Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Quote, Unquote!
This week I thought I’d share with you a comprehensive list of my favorite resources for writers. If you’re wondering how to craft a character arc, outline your story, or how to edit, I have no doubt that at least one of these resources will help.
Without further ado, let’s jump in!
books
Story Genius by Lisa Cron—the psychology behind storytelling and hacking your readers’ brains
Structuring Your Novel by K. M. Weiland—how to structure your novel
Outlining Your Novel by K. M. Weiland—how to outline your novel
Sometimes the Magic Works by Terry Brooks—tips and lessons from a lifelong writer
Writer to Writer by Gail Carson Levine—meant for younger writers, but this is the book that made me a writer!
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert—all about creativity and how to harness it (CWs for swearing and some sexual innuendos)
websites, forums, and blogs
The Young Writer’s Workshop—a forum for young Christian writers with an excellent content library full of lessons from industry professionals ($47/month)
It seemed from this moment of repose that God may well have been life itself. God may have been the baseball games, the beautiful cigarette he smoked alone after checking to see that all the bats had been put back behind the closet door. God could have been the masses in which he told people how best to prepare for the glorious life everlasting, the one they couldn’t see as opposed to the one they were living at that exact moment in the pews of the church hall, washed over in the stained glass light. How wrongheaded it seemed now to think that the thrill of heartbeat and breath were just a stepping stone to something greater. What could be greater than the armchair, the window, the snow? Life itself had been holy.
synopsis
Since their mother’s death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving possessive and ambitions father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see is sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children–all his children–safe.
Set over a period of twenty-four hours, Run takes us from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard to a home for retired Catholic Priests in downtown Boston. It shows us how worlds of privilege and poverty can coexist only blocks apart from each other, and how family can include people you’ve never even met. As an in her bestselling novel, Bel Canto, Ann Patchett illustrates the humanity that connects disparate lives, weaving several stories into one surprising and endlessly moving narrative. Suspenseful and stunningly executed, Run is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children.
my thoughts
I found this book at the thrift store with no dust jacket on it, so I looked up the synopsis on Amazon, and before I even finished reading the synopsis I knew that it was going to come home with me.
I love books that are set in one day—for example, The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon and They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera. Both books that I have read that were set in one day are some of my favorite books because they are so masterfully done. So I had high expectations for this book. I knew that it would be a little different because the two examples mentioned above were targeted towards young adults and this was more of an adult book, but I still expected it to impact me in the way those two books had.
What hit me first upon opening the book was the lack of paragraph breaks. Seriously, the paragraphs stretch on forever. They could be a bit info-dumpy, but for the most part, they kept me immersed in the story. Frankly, I was surprised by this—most of the time, books with long paragraphs are really good at allowing my mind to wander. But this one pulled me in.
The next thing I noticed were the characters. From page one you could see their struggles and desires so clearly. I loved the way Tip loved fish. Characters having a “thing” that they like to do, that their whole life centers around, is common, but I’ve never seen one so unique as ichthyology. Now I’m wondering why we don’t see things as unique as that ever.
I think that perhaps the best part about this book was that the plot twists just kept coming, and you never saw them before they hit you. Seriously, it was just blow after blow. This book kept me on my toes and wanting to learn more. I commend any book that can hook me in like that.
This book portrayed a lot of controversial themes such as racial equality, privilege and poverty, and religion, but I thought it did so very well. The characters would often quote speeches throughout the book, many by civil rights leaders, and I liked how there was “real-world” evidence sprinkled in the story.
Were there shortcomings in this book? Of course. Every book has them. Because this was written from a third person omniscient perspective, sometimes it was hard to tell who was narrating at any given time. Between that, the plot twists, and the long paragraphs, sometimes I got lost and had to go back and reread. I also thought that the ending was neatly wrapped up—a little too neatly for real life, perhaps.
Overall, though, I think that this book was a very thought-provoking read. Although it was outside of my normal genres, I am very glad that I brought it home to read.
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Quote, Unquote!
I’ve talked about Notion quite a bit on this blog, but today I’d like to do it again. It’s such a helpful tool for me, and I want to show you how you can use yours for whatever you need.
If you’ve never heard of Notion before, you’re probably pretty confused, so let me explain. Notion is a program that’s mainly used as productivity software, although it can be used to build websites as well. It’s useful for databases, lists, to-do lists, charts, corporate or academic work, or whatever you want to use it for. You can find the website at http://www.notion.so.
Without further ado, let’s dive into…
my notion
I’ve been using Notion for a little over a year now, and while I’ve done a Notion tour before on the blog, my setup has changed quite a bit since then. I’ve decided to do a little bit of an update—in video format.
This is different from how I normally do my posts, but it’s much easier to walk you through an online software in a video rather than through screenshots. So I’ll leave you to watch, and I hope you enjoy!
Now that you’ve seen my Notion setup, hopefully you have a few ideas as to how to use yours. You might be itching to get your account started and your desktop looking pretty.
Or you’re staring down the blank start page, wondering why on earth I recommended this to you when it looks so overwhelming.
Not to fear! I’m here to walk you through the best way to start using Notion.
Generally, there are two types of people who use Notion: those who optimize theirs for aesthetic, and those who optimize theirs for function. I consider myself somewhere in between—making my Notion a place where I want to spend my time on the internet while also making it a place where I have to spend my time on the internet. The internet abounds with examples of both. Get an idea of which one you think you’ll be and accept that that status may change.
I started by looking at other peoples’ Notions. Under a lot of the videos that I linked in the playlist, there were templates that you could import directly into your Notion for free. That’s a great starting point if you just want a setup that’s exactly the same, or if you just like the general vibes of a layout and don’t know how to recreate it.
I also have a Pinterest board for Notion setups that I might want to try at some point. Those are less helpful, because they don’t give you any way to automatically import it, but they’re still great for getting ideas.
Notion has a built-in template library, sorted by how you’re going to use it. They have templates for academics, for businesspeople, for anyone you could think of. I looked at those a little bit but didn’t end up using any because I didn’t like the way they looked, though I did draw some ideas from them.
Then, after I had an idea of the vibe I wanted to go for, I started playing. I watched a lot of YouTube tutorials at this point. A lot of the databases and stuff took me a long time to figure out, and I spent hours upon hours figuring out how to make my digital workspace perfect for me. If you’re not expecting to spend a ton of time using your Notion, I wouldn’t go overboard here. But since I knew I was going to be using it a lot (and I turned out to be right), I invested a lot of time into it.
Once you have your main setup figured out, the trial period begins. Use your current Notion setup for a little bit and figure out what you want to fix and what you want to keep. If you want, you can make little changes as you go. I kept a list of the changes I wanted to make, and then sat down when I had a big chunk of free time and fixed it all in one go.
The trial period isn’t just a one-and-done thing. I went months in between my updates trying to figure out what I needed. When I started using my Notion less and less and caught myself getting disorganized and accumulating endless stacks of homeless Post-It notes, I asked myself, What can I do digitally to change this? And then I changed it, usually in one big go.
Expect this cycle to continue for as long as you use your Notion. Sometimes I decide that I’m just dissatisfied with my color scheme or whatever, and then I spend a few hours of my free time getting ideas on Pinterest and fixing up my Notion. Since I get bored easily, I change up my theme a lot to ensure that I keep coming back to my shiny new productivity software and using it (because, really, anytime anything is even the slightest bit different, it feels new to me).
So now that you know how to set up your Notion, well, what do you put in it? Here are some ideas.
academic
calendars for due dates
class schedules
pomodoro timer
note-taking
journals
health journal
day-to-day journal
gratitude journal
dream journal
prayer journal
trackers
reading log
movie tracker
water tracker
habit tracker
birthday tracker
finance
budget
subscription tracker
financial goal-setting
home
recipes
cleaning checklist
shopping lists
daily/weekly/monthly routines
fun stuff + hobbies
quotes
moodboards
project tracker
language vocabulary database
outfit inspo
wish lists
There you have it! Notion is one of my most valuable tools, and I hope that this post has inspired you to start using it as well.
Have you been using Notion already? I’d love to see your setup sometime! Tell me all about it.
Thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you next Wednesday!
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Quote, Unquote!
I typed “2022” at first there, and then realized that while I may be writing this in 2022, it is not 2022 anymore. Kind of sad about that, honestly–23 isn’t nearly as nice a number as 22.
But it’s a new year, a new start. And I am excited to see what 2023 has in store for me.
In this post, I’ll be outlining some goals I have for the year of 2023. It’s going to be a big one for me, because at the end of 2023 I will become a legal adult. I expect much of this year is going to be spent preparing for that while I’m still a minor and living in my parents’ house.
Anyway, here are my big goals for the year.
read through the whole Bible
This has been a goal of mine for a while, and now that I’m trying to take charge of my faith more, I’ve decided that this is the year to do it. I’m using a Bible reading plan by the Bible Project on the YouVersion app, and so far I’m really liking it. I hope I’ll be able to be consistent with it!
make my own money
Self-sufficiency in adulthood starts with financial self-sufficiency. Obviously (and unfortunately), money is the driving force behind surviving in the “real world.”
I’m currently unemployed, but that’s what this is all about. Ideally, I’d like to be self-employed, but if that doesn’t work out, I’ll be working towards it while working under someone else. I’d love to have my own business, maybe a service or an Etsy shop.
I’m also including in this goal becoming financially literate, as well as saving money. l plan to do Dave Ramsey’s finance course after I finish my current matIh, which I expect will help also.
run a half marathon
This is a big goal for me. It feels kind of daunting even to be writing down, but hey, that’s why I’m doing this. I want to do something daunting with my physical health, and seeing as I’ve only ever struggled through 5ks before, half marathons are definitely the type of challenge I’m looking for.
I don’t have one picked out yet, but there’s time for that. I have to prep and train and do all that fun stuff first. (“Fun” maybe isn’t quite the right word, but it’ll do.)
try something new platform-wise
I know that I want to continue with my blog and email list—it’s working for me now and I enjoy blogging—but I’d also like to switch it up abit. I’m not entirely sure what that means right now, but possibly an author social media account, like Instagram. I’ll work out the details as they come. Keep your eyes peeled!
finish at least one draft of a novel
I’m keeping this goal realistic. Ideally, I would finish more than one, but I know that I have to do all the plotting and everything as well. I enjoyed the rush of finishing NaNoWriMo, and I hope I’ll be able to experience that or something like it at least once this year.
learn more life skills
This goal started out as “cook more meals,” but then I realized that I should probably change it to “learn more life skills” because I’m kind of lacking in that department. I’m growing up, and I need to know adult things, much as I don’t want to. My dad has already taught me how to change my car’s oil and replace its wiper blades, and I’d like to be able to do basically anything myself to save as much money as possible.
Unfortunately, that list also includes baking my own bread, because it’s super cheap. It’s just that me and bread making have a long-standing mutual dislike of each other. Hopefully I’ll learn!
be nice to myself
This is the biggie. I tend to “joke” about myself a lot in a negative light, and I think my friends are sick of it. I can’t say that I am, honestly, but I love my friends enough to knock it off for them. So my word of the year this year is kindness. I’m going to be kind to myself, even if it kills me.
final thoughts
I feel like I’ve got a lot to do this year. For the last few years, I’ve approached the new year with a sense of dread. But now, I think that I’m mature enough to face the new year with my arms wide open, saying, What new challenges will grow me this year?
I hope you all have had a blessed holiday season and will make the most of this fresh start.
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