Studying and Pretty Things

They’re basically a literary prank– the sentence starts out in such a way that you think you know where it’s going, but the way it ends completely changes the meaning while still being a complete and logical sentence. Usually it deals with double meanings, or with words that can be multiple parts of speech, like nouns and verbs or nouns and adjectives.

So we get gems like

The old man the boat. (The old people are manning the boat)

The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families. (The apartment complex is home to both married and single soldiers, plus their families)

The prime number few. (People who are excellent are few in number.)

The cotton clothing is usually made of grows in Mississipi. (The cotton that clothing is made of)

The man who hunts ducks out on weekends. (As in he ducks out of his responsibilities)

A few tips from a broke neuro-divergent academic

Try and wake up early, and go to bed early too. I’m not saying get up at 5 (unless that’s you’re thing) but sleeping into noon is a productivity blackhole. I go for 8 or 8:30, generally, but that’s just what works for me.

Get dressed for the day. I’m not talking like, jeans and a business casual outfit, but a clean pair of sweatpants, fresh underwear, and a new shirt can really put you in the mood for a new morning.

Have a workspace. Whether it be the kitchen table, a desk, a spot on the floor with a lap desk, have a place that’s dedicated to your work. Have items that signify that workspace too, like your book, planner, laptop, lamp, whatever. It can help you get into the zone, being in that space.

Have a morning drink. I choose earl grey tea with honey and cream, but black coffee, herbal tea, lemon water, whatever works for you is awesome, as long as itll wake you up and start your day.

To do lists. To do lists and to do lists and more to do lists. I have three. One is a post it weekly planner deal (3.99 at a local grocery store). it’s a weekly spread already set up, and if you’re anything like me, its really hard to set up a weekly spread. Then I have an app called Ike. I have a daily to do list I write on that app, and then I have four more to-do lists of what I have to for each specific class.

Spread out your assignments. Don’t overwhelm yourself. If you’re professors are like mine, and have the due date for each module as Sunday at midnight. What I do is spread out all my assignments from Monday to Saturday, and I leave Sunday blank, so anything I didn’t do that week, I finish on Sunday. It works for me, it might work for you.

Have a folder for each class, and a notebook for each class. I hate spending money, I’m broke as hell, sono al verde as the Italians say, but a 0.99 cent folder and a 0.25 cent notebook can do wonders for motivating one to fill them up.

Study with a drink. Tea, water, coffee, whatever, but my go to is generally a warm drink. I cannot study if I’m cold, I get tired and groggy, so warm socks, a robe, and a hot drink really keep me going.

Take breaks. Make time for your hobbies, for something fun. Working without stopping absolutely destroys my motivation, and let me tell you, when I feel like that, an episode of Avatar and a snack gets me right back on the wagon.

Do self check ins. Does your back hurt? Are you sad? Stressed? Do you have to pee? Are you hungry? Never put your homework over your health. You won’t be able to get anything done well anyway if you’ve got those blocks.

Throughout the 15 workshops I joined in college and grad school, I encountered two types of writing rules.

First, there were the best-practice guidelines we’ve all heard, like “show don’t tell.” And then there were workshop rules, which the professor put in place not because they’re universal, but because they help you grow within the context of the workshop.

My college’s intro writing course had 5 such rules:

No fantasy, supernatural, or sci-fi elements.

No guns.

No characters crying.

No conflict resolution through deus ex machina.

No deaths.

When I first saw the rules, I was baffled. They felt weirdly specific, and a bit unfair. But when our professor, Vinny, explained their purpose (and assured us he only wanted us to follow the rules during this intro workshop, not the others to come), I realized what I could learn from them.

1. No fantasy, supernatural, or sci-fi elements.

Writers need to be able to craft round characters, with clear arcs. While you can hone those skills writing any type of story, it can be more difficult when juggling fantastical elements, because it’s easy to get caught up in the world, or the magic, or the technology, and to make that the focus instead of the characters. So Vinny encouraged us to exclude such elements for the time being, to keep us fully focused on developing strong, dynamic characters.

2. No guns.

Weapons have a place in many stories, but when writers include a gun, they often use it to escalate the plot outside of the realm of personal experience and into what Vinny called “Hollywood experience.” He wanted us to learn how to draw from our own observations and perceptions of life, rather than the unrealistic action, violence, and drama we’d seen in movies, so he made this rule to keep us better grounded in our own experiences.

3. No characters crying.

When trying to depict sadness, writers often default to making characters cry. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, tears are just one way to show grief, and they aren’t always the most subtle or emotionally compelling. That’s why Vinny challenged us to find other ways to convey sadness — through little gestures, strained words, fragile interactions, and more. It was difficult, but opened us up to depicting whole new gradients of grief and pain.

4. No conflict resolution through deus ex machina.

This is the only one of the rules I’d say is generally universal. Meaning “God from the machine,” deus ex machina is a plot device where a character’s seemingly insurmountable problem is abruptly resolved by an outside force, rather than their own efforts. These endings are bad for various reasons, but Vinny discouraged them because he wanted us to understand how important it was for our characters to confront their struggle and its consequences.

5. No deaths.

Death is inherently dramatic and can be used to good effect, but many writers use death as crutch to create drama and impact. Writers should be able to craft engaging, meaningful stories, even without killing off their characters, so this rule challenged us to find other methods of giving weight to our stories (such as through internal conflict).

How these rules helped me grow as a writer

First things first, I’ll say it again: apart from #4 (deus ex machina), these rules were never meant to be universally applied. Instead, their purpose was to create temporary barriers and challenges to help us develop key skills and write in new, unfamiliar ways.

For me, the experience was invaluable. I liked the way the rules challenged and stretched my abilities, driving me to write stories I’d have never otherwise attempted. They made me more flexible as a writer, and while I don’t follow the rules anymore (I LOVE me some fantasy), I’ll always be thankful for how they shaped my writing.

My recommendation to you?

Give some of these rules a shot! Follow them temporarily while writing 2-4 stories — but remember to always keep their purpose in mind, because the rules themselves will only help if you understand what they’re trying to achieve.

Write with purpose, and you’ll always be growing.

— — —

I find it more useful to work around it by genre-hopping—placing the same story, or the bones of it, in different settings, paying attention to how I adapted it, looking at what I might do when the story is supported by fantastical elements when shifting into a setting where those elements aren’t there.

A lot of this is similar to fanfic AUs—what are characters like in an entirely different world than the one that made them who they are? what replaces something like magic or superpowers, if anything does? what makes a setting resonate with the reader, and what might make it jarring or uncomfortable to some, many, or most readers?

For that matter, introducing fantasy elements smoothly and seamlessly is much the same skill as 

(I’m curious as to how “no fantasy/supernatural/sci-fi elements” gets defined. A ghost actually existing in the story is obviously a supernatural element, but what about a character’s fear of ghosts? What about the unconfirmed possibility of a ghost? What about the memory of a dead person, real to the character to the point where it could easily be a ghost as far as they’re concerned? To define this too stringently is to cut off a significant amount of actual human experience, since so much of what we are involves hopes, fears, wonderings, and brushes with the unknown. Are a character’s religious beliefs a supernatural element, if he or she believes fervently? Is a child talking about a cartoon a sci-fi element? Is a character encountering some sort of new-to-them technology like a telephone or indoor plumbing a sci-fi element if you write it like a sci-fi story? Is someone programming themselves an AI to have a friend still sci-fi if we can actually do that?)

People are people, whether they’re robots, wizards, or regular humans on regular Earth. If you can’t write an interesting character without making them a wizard, what makes you think that you can write an interesting character at all? 

I’m curious as to how “no fantasy/supernatural/sci-fi elements” gets defined. […] To define this too stringently is to cut off a significant amount of actual human experience, since so much of what we are involves hopes, fears, wonderings, and brushes with the unknown. 

It really doesn’t matter if a huge chunk of “actual human experience” is cut off, because the point is to write under constraints which force you to go without the aids that you’re reliant on, so that, when you return to them, you will be stronger. It’s okay to have characters who cry, but if you have to write three or four stories where people are sad and demonstrate that without crying, then you will be a stronger writer. 

This is what Picasso is known for

But Picasso could also do this

and this

and this

and you don’t get any of the paintings that Picasso is known for, without Picasso knowing how to do all the paintings that came before those. 

But this was my favorite of the reblog chains. Some highlights and additions:

The rules I discussed were always meant to be temporary challenges to help you grow, not be permanent restrictions. (Making them permanent would hurt your writing more than it would help.)

It’s absolutely true that the literary and academic communities have historically looked down upon genre fiction, which is why I understand the reactions some people have had to these rules. But know that my professor had nothing against genre fiction, and his choice to temporarily implement these rules had great results for me, even as a speculative fiction writer – exposing, targeting, and forcing me to confront my core storytelling weaknesses. (The Picasso pictures were a great illustration of why it’s important to develop these skills 👌).

That being said, I don’t want to imply that you can only learn core storytelling skills by following these rules. You can hone them writing any genre you want, for example – but when you’re trying to learn the skills quickly and efficiently, temporary rules such as these are a great exercise.

That’s Louis Rossman, a repair technician and YouTuber, who went viral recently for railing against Apple. Apple purposely charges a lot for repairs and you either have to pay up or buy a new device. That’s because Apple withholds necessary tools and information from outside repair shops. And to think, we were just so close to change.

Have an iPhone and are in need of repairs

Have a friend with that problem

Hate Apple and are more than happy to spite them in some way

So I asked the internet, well how hard IS it to repair? And I saw this guy’s video, and while I am no techie, I AM fueled by spite, so I was all “oh, they do that shit on purpose specifically so they can charge me $1200 bucks or make me buy a new computer hunh? FUCK THEM” and I bought all the tools I needed for about $25 and I bought all the parts I needed for about another $25 and I watched a few tutorial videos, and I replaced my own keyboard.

So, once you are doing the actual deed, it becomes pretty obvious that they are finding creative ways to make this much harder than it has to be on purpose. On thing that stood out to me is, instead of all the tiny screws being the same size, there are about two dozen very slightly different sizes. They could easily be all the same size, or like, two sizes at most, but no.

These mother fuckers will take a panel that screws into place and they’ll use a different size screw for each corner. They are so close that you almost cannot tell them apart visually, but they each will only screw into the matching corner. Like, it’s a pretty clear “fuck you” to anyone trying to do repairs.

So I have no idea how long it’s been since I’ve been active on here. Definitely at least six months… probably closer to a year. It’s struck me how much my perspective on studying and life has changed so much since I left and definitely since I started this blog. I’m pretty sure I started this blog when I was in year 10 right before I took my first ever exams and now I’m in my third year of university and so much has changed. 

I’ve decided to return to this blog but it’s going to be very different. A lot more raw, and actually honest about how the way most people study on here is so unbelievably different to how I, an experimental and theoretical physics major, study. I’m going to try and change the content I reblog as well so it more accurately affects how I and the people around me study although this may be challenging because I don’t think that there’s actually that much content out there that fits that requirement. 

I’m not trying to say other people are studying or running their blogs the “wrong way.” There methods might work for some people, in some schooling systems for some types of degrees. But the fact remains that none of students in my physics cohort (even the top ones) study like a “studyblr” does or anything like it and I want to actually be useful for other students in this field of study. 

I have no clue how many of my 32,758 followers are still active but if you are I hope that you stick around for this change. 

http://gen.lib.rus.ec

http://textbooknova.com

http://en.bookfi.org/

http://www.gutenberg.org

http://ebookee.org

http://www.manybooks.net

http://www.giuciao.com

http://www.feedurbrain.com

http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=380

http://www.alleng.ru/ 

http://www.eknigu.com/ 

http://ishare.iask.sina.com.cn/

http://2020ok.com/

http://www.freebookspot.es/Default.aspx

http://www.freeetextbooks.com/

http://onebigtorrent.org/

http://www.downeu.me/ebook/

http://forums.mvgroup.org

http://theaudiobookbay.com/

here are tips I discovered very recently:

something is better than nothing. 5 minutes of work are better than zero. Just because you missed something on your schedule doesn’t mean you can’t still work on it, even for 5 minutes. Grow and build on this.

second drafts / reviews can be done after.

Don’t think you are going to do your very best work on the first try. Take the weight of perfectionism off your shoulders.

don’t think about doing it. just do it as fast as you can.

build on your productivity, not your failures.

If you come from a past of procrastinating and now feel motivated to change and discipline yourself, do NOT try to do everything at once.

if you have a set of different goals to accomplish, begin with the most important one. Wait until the rotine of working for that one settles in (you feel productive and comfortable-ish), and then begin with the next. Repeat.

this way you’ll be building your way up and not juggling everything at the same time, hoping everything works out.

be patient with yourself, you’ll get there!

set smaller deadlines for your goals

have monthly and weekly-ish deadlines

e.g. if you are doing a project, due 22nd Feb, set personal deadlines, like have Introduction written by 2nd Feb, have Methods written by 10th Feb, have project complete by 18th Feb.

take them as seriously as you possibly can, don’t miss out on yourself.

write realistic daily tasks and don’t stop until you finish them. after them you can do whatever you want

on writing realistic daily tasks, the secret is knowing you can only do so much in one day, but trusting you can accomplish everything in the course of any period of time (a week, or 2 weeks or a month, etc.) because you will combine the work from all these different days.

it’s very tempting to write down all the tasks you need to accomplish in one day to just get over with it, but the real deal is you won’t accomplish half of them. You’ll feel very unproductive then, wich leads to demotivation.

spread daily tasks in the time necessary.

have a consistent sleep schedule.

if your mind isn’t ready everything will fall apart.

have one rest day per week where you plan nothing, do whatever you want except studying. this can be harder than you expect!

Semicolons are probably the most misused and misunderstood form of punctuation. Which is ironic. Because they are actually one of the easiest.

Easier than dashes, easier than commas, easier than ellipses, quotation marks, colons, and even the interrobang (?!)

Here is all you really need to know:

Semicolons replace a period between complete sentences.

That’s it.

If you know how to use a period, you know how to use a semicolon.

They make the complete sentences into one sentence.  

The problem isn’t that they are actually that difficult. The problem is most of us weren’t taught about them consistently in school and therefore they seem like this rare, elusive, convoluted punctuation symbol.

So when you are wondering if you can use a semicolon, do this simple test:

Can you put a period there?

If no, then you shouldn’t use a semicolon.

If yes, then you can use a semicolon.

Got it?

Let’s do a simple quiz. Below, some of the sentences use a semicolon properly and others improperly. Can you tell which are right and which are wrong?

1. I went to the store; she went to bed.

2. He hated turtle soup; because he found it barbaric.

3. Lucy closed her eyes; crying until she had no tears left.

4. Although Bart didn’t usually like action movies, this one was great; he could have watched it all night, eyes glued to the screen, popcorn halfway to his mouth.

5. The last thing she wanted to do; was go for a job interview.

6. Spring was almost here; the buds of blossoms were beginning to unfurl.

Now do the test by replacing the semicolons with periods.

1. I went to the store. She went to bed. (correct)

2. He hated turtle soup. Because he found it barbaric. (incorrect)

3. Lucy closed her eyes. Crying until she had no tears left. (incorrect)

4. Although Bart didn’t usually like action movies, this one was great. He could have watched it all night, eyes glued to the screen, popcorn halfway to his mouth. (correct)

5. The last thing she wanted to do. Was go for a job interview. (incorrect)

6. Spring was almost here. The buds of blossoms were beginning to unfurl. (correct)

You might be wondering, then what’s the point? Why not just use a period?

Valid question.

Two reasons:

1. A semicolon conveys that the content of these two sentences are related and connected in some way. Sure, you can convey that without a semicolon, but for that extra bit of visual emphasis, a semicolon can be nice to use. (Just don’t over use them. That’s annoying.)

“I went to the store; she went to bed” conveys that these two things are related in some way. We’d need the context of what came before, but perhaps these two characters got in an argument, and this sentence is conveying they each went their separate ways after. The two actions are related.

2. Semicolons have quicker pauses than periods. In the writing industry, we often don’t talk enough about beat and rhythm in sentences. Periods have longer pauses. Semicolons are shorter. When you are focused on beat, rhythm, or even pacing, a semicolon may be just what you need.

You can break this all down and get more technical, talking about independent clauses, but remember, the headline of this article is the easiest explanation. And the easiest explanation is that each side of the semicolon needs to be able to stand as a complete sentence. A semicolon implies they relate. That’s it.

… Okay, there actually is one other way you can use a semicolon in punctuation, but it’s less exciting and less used, so if you want to stop reading this article at this point, you probably can. There are also some opinions on whether or not a semicolon should be used in fiction at all, which I’m going to address after.

Still with me?

Great.

So the other time you can use a semicolon is when you are writing out lists in a sentence and one or more of the items in the list already includes a comma.

For example:

It’s my dream to go to Paris, France; Rome, Italy; Athens, Greece; and Tokyo, Japan.

Or

During the summer, they hiked down canyons, over fields, and up mountains; fished in lakes, ponds, and even the sea; and shared secrets.

Or

We were going to go swimming; watch the sunset, which was beautiful this time of year; and roast marshmallows.

This can help with clarity.

Should Semicolons be Axed from Fiction Completely?

Some people in the industry argue that you should never use semicolons in fiction because they draw attention to themselves and therefore pull the reader a little out of the story (as a distraction). Semicolons signal to the audience they are reading a story, not experiencing it.

However, I argue that the only reason semicolons do this is because we as a society don’t teach and use them correctly or regularly. If we did, they wouldn’t attract attention. I think it’s silly to completely ax a punctuation mark because other people are failing at it. Wouldn’t it be better to instead educate people? Because semicolons do have a function and purpose in writing. Obviously, it’s possible to overuse them, but ax them completely? Come on.