somebody with such an emotionless reaction as if he had been reading a math textbook instead of killing a person. C.C. knew Ricky would be able to dispose of the evidence and he hadn’t seen the stranger around town so he must’ve been sent from somewhere else.

What baffled him the most was what the stranger said. He didn’t know who the stranger was or who sent the stranger to warn C.C. What was the person’s motive? Was it for personal benefit or did whoever sent the stranger actually care about C.C.? Was Ricky lying to C.C. about who he was and what he was doing?

C.C. has attempted to bring up these questions when Ricky came into the bedroom but Ricky ignored them, brushing them off and claiming he was too tired to answer. C.C. was left lying awake at night, feeling more uncertain than he had ever before about his decision to run away with Ricky. He felt the same way as he did that night in Las Vegas when Ricky distracted him from his feelings and wondered if their love was just them two running away from their past and their true identity emotions before drifting off into a restless sleep.

~

taglist: @hot-mess-writer @thesevensins-1990

comment if you would like to be added to the taglist!

chapter 4 (the final chapter) is out now! 

[kintsugi-sheep]

2020.12.06: The Toya Rant One

Alright, so what went on this week?

I’m not tech savvy, so I can only say that the bits for my new computer set up have arrived. After I get the monitor, I should get to work on the site for the myth story.

I don’t feel apprehensive. That’s good, just surprising. Until recently I’ve felt this lingering dread regardless of what I did. As it stands, I don’t care very much the degrees to which I succeed or fail. Either way, I feel like with the right amount of time and attention, I can just get what I need to get done, done.

The writing by prompts has actually gone well. The only day I chose not to do anything was yesterday, and that was because the prompt I chose to handle didn’t really resonate with me afterwards. Short writing is a bit more fun than I had anticipated. I never know when people will respond especially well to something and I can’t tell which prompt will become the subject of attention until hours after I choose it.

I feel pretty good. It’s like working out for my writing muscles.

Speaking of writing, I spent a lot of the past week looking over Hunter x Hunter. I’m honestly skeptical that Togashi will ever finish the story he’s written, but I do love what he’s done. I just got into Daniel Greene on Youtube, who praises the Malazan for its worldbuilding. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t compare the two, but I feel like Togashi had it down perfectly.

The thing that Ging Freeccs says. “Enjoy the little detours to the fullest. That’s where you’ll find the things more important than the things you think you want.” It’s something that resonates with me. This drive that I have is very new to me, only a few months old, born from getting rejected in a way that made me reflect on who I was and who I wanted to be. And while I love this more intense focus I have on looking ahead of me, I don’t want to forget that there’s more to life that what I’m chasing after. That there’s more to experience that’s currently outside the realm of my consideration and knowledge that can shape me into a more well-rounded person.

Speaking of mangaka that should probably just be writers, I started reading JoJolion this week. I haven’t read Stone Ocean or Steel Ball Run yet, but I was compelled by a realization that I had while brainstorming for my story. Both Togashi and Araki have the ability to create fights that would be just as intense and exciting if you read them in a book as if you read them in a manga. This skill with creating powers is something that I’d love to study and employ. Mostly because I don’t know how well wuxia fantasy or battle fantasy perform in the medium of novels.

While I’m on about manga I like and writing, I want to bring up the whole Toya thing in Hero Academia. I imagine by the time anyone finds this and chooses to read it, it’ll have been years since this was relevant, so I don’t feel compelled to give a spoiler warning.

When I was young and reading Naruto as it was coming out, a friend of mine swore that Tobi was going to be Obito. I figured not. We say Obito get crushed by a boulder. Kakashi took his eye too, so of course he’d be dead. My friend was clearly being ridiculous. Cut to a few years later and the chapter wherein Tobi’s identity is revealed begins with a flashback of Obito’s childhood.

That’s strike one.

Some time later, I’m hearing One Piece theories that Sabo is alive. Impossible. The deaths in One Piece are few and far between, but the ones that do occur are clean, quick, and obscured in some way or another; save Ace’s death. Plus, it was a flashback. And a flashback death was bound to be legit. Cut to the Dressrosa Arc, Sabo’s alive.

That’s strike two.

Now, we get to Toya. Hero Academia may be another battle fantasy manga, but it does ground itself more closely to the real world than either of the prior examples. Surely, these claims that Dabi is Toya would be proven false. Endeavor had a shrine and everything. Not to mention the hair color scheme of the Todoroki family. Cut to some time later, Dabi pours some stuff on his head to get the dye out of his hair, and it’s Toya.

That was strike three. And what broke me.

I was frustrated at myself more than anything, dismissing the simple idea by virtue of it being too simple. Still, two things about this incident stick out to me.

The first was a comment on Viz beneath the chapter. A reader made the point that while we in the audience came to this conclusion through months of attention and speculation, the remainder of the Todoroki family had no idea. Regardless of our own expectations, they needed to know.

Second was a clip I saw of George R. R. Martin a few days ago. In it he says that people online have already guessed a plot point in his next book, but that he’s not going to change it. He makes the argument that if you chose to change something at the last minute like that—because some people online figured it out before you wanted them to—then you’d be doing a disservice to all the foreshadowing and writing you’d done leading up to that point.

To go back to JoJolion for a minute, I may have never read the manga from the begin before now, but I’ve been on the JoJo wiki for years now. I know the gist of what’s going to happen, but seeing it play out before my eyes, as you would expect, holds a deeper value than just getting the bullet points. It takes a really special story for me to worry about spoilers.

This was more impersonal than I thought it’d be.

Well, I hope to not stop now. I’ve found a pretty nice groove in writing and I’m getting a bit excited to learn what I can do with this new Huion tablet I bought.

For tonight, I’m gonna post this, go lose some matches on MTG Arena, and then probably write more shorts.

I’m happy to have found a track to ride on.

[jonathanalumbaugh]

Weekly Digest

Dec 9, 2017, 2nd issue.

A roundup of stuff I consumed this week. Topics this week leaned heavily towards design, design thinking, with a smattering of research methods-related articles.

Read

5 Prototyping lessons from a BMX backflip

The false art of the feed has been deconstructed before (see: the excellent recent expose by The New Yorker’s Rachel Monroe that reveals the depressing reality behind the bohemian #vanlife movement), but less has been said about the deeper effects it’s had on our collective mental health. For designers and other people who work digitally, the so-called “internet effect” goes particularly deep, but just how deep, and what that might mean for our waking life is hard to tell at this point. 

10 Creative Women Reveal Their Deepest Feelings in RoAndCo’s New Romance Journal—Here’s What We Learned

Echo’s voice-activated features are great for seniors with dementia:

Instantly answers questions, like “what day is it?” or “what time is it?” — it’s a machine, so it will never get annoyed or frustrated!

Plays music and read audiobooks and the news — no need to fuss with complicated controls

Looks up information about anything — like, “what’s playing on TV tonight?”

AMAZON ECHO FOR DEMENTIA: TECHNOLOGY FOR SENIORS

[Mies Van Der Rohe,] pioneer of modernism discusses the Bauhaus as well as his own individual work, all of it interesting to anyone with an inclination toward midcentury European-American architecture and design, none of it ultimately more relevant than the final words the master speaks: "I don't want to be interesting. I want to be good."

An Oral History of the Bauhaus: Hear Rare Interviews (in English) with Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe & More

Persuasion is at the core of norm creation, emergence of collective action, and solutions to ‘tragedy of the commons’ problems. In this paper, we show that the directionality of friendship ties affect the extent to which individuals can influence the behavior of each other. Moreover, we find that people are typically poor at perceiving the directionality of their friendship ties and that this can significantly limit their ability to engage in cooperative arrangements. This could lead to failures in establishing compatible norms, acting together, finding compromise solutions, and persuading others to act. We then suggest strategies to overcome this limitation by using two topological characteristics of the perceived friendship network. The findings of this paper have significant consequences for designing interventions that seek to harness social influence for collective action.

Are You Your Friends’ Friend? Poor Perception of Friendship Ties Limits the Ability to Promote Behavioral Change 

Creation knows no multitasking.

Before I Begin

For decades, policymakers have been concerned that poor people will waste free money by using it on cigarettes and alcohol. A report on the perception of stakeholders in Kenya about such programs found a “widespread belief that cash transfers would either be abused or misdirected in alcohol consumption and other non-essential forms of consumption.”

The opposite is true, according to a recently published research paper(paywall) by David Evans of the World Bank and Anna Popova of Stanford University.

Definitive data on what poor people buy when they’re just given cash

Some blame human beings’ basic optimism, if not egocentrism, for the disconnect between perceived and actual friendships. Others point to a misunderstanding of the very notion of friendship in an age when “friend” is used as a verb, and social inclusion and exclusion are as easy as a swipe or a tap on a smartphone screen. It’s a concern because the authenticity of one’s relationships has an enormous impact on one’s health and well-being...

[Ronald Sharp] recalled the many hours he spent in engrossing conversation with his friend Eudora Welty, who was known not only for her Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction but also for her capacity for friendship. Together they edited “The Norton Book of Friendship,” an anthology of works on the topic. “The notion of doing nothing but spending time in each other’s company has, in a way, become a lost art,” replaced by volleys of texts and tweets, Mr. Sharp said. “People are so eager to maximize efficiency of relationships that they have lost touch with what it is to be a friend.”

Do Your Friends Actually Like You?

Dina D. Pomeranz tweet

The next step is this: you have to commit to make a proportional investment in corrective action at every level of the analysis. So, in the example above, we'd have to take five corrective actions...

Because the most common problems keep recurring, your prevention efforts are automatically focused on the 20% of your product that needs the most help. That's also the same 20% that causes you to waste the most time. So five whys pays for itself awfully fast, and it makes life noticeably better almost right away. All you have to do is get started.

Five Whys

We started with a simple wiki page with a few bullet points of things that new engineers had tripped over recently. As we kept doing root cause analysis, the list grew. In response to Five Whys that noticed that not all new engineers were reading the list, we expanded it into a new engineer curriculum. Soon, each new engineer was assigned a mentor, and we made it part of the mentor’s job to teach the curriculum. Over time, we also made investments in making it easier to get a new engineer set up with their private sandbox, and even dealt with how to make sure they’d have a machine on their desk when they started. The net effect of all this was to make new engineers incredibly productive right away – in most cases, we’d have them deliver code to production on their very first day. We never set out to build a world-class engineering-training process. Five Whys simply helped us eliminate tons of waste by building one.

How to conduct a Five Whys root cause analysis

On social media, it is easy to mistake popularity for credibility, and that is exactly what the fakers are hoping for. To most people, a Twitter account with tens of thousands of followers is an easy-to-read indication of personal success and good reputation, a little like hundreds of good reviews on Yelp or a long line outside a restaurant.

How to become internet famous for $68

It’s important designers aren’t the only people in the product organization to feel responsible for the user experience. I’ve made it a point to work with our field team to get more employees visiting clinics, and looking into ways to make patient stories and issues known throughout the company. I love having a team of engineers who will often jump in and defend our user before I’m even aware of an issue (one developer, in particular, handled a lot of debates against requests for a particular modal, dubbed by him: “the nuclear option.” Knowing he was there to defend the user, I didn’t even need to get involved.) 

Interviews aren’t the only way to gain empathy

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule, the law of the vital few, or the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Pareto Principle

"I think harm reduction is not giving up on people," said Goulão. "I think it is respecting their timings and assuming that even if someone is still using drugs, that person deserves the investment of the state in order to have a better and longer life."

Portugal’s Example: What Happened After It Decriminalized All Drugs, From Weed to Heroin

The 5 Whys Process We Use to Understand the Root of Any Problem

People are “groupish,” and we tend to form groups automatically. Some have argued that this is due in large part to humans’ tribal past and evolutionary development. Regardless of why we are this way, the descriptive truth is that this is how we are.

The Office Finale’s ‘Miraculous’ Quote — The Scientific Truth Behind It

We share stuff that ignores wider realities, selectively shares information, or is just an outright falsehood. The misinformation is so rampant that the Washington Post stopped publishing its internet fact-checking column because people didn’t seem to care if stuff was true.

The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb

Providing cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to women in rural Pakistan who were suffering from perinatal depression has had persistent positive effects on their mental health, their parenting behaviour and their financial empowerment seven years later.

TREATING MATERNAL DEPRESSION: Evidence of the impact on mental health, parenting, financial autonomy and child development

One useful technique is to map ideas on a risk/reward space. Those that score high on both risk and reward are considered moonshots, the high potential ideas. Ideas low on both risk and reward are safe bets. Moving along ideas in the different quadrants of the risk/reward space (with the possible of exception of high risk/low reward) preserves innovation potential.

When brainstorming fails, throw an imaginary cat

Last month, the Pew Research Center released a study showing that nearly a third of those who went to graduate or professional school have “down the line” liberal views on social, economic and environmental matters, whereas this is true for just one in 10 Americans generally. An additional quarter of postgrads have mostly liberal views. These numbers reflect drastic change: While professionals have been in the Democratic column for a while, in 1994 only 7 percent of postgrads held consistently liberal political opinions.

Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?

A wicked problem is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. The use of the term "wicked" here has come to denote resistance to resolution, rather than evil. Another definition is "a problem whose social complexity means that it has no determinable stopping point". Moreover, because of hard interdependencies, the effort to fix one part of a wicked problem may open or create other problems.

Wicked problem

Looked at

Satire and Social Activism Come Alive in Images of Death

Watched

How small a hole can a mouse get through? Experiments.

Mies Van Der Rohe - Architecture as language

Mouse trap maze experiments

Pride and Prejudice, Antidote and Antivenom

See How Easily a Rat Can Wriggle Up Your Toilet | National Geographic

Free stuff

[plastic-mold]

How to Present Your Product Idea to a Design Firm

What is the next step if you have an idea for the new product? Aspiring entrepreneur, engineer... You run your brain in a thousand circles trying to envision how many different ways you can enhance your environment. You have developed a new idea for a product that many people will find valuable. It might be worthwhile to develop the product and launch it on the market, but where do you even begin? If you want to turn your idea into a physical product, I recommend this article. It will provide extensive instruction on presenting your product idea to a design agency — an activity that serves as a springboard for the design phase of your project. This article will go over everything you need to know to make sure your ideas are presented to a design firm. It would be fine to use a PowerPoint presentation or any other document that includes relevant content like a report sample. You may access the sample presentation some businesses are providing online. Your presentation must include the following four components: - the problem, - the solution, - the aesthetics & price point, and - the competitor overview. In the next section, you’ll find advice on some of the most common questions asked by many clients. This article serves as a guide to help you to prepare a presentation and begin the product design process. Through this presentation, you will have the opportunity to not only communicate your idea but also - determine the parameters for developing your product within the current technological limits, your budget, and your timeline. - receive an estimate on your product's design that is reasonably accurate; - reduce the number of design revisions to achieve a more cost-effective and efficient result; - get a higher-quality design. If you are considering approaching a design company with your idea, then continue reading. Design company or injection molding company perspective into product development is based on the experience they have from working with companies, engineers, and entrepreneurs for over many years, so this insight is for anyone stepping into the world of product development. 

The Four Components of Effective Presentations

1. Insights into the market and the problem being addressed When presenting your product idea, it would be wise to identify a problem within a specific market you are hoping to solve. Many design companies or injection molding companies serve a wide range of clients in a variety of industries. Some of the entrepreneurs are first-time business owners who have never previously created or sold a product. In contrast, others are multinational firms that have created and sold many different products. The sole purpose for many clients to develop their products is to assist people in improving their lives — it is their way of offering a solution for a problem these people encountered in their lives. Solution-finding can be achieved by brainstorming new ways of solving a problem or studying existing products and finding ways to enhance them. In such a situation, you may examine the characteristics of a product you use at home or work, such as its ease of use, its loudness, its weight, its ergonomics, and so on. However, to establish that there is a market challenge, innovators must first have gained some insight into the market itself. You can get first-hand experience by talking to people in the field or industry, or you can read product descriptions and reviews for that product. It is now time to present the insight gained by studying the market. Please enumerate the main problems in your document and the market insight that lead you to understand these problems. You should include one primary problem and at least one secondary problem. You might want to prepare a list similar to the following. For example, imagine you’re a tech-savvy parent who works eight hours a day, five days a week. Every day at 2:40 p.m., your son comes from school and goes home. He does have a key to gain access to the house, but he lost it one day while you were at work, so he called you to tell you he could not get inside. To let him in, you left work, drove 20 minutes, then opened the door for him, and went back to work. You thought about installing a keyless door lock, so you wouldn't have to worry about losing your keys or not giving someone access remotely. You searched online for an efficient, easy-to-use smart door lock that was not too expensive. As a result, you began to consider developing an affordable IoT door lock. You might not have come up with the idea of creating a smart, low-cost latch if you were never left at work to open the door for your son. This insight will help you dig a little deeper into understanding how your product idea is likely to perform in the market.   If you are planning on selling your product in the future, we highly recommend preparing a business model canvas or business plan before approaching a design company with the idea. These documents can contribute to achieving a better overall product since they involve research that will assist you in determining the problem you would like to solve. Perhaps most significantly, they will assist you in coming up with a better product solution and understand the features you should include and the retail price point you should aim for—all information that will be explored further in the report. Features and benefits of the solution After establishing the problem, describe your solution and the features it should incorporate. Some of our clients present us with sketches of their intended product. They already have a general idea of what they would like — aesthetics, functionality, and features — they need someone to develop a suitable solution. However, your presentation doesn't necessarily have to include a solution. Occasionally, when clients struggle to solve a particular problem but are unsure how they might turn to a company like Topworks for assistance. When describing your solution to a problem, always bear the following in mind: Include sufficient imagery and/or a detailed description of your product. Pictures help to explain products better than words. For example, it would be good to have a picture of a snap-on feature attached to your product — you could mention specifics on what you are looking for here. Describe the final appearance, feel, and functionality of the product. If you do not have a specific solution in mind, provide an outline of the features you are looking for by bringing similar examples to your competitors. We recommend that you prioritize your features based on importance to simplify the development process. If you’re working on this project for the first time, you may not have yet identified the most important features that end users might be looking for, so having too many features right off the bat could be costly in the long run. Therefore, you ought to select only a few topics to focus on. If the main selling point of your product is hands-free operation, then that would be your priority feature — the rest would be secondary. Be sure to mention both the functionality and the appearance of the product. It will be easier for industrial designers to develop visually relevant concepts for your product if they are familiar with the style you are trying to achieve. If you envision a vintage design for your product, we will not manufacture it in a futuristic manner. By creating one, you will determine which features matter most to your users to allocate resources only to the features that are relevant to them. Aesthetics, pricing, and a brief description This section of the document is where you can describe how your product will feature an aesthetic and how much it will retail for after it has been manufactured. Also, include a brief product summary with a list of bullet points that summarizes the features you are looking for and any pricing brackets or tiers you might be offering if you have multiple products available. The purpose of the summary is to provide the design firm with an overview that can be readily referred to in the summary form. The price point is crucial because it helps us decide what features to include and in what order. Tip: Design costs, manufacturing costs, and retail prices are all separate items. Don’t mix up what will be charged for design and prototyping with the wholesale price for the product. Design for manufacturing is common practice for us. Topworks design and manufacture all the time, so it’s common for us to design with a specific manufacturing price point in mind. The target retail price point allows design businesses to use more daring or conservative features depending on the market. For instance, a plastic product that contains very sharp corners will cost more to manufacture than one with rounded edges. This is primarily since the tooling used will now need to go through a special procedure called EDM, or electrical discharge manufacturing, which can be almost twice as expensive as regular tooling. To determine whether or not sharp corners are needed during the design phase, we can investigate the demands and price points of the product. Competitive environment Information about our competitors is necessary to know what products we should be improving on so that we do not have to reinvent the wheel. By using reverse engineering, we can take advantage of competitive products to reduce costs and time associated with R&D. We can also go to their website and look at product reviews to see if there is anything that customers are not satisfied with and that we might be able to address. We would like to see product details on three to five competitors. A simple table consisting of rows and columns displaying this information is helpful.

Do's and don'ts

Here are a couple of tips and suggestions based on our clients' most frequently asked questions. Do’s When creating your presentation, select a publishing software that you are comfortable using. Various formats have been used to present their ideas. A good presentation has the following sections but not necessarily in the same order. Overall, the choice of the communication medium does not matter as long as you give the information that your design company needs to know to be effective. We find Slides to be an excellent alternative to Powerpoint, but you can use any presentation software. Include as much visual material as you can. The more visuals you have, the more effective your campaign will be — but not exclusively. Visual support for your idea is useful, so please include pictures of competitive products and the main parts or features you intend to improve. Include photos of competing products if available. Don't include too much text. If necessary, you can include details and explanations in the endnotes section of the presentation, but do not overdo it with text. To elaborate further on your presentation, you should be able to speak to the company. Discuss your proposal and your presentation in a meeting. When discussing your product and its presentation, do not be afraid to meet in person, have a phone conversation, or use a video-conferencing application. You should not use email or any other messaging system to discuss your presentation only. In most cases, if someone is local, you could have a meeting with a sample product they have developed or a competitor’s product. However, if design businesses are located outside of your area, in which case you will take the meeting via video chat or telephone. However, the design company must have prior information at hand in the form of a presentation similar to what has been described in this article. That way, they are aware of what the client is referring to. Additionally, it’s beneficial to the project managers to have something to review before writing an SOW or statement of work, in which they determine the project’s direction. Don’ts We have witnessed excellent presentations of product ideas that resulted in efficient and effective designs. Design businesses have also encountered clients who came up with what they thought was a cool idea but did not consider the details before discussing it. Those who fall into the latter category have an increased likelihood of becoming frustrated and leaving without receiving a quote — simply because they did not have enough information from which to work. So, let's make the most of the time together and the experience by avoiding the following: - Ask for a quote only after you have provided enough details. - Design company or injection molding company cannot provide a cost estimate without getting a basic understanding of what you want to be designed. - Unless you have any supplementary visuals with you, do not present your idea over the phone. People have tried to explain their idea over the phone without providing any tangible information or visual support. This is not a good idea. To begin to work on your project, a design company or injection molding company will require some information. Please send some visuals so that it may set up a meeting. Don't pick a design or aesthetic direction that is too broad for the product idea or company. It does not give enough guidelines for creating an effective design that can resolve a problem if design companies or injection molding companies are told to “just present some designs.” If they present you with so many ideas and you do not choose one, it would be a waste of time and money. The idea you are going to present must follow some constraints. Code to import my old blog: 2565802729 Read the full article