#my method

-I can shift in one second.

-My eyes are closed but my mind is open.

-Nothing in this world can keep me from shifing.

-I will shift.

-I have faith in shifting.

-Shifting is easy.

-I KNOW I am going to shift to my dr.

-I am safe in my dr.

-I look exactly like my dr self.

-I shift when I want to.

-I am in my dr.

-This is my dr.

The Baby Steps Method (?)

So if you’re having trouble shifting to your DR (like me) try doing this:

Instead of shifting to the WHOLE other reality where you’re at Hogwarts or in an anime or whatever, just try to shift yourself into your DRself.

For me, I would visualize my hair changing green, my clothes changing to black, and I’d say affirmations like “I am Lark. I am Lark.” Then when I do shift and open my eyes, my surroundings will be the same and I’ll be in a very similar reality as my CR, but instead I’ll be in my DR body. (Does this make sense? Lol)

I just think doing this as a “first step” to shifting might help ease into doing a “big” shift to a whole other world.

First, you have to acquire the cloth. I weave it, but you can source your cloth from anywhere. Typically, book cloth is lined in a way that means you can cut it without it fraying. A lot of people recommend using a heat-bond webbing of some sort. I’ve done that in the past, and it has it’s ups and downs. Currently, I don’t use it because the cloth I weave is thick enough that the glue doesn’t go through it. If you’re using a fine cloth (like a light quilting cotton or a jersey knit) then lining it with something is probably a good idea.

Once you have the cloth, you need to cut it. I made this template, but it’s actually just a bit too small. I recommend at least 1.5 cm bigger all around than your book board. You also need book board. You can use thin cardboard (cereal box etc.) but something stiffer is better for a hardcover book.

Once everything is cut to size, start attaching it together. I use acid free PVA glue. You want something thick, without a lot of water. Spread it in a thin layer on the book board - you want it to be there but not too much. Sticky, not slimy is what you’re going for. I use scraps of book board to spread it (or my fingers, and then I get annoyed because there’s glue on my fingers)

Leave it to dry under pressure for at least 24 hrs. I generally try to leave it 48 hrs for this step - if you take it out from under the weight too soon, it will bow. Cut the corners down (so you don’t get too much bulk) and then fold over the edges. I’ve started using spray glue for this step and it’s a bit messy, but so much easier to work with! I don’t recommend spray glue for the other steps (as it ends up more brittle), but for this one it’s fine. Then you cut the interior/liner paper. I like mine to have some contrast and be pretty. Cut the paper at least half a cm smaller than the book board so that you’ve got a bit of a reveal. I like to add a bit of glue to the cloth around the edges to help it bond well to the paper, a well a a bit of glue to the corners where the cloth is folded - it keeps any stray bits down (since I don’t line the cloth and it can fray). Put it back under weight for another 24-48 hrs.

Once you’ve got all the bits together, you’re ready to give it innards! I use good quality printer paper, but anything works here. Fold your signatures and then use some sort of template to mark your holes so that everything will line up.

I use a two needle Coptic stitch binding. I like it because it lays flat - I’m left handed so having a flat binding is important. I use weaving cotton, but a few strands of embroidery floss would work just as well. Wax your binding thread with beeswax before stitching, it makes a big difference. Pro tip - only pull the thread in the direction it’s already going, and pull slowly, don’t quickly tug or snap the thread. If it breaks, you’ll be sad. 

I use 10 signatures (4 or 5 pages each). I’ve watched a few different stitching tutorials on YouTube, but the one I started with was from SeaLemon (she’s got a few). I start with the middle set of holes because I find it’s easier to get the tension even on the outer ones once the middle is secure. You don’t need to do three sets, it’s just my preference.

hi! this is a method that i brainstormed with earlier today! i made this specifically to tailor to what helps me during shifting sessions so yeah! feel free to use it. it’s inspired by the Willow method another that i cant remember the name to and my comfort song, Queen of Argyll. apologizes if the writing is weird or hard to read i have trouble articulating my thoughts.

this method is a sleep method (though it can be used when not sleeping just as fine) and is a visualization method!

. . .

Visualize yourself walking through a moor on a path (this path can look like whatever you want) and come across several stone tablets. On these tablets are any affirmations you want to use during this session, start repeating them as you walk further down this path. Take your time with walking down this path and affirming. Dont rush yourself.

When you reach the end of the path, you should find a giant tree with visible roots up on the earth. sitting beneath this tree is someone important to your DR; your s/o, a family member, or a friend. Visualize sitting down next to them and laying in their lap or laying against their shoulder. listen as they start to tell you what your DR life is like and gently repeat it to yourself internally. Focus on your surroundings and what they feel like (what your person running their hands through your hair feels like if they are, what sounds your environment is making, the weather and if it’s cold or warm, etc).

When you're ready, visualize them getting up and gently taking your hand, leading you underneath the tree, which has a set of stairs. keep following them until you reach the end of the stairs, which is where a door is. 

I still get notifications from this post that it was a year ago and... well, I went and reread and I noticed that my method has changed a bit. So, here’s the update!

Characters

In last year’s post I didn’t talk about characters, so... here it goes. This is all after I have an idea of what the story is going to be about (and ofc after I decided what kind of character I want for protagonist). 

Usually I think about my characters when I’m doing something else, so when I sit to write their profiles I already have a global concept of them. 

First, I complete the character profile. What do I have there? These things:

Name

Physical description

Place of birth

Birthdate

Age (at the start of the story and at the end if it takes place over several years)

Personality type (I use the 16 personalities types)

Biggest fear

Top three thing they value more in life

Occupation

Sexual orientation

Family

Whatever specifics about the story. Like, if is a fantasy, type of magic

Backstory (this I don’t always fill, sometimes I just put some notes to not forget certain things and that’s it)

Then I make a chart with all the important characters where I put this:

Want: pretty obvious; this is what they want, what push them forward in life and the story, what they think they’ll need to be happy 

Need: this is what they actually need, and is usually different from the want, because they don’t know that they need it, this is something I know they need to be happy

Lie: this is something they believe about themselves or the world that is somehow not true. It can be literally anything and is often what makes them believe that they want something that they don’t actually need

Truth: this is what they’ll find out at the end of the story (or near the end), what they’ll discover when they stop trying to get what they want and get what they need, that thing that I as the author want the reader to get of my story... like, to use some cliché thing, the true power of love (?)

Plot

After I have my characters, I take the lie and truth of the protagonist and think about the “steps” they’ll have to take to go from the lie to the truth, and so I write that down. 

And that’s the skeleton of the story, the basic plot points that need to happen. But that’s not the complete story, because there’s more that one character, so I do the same for the other important ones. I usually have three or four important characters, so I end up with three or four “timelines” of events. 

Then, it’s time to join all those events together and that’s where I order them all in a (kind of) coherent outline. What I do to order them to make sense is think about the cause and effect law. We all here the famous phrase “for every action there’s an equal opposite reaction”. It’s about physics but I apply it to stories as well because is complete true. Everything that the characters do or experience has a cause and an effect and when you have in mind those concepts is a lot easier to order the events.

For example, if I want a character to learn that they need to tell the truth to their friends, first I need them to experience what lies can do to friendship. The cause might be that their friend gets hurt by a lie they tell, the effect is that they realize how bad lying is. Of course, their friend getting hurt is also the effect of another cause (them saying the lie) and so on...

After that, I usually have a good solid outline, but I like to compare it to the three act story structure, just to make sure the flow is good or that the tension is in good places. So I get the structure template and I start putting the events in every story bit. If some story bits end up empty or some events are together it doesn’t matter, because it’s a template, it’s not a solid thing and it can be blend to the kind of story you’re telling.

Timeline and chapters

And then it comes the fun part (not really). I took that outline of events, I too Aeon Timeline and start to put those events in the timeline, I assign them a date, a place, a type and the participans. I like to use Aeon because is designed for writers and it had a lot of fun stuff to put, you can create character profiles, places profiles, arcs and link them to the events. I like to use the colors to indicate if the event is a personal thing, a military thing, something global, local and that, but I’ve seen people use the colors to indicate the acts of the three acts story structure. Is a very flexible tool.

The best part tho, is that it can be synchronized with scrivener. And honestly it saves so much time. I synchronize with the project and just put every event in there to be a chapter. The date, the characters, the place, everything gets into the metadata of the scrivener text files. And so when I open scrivener again, I have every chapter of my novel in place with all the information I need!

That last part is the only thing that stayed the same from last year, I think lol

The last thing I do is when I’m not sure how to write some chapters, I write a mini outline in the document notes of scrivener so I know what to write. But I don’t do it for every chapter, usually only when I stuck or when is a fight scene and I feel kind of overwhelmed by it.

And… I think that’s it. That’s how I outline now.

I like to do this posts so I can see how my method changes over time and so if it’s helpful for someone, here it is!

Here’s my posts about worldbuilding, which I do… well, kind of all the time? I usually start after I get the idea for the world and keep doing it even when I’m writing.

Worldbuilding part 1

Worldbuilding part 2

Resources:

Hello future me (youtube channel)

Brandon Sanderson (youtube channel)

Abbie Emmons (youtube channel)

It took me until senior year in high school to really figure out how to write essays, so imma just put it out there.

Keep in mind, this is just my method. And I find it to work pretty fucking well for me.

The first draft is mostly just word vomit. It's me writing out my train of thought for the essay. Starting in elementary school they say shit like "Just write whatever comes to mind! ^-^" personally that just got me to think about cheeseburgers for whatever fucking reason so it didn't do shit for me.

So instead of writing out whatever comes to mind, it's more of a train of thought. (I find this to seriously help me since I can never remember the thought train, due to my ADD)

Step two is figuring out your thesis statement, topic statement, or whatever the fuck they're making you put at the beginning. Normally the teacher says they want this fucker FIRST but it becomes easier once you've thought about your paper. This way your thesis actually fits your paper.

Step 3 is to make your paper more essay-like. You Make it so it flows smoother, is easy to follow, and so it's you know. An essay.

For example several of my first drafts contain phrases like "yo wtf", "I've got no clue what I'm talking about", "ummm", and other various shit. So you just take that stuff out, adjust the wording so it sounds more official, put it through Grammarly, and then turn it in.

Boom. Essay.

I did this for almost all my papers after figuring it out and suddenly I was asking my teachers if it was fine if I wrote more than the allotted word amount of 400-500 words.

In one of my classes we were told to write a page and a half about some book we read. Just about everyone complained because "it's sooooo loonnggg thooo" I just say at my desk for 20 mins typing up the first draft when I looked at my page count to see I had five (5) pages. So I turned to my teacher and said, "is it alright if we go over the page amount? I have five pages."

All my classmates who were around her desk bitching about the paper and trying to get her to shorten the amount of pages looked at me like I had grown another fucking head. Here I was, smallest kid in class, had barely even SAID anything to anyone.

And then they shared looks with each other and all asked me "Katei fucking HOW????"